I'm Not Convinced

I am sitting here on a Sunday night still dealing with the plague. I have not died, yet. The Oscar Awards show has just started it's marathon run through this medication induced hallucinogenic haze of a night. I forgot that I was on-call for emergency services tonight and was surprised at 5:00 p.m. when my phone rang telling me that "Hey, You're it!!!" I am thrilled. You can tell right under the bags under my eyes from fighting the plague for the last two nights how thrilled I truly am. Of course, my rant tonight is not about the Oscars or about being on-call. It has something else entirely. I am talking about the Phoenix Suns.

I am not convinced about the new Suns. I watched the Suns play the Detroit Pistons this afternoon (or at least as much as I could tolerate as it was a truly awful game.) I was looking forward to the game all weekend. I wanted to see Shaq and the Suns face off against the grind-it-out bore fest that are the Pistons. I wanted to see if the Suns were truly any better with Shaq than they were without him. Initially, when I heard that Shaq was going to be sent from the dungeon that is the Miami Heat I was skeptical. Shaq has not been his truly powerful omnipresent self in close to five years. The Diesel had been re-called for major repairs every year for the last 100. His tires were worn bald. His motor had lost multiple cylinders. His motivation to win has been missing since he and Dwayne Wade won the title on South Beach several eons ago (or so it seems now.) You remember that NBA Finals series right? The Mavs were up by two games and were skating their way to giving the NBA's favorite megalomaniac Mark Cuban his first title. Personally, if the Mavs had won I would have quit watching the NBA for the next fifteen years (or at least until Cuban sold the team to the Disney Corporation or to Bill Gates, emperor of the World). Luckily for me, the Heat behind the last consistent streak of effort by Shaq won the title. Now here we are in 2008, we only see Wade in commercials with Barkley as the Heat are the worst team in the league. This is absolutely shocking when you think of it because last year the Hawks and the Celtics were the worst teams in the league. The Celtics today are on top of the Eastern Conference. The Hawks? Uh, well they're...forget it...they are still bad even with Mike Bibby. I am not convinced after watching the disaster of the Suns-Pistons game this afternoon that the Suns are better now with Shaq. I heard commentators on ABC try to convince me that the Suns are now the 2nd best team in the Western Conference next to the Lakers. This statement is an absolute slap in the face to the Spurs who are still the champions until someone knocks them off. They are the NBA's version of the Indianapolis Colts. That was before the game. I wonder what they are thinking now after the Pistons slaughtered the Suns by thirty on their home court. Shaq has averaged 8 points and 13 rebounds in his three games. In those three games, all at home, the Suns are 1-2. The Suns have slowed down. They now play their offense while Shaq is on the court with four people against five as the Diesel is unable to make it up the court in time to battle on the offensive boards after Nash launches one of patented long range jumpers or runs around in circles all with the worst haircuts in the history of the NBA. Their chemistry is scattered with Shaq on the court. Shaq is an offensive liability at the very least. Shaq is clearly not in game shape enough to play the Suns style of play. Should the Suns change their offensive strategy that has worked well for them for a lumbering mass of liability? Shaq may have been one of the very few choices available to the Suns at the trade deadline, but he was the worst choice for the high octane Suns. When Shaq eventually breaks down during the Suns next road trip and is out for three weeks will anyone say the Suns are better than the Spurs, Rockets, Warriors, Nuggets, and Mavs? I doubt it. I am not convinced that the Suns are any better with a broken down Diesel with bald tires and missing engine parts. I am convinced that it is likely possible that the Suns are now worse. A team that got substantially better by adding a big man up front was one of Shaq's former teams, the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers grabbed Pau Gasol from NBA purgatory at a time where he is still effective enough and healthy enough to make a difference. The addition of Gasol did not dramatically change the Lakers chemistry. It did not change their strategy on the court. Gasol gave them a viable usable weapon on both sides of the court. He is not a liability to the Lakers. He is a big addition. An addition that makes the Lakers nearly on par with the Spurs. The Lakers now have a chance to come out of the West and possibly give Kobe a title he dearly craves to win without Shaq. I'm not ready to hand the Lakers anything, but I am convinced that they are way better off now with Gasol than the Suns are with Shaq. I am convinced that the Suns made their move as a knee-jerk reaction to the Lakers move. This is never ever a good sign. Good franchises do not make knee-jerk moves when a rival makes a big move. The Suns did it. I am not convinced that this was the best move for their franchise and this move may result in an early play-off exit for Shaq so that he can return to his duties as internet cop.