This is the original question from back when I first opposed the trade. Who else would you have taken.

First – to set the ground rules. There are two different ways to answer that. One assumes you are keeping Marion at least through this season (if you didn’t opt out) and the second that he needed to be moved.

The trade possibilities are endless and made even more so if you have to go back in time and sort out all the details. So I will respond in general but realistic terms.

To be clear – my preference all along was to keep Marion through the end of last season. If he needed to be traded then it could have been done this summer.

This discussion of course ties in nicely to the talk about D’Antoni and KT over here. I argue that the D’Antoni simply would not accept a big man that he didn’t feel was a big time offensive threat. That’s why KT had a career low in minutes per game w/ the Suns and why the team rightly let him go instead of paying $16m for him to not really play (I would think they could have got more in return though).

So – to answer your question I would have like to see the Suns get any number of bigs to play the role of defensive center. That would have allowed Amare to play the 4 and kept Marion at the 3 and Diaw and Hill off the bench.

Just throwing out some names here now…
Diop was available. Milic could have been had. Perhaps if you needed to trade Marion then a deal that included Bogut? How about Brandon Hayward? Nazr Mohamed? Could Marion have gone to the Bobcats for Okafor and Felton?

But my favorite all time idea would have found a way to bring Johann Petro here to play 20-25 mpg next to Amare and Marion. Athletic. Long. Decent hands. This is a guy that made less then $2m/yr. I have to think the Suns could have found a way to get him. If Mike would have played him that is.

We can bounce names all day but the main point is this.

Shaq at $20m/yr is over paid and a drain on the salary cap. I have to believe there were better options available but the team was limited by what D’Antoni’s system and who he wanted. They supported him and rightly avoided bringing in players (especially after the Marcus Banks fiasco) that he wasn’t going to use.

I mean come on. If we are just going to sit back and wait for things to play out what would be the point of having a discussion and opinion ahead of time? That’s a perfectly sound approach if I was Mr. Sarver and I was evaluating Steve Kerr’s performance.

But for the blogger/fan/talk radio/etc. the entire point is to have and share an opinion ahead of time. Otherwise all of these discussions would be retrospective.

Speaking of retrospective – It would be hard to argue that the Suns 1st round exit is a better result then would have been achieved by keeping Marion until this summer. He then could have been moved in lots of ways that would have benefited the Suns even if that meant having to live with Banks sitting on the bench and not being used. $17m in salary will get you a lot of talent in this league. Certainly it would have brought back a younger big man and possibly another option for backing up Nash.

As for the trade now – I do think Shaq brings something. Obviously he brings quite a bit. The question is if the Suns needed to spend (and lock up) $20m / yr to get what he brings. I still think the answer is no. Especially if he ends up missing 20 to 40 games this year which is highly likely.

I still feel the deal was rushed and made necessary by D’Antoni’s stubbornness (and let’s not forget who signed Banks to begin with). And please explain to me how we don’t get Miami’s 1st round pick in that deal as well? They were THRILLED to unload Shaq and Banks may very well end up their starting PG.