I am completely against trading Amare, instead we should be trading Shaq! He alone (plus Kerr b/c he traded for him) is the reason why the team sucks this year! Shaq and the Suns are like oil and water they just don’t mix (Kerr should have known this last February!). The Suns could also get value for Shaq now since he is having a good statistical year and was just named an all-star. Plus there are a handful of teams that would love to have Shaq for the Playoffs! So the following are the real two trades that would make sense for the SUNS!

Option 1: Trade Shaq to the Cavs for Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovich.

The Cavs would love the trade b/c they are not constrained by finances, want to win it all this year or next to keep Lebron in town and Shaq and Big Z would give them a great two headed monster to through at Boston and Orlando in the playoffs. Plus all the attention that Shaq will get in the post (even if he doesn’t get doubled) will free things up even more for Lebron! And Shaq and Big Z can alternate which games they play which will ensure that both of them are fresh for the playoffs!

The deal would also improve the Suns b/c it would free up the lane for Nash and Stat to do their work and would eliminate one of the mouths to feed on offensive. Big Ben would just rebound and block shoots out there and Sasha would give them another good shooter off the bench to put in when Nash penetrates and spreads the floors. Big Ben’s and Sasha’s contract end at the same time as Shaq’s so the team would still have financial flexibility in the summer of 2010. This deal will probably not win the team a championship but it will make them watchable and should help them move up in the West standings by allowing them to run on offensive and giving a former defensive player of the year to help with defense.

Cavs Lineup: Mo Will, Delonte West, Lebron, Verajo, Shaq/Big Z

Suns Lineup: Nash, JRich, Hill, Big Ben, Amare

Option 2: 3 Way Trade w/ the Suns, Mavs and Clippers; Trade Shaq to Dallas, Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse and James Singleton would all go to the Clippers, and the LA would send the Suns Chris Kaman, Jason Heart and Ricky Davis.

Dallas would do this trade b/c it has wanted to gets its hands on Shaq for years (they just traded away Diop so they would have room for another center), Shaq and Dirk would fit perfectly together since one plays inside and one plays outside, the Mavs don’t run nearly as much as the Suns and have basically become a half court team so Shaq will not mess up their chemistry like he did to the Suns, the Mavs could rest Shaq like the Suns did and would have Erica Dampier to plug in the middle, and most importantly the Mavs would do this deal b/c they know they can’t beat the Lakers or Spurs with the team they have but with Shaq they can really pound both of those teams since neither has a true center (Bynum is injured!) which should give them some chance of getting by those teams. Of course, they would lose Terry’s scoring punch from the bench in the trade but they can just sign a veteran that will be waived after the trade deadline (maybe Larry Hughes if they get lucky) to fill that void. The Mavs are another team that does not care about spending to win!

The Clippers would do this deal b/c hopefully someone in their organization understands basketball and realizes that they are overloaded at center! (Camby, Kaman and the emerging DeAnde Jordan needs minutes too! Jordan had 20 rebounds in a game against the Lakers recently they need to play him he has game and could take over for Camby in two years). It would of course be better for the Suns to get their hands on Camby b/c he is the ultimate defensive player who doesn’t need the ball to score but I doubt that the Clippers will want to give him up (his contract is shorter then Caman’s and he is a much better and consistent player!). So Kaman seems like the most realistic choice. Anyway by getting rid of Kaman and bringing in Terry, Stack and Singleton the Clips can better balance their team and provide a good teacher for Eric Gordon in Terry. Stack will be a free agent this season so they can save money (which is something they are always looking to do) and Singleton has been there before and will be a good hustle player for them.

The Suns would benefit here for a lot of the same reasons mentioned above in the Big Ben trade. Kaman doesn’t need the ball to be effective. He is only 26 years old, is a big body who can keep Amare from playing the center spot, he averaged over 12 rebounds per game and over 2.5 per game just last year. If he can just stick to rebounding and blocking shots he will help the Suns defense immensely and he will take half the shots that Shaq did which allow for Amare to score more and be happy. Jason Heart (could play backup point this year) and R. Davis (could be waived) both have expiring contracts so the trade would save the Suns over 10 million and put under the salary cap for next year. Of course Kaman’s deal goes for 3 more years and won’t help the Suns longer financial flexibility but Kaman is young and could stay here long term.

Mavs Lineup: J Kidd, A Wright, J Ho, Dirk, Shaq

Clippers Lineup: B Davis, E Gordon, Al Thorton, Z Bo, Camby (6th man Terry)

Suns Lineup: Nash, J Rich, Hill, STAT, Kaman

I really hope that the SUNS can pull off one of these trades before the deadline but to do that Kerr will have to admit that he was a moron for making the Shaq trade and indirectly take all of the blame for the struggles of the team on himself. I highly doubt that Kerr is man enough to do so and thats why I believe that he will trade Amare and build his team around a 36 year old selfish relic.

Nice Move Steve