It's Tuffy out there kid

However, it's certainly helped the Tempe Police Reserve to have one more volunteer as long as Jason Richardson's allowed to drive in the Valley, no?

2) The problem with the '07-'08 Suns was never the petulance of Shawn Marion.  Remember when Kobe absolutely positively had to be traded and the Bulls were absolutely the best home for him, bar none?  Marion doesn't move at the trade deadline and he sucks it up.  He never had the stamina for a Vince Carter-style Operation Shutdown.  (That bit after Miami closed down the season early was practically prescribed by President Riley.)

No, the problems with the Suns revolved around Marcus Banks' four-year deal.  And Boris Diaw's $9m/yr through 2012, making Andres Nocioni's deal look downright sane.  And trading every halfway decent player and/or picks for cap space.  And drafting players to occupy legally-mandated bench space instead of players with perceived utility.  And so on.

3) Knowing what I know now about everyone's desperate need to clear space to survive the drop in the cap (especially Bob Sarver, who ordered the house staff 18 months ago to rifle through all the copies of Monopoly in his houses and cover the luxury tax spaces with Suns stickers), I might have held Marion and let him walk this summer.

However, I now suspect Steve Kerr looked down that roster and decided he would have to blow it up sooner or later.  Hell, might as well take one last shot and see if Shaq could avoid breaking up on re-entry once more.  He did, but Kerr didn't take the heat so well.