Shaquille O’Neal has been traded from the Miami Heat to the Phoenix Suns.
The Trade
- The Miami Heat receive guard Marcus Banks and forward Shawn Marion.
- The Phoenix Suns receive center Shaquille O’Neal.
The Big Risk
Shaquille O’Neal has a million nicknames. After being traded to the Phoenix Suns today, his new nickname is “The Big Risk”.
Of course, in life, the higher the risk, the higher the rewards. If this trade works out, then that reward could very well be the coveted NBA championship.
The Phoenix Suns are taking a big risk by changing up their offensive and defensive philosophies in the middle of a season. When you bring in an impact player like Shaquille O’Neal, there’s obviously going to be a change in style. Only an idiot would assume that the coaching staff won’t be making adjustments to put full use of their new center.
A lot of people have already criticized the Phoenix Suns for making such a big change. Of course, a lot of the people that are criticizing are fans of other teams who are afraid to admit that this trade makes the Phoenix Suns even more of a threat.
Sure, the team won’t be running as fast as they used to. However, the Phoenix Suns weren’t exactly collecting NBA championships these past few years. Management clearly knew that fact. They also didn’t want to go into the playoffs with the same hand that they’ve been playing with for the past few years. Losing in the playoffs isn’t exactly something the team strives for.
They want that big win, so they’re going to take that big risk.
Rebuilding the Roster
The Miami Heat basically did this trade because they didn’t want to stand pat. With 9 wins and 37 losses, the Miami Heat were at the bottom of the NBA standings. When you’re doing that bad, it’s best not to stand still.
It was obvious that Shaquille O’Neal was no longer a good fit with the team. He wasn’t playing that well (probably due to being unmotivated). He didn’t get along with certain people in the organization. As the Los Angeles Lakers found out, trading a disgruntled Shaquille O’Neal is the best thing to do.
Dwayne Wade and Shawn Marion won’t be making a miraculous turnaround this year. In fact, we’d bet every penny in our bank accounts against them making the playoffs this year (Yeah, big risk. We know.). There’s a good chance that they won’t be making a miraculous turnaround next year either. They might be able to contend for a playoff spot, but they won’t be winning the championship in 2009.
You can expect to see a boost in Shawn Marion’s stats now that he’s in Miami.
Shawn Marion was quite unhappy with playing 3rd fiddle to Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire. With the Miami Heat, Shawn Marion becomes the 2nd superstar behind Dwayne Wade. Though there’s no one in Miami that can create opportunities on offense like Steve Nash can, Shawn Marion should still get his points by playing off of Dwayne Wade.
More than anything, though, Shawn Marion will be playing a lot more motivated (not saying that he wasn’t motivated in Phoenix) now.
Closing Thoughts
A lot of people are cautious about this trade, but we’re going to go against the grain here. We believe that this trade will end up working out just fine for both teams.