What Happened To Shawn Marion, Suns??? While the Lakers, which as a franchise have won 14 Championships, were maneuvering their way toward #15, the Phoenix Suns, who have never won a Championship but certainly deserve one, were shooting themselves in the foot. The other huge recent trade is where Phoenix acquires Shaquille O'Neal from Miami in exchange for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. This is a total disaster for the Suns; RIP to the Suns' Championship hopes. You blew it, Phoenix, pure and simple. You should have won the Championship last year and were cheated. Now this year, you could easily have won, but you cheated yourself. What were you thinking? Don't you know Pat Riley always takes advantage of chumps and gets the best of trades? How can you win a Championship with an over the hill center who can't shoot free throws? The Suns opened the barn door and allowed one of the West’s thoroughbreds to escape to the East, in exchange for an old work horse who has seen better days. And Marcus Banks is a very talented young player who goes to the East as well. It’s horrible for the Suns, but at least it has the side effect of making the talent distribution between the West and East Conferences a little less lopsided in favor of the West. David Stern should be happy about it, because if he has half a brain (and that is about what he has) he knows that the League would be much better off if the Conferences were more equal in talent. Congratulations to the Heat, who now have a very solid piece of their puzzle in place. The biggest beneficiaries of the Suns blunder will be the Hornets, the Lakers, the Mavericks, and the Spurs. The Suns can still beat the Nuggets in a series, but they can no longer beat any of those four teams in a best of 7. They might even have trouble with the Jazz or Rockets now. RIP Phoenix Suns, you were Champions who never made it official. And very plausibly, say hello to your 2008 Western Conference winner, the new and even better Los Angeles Lakers, now featuring Pau Gasol along with Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, Lamar Odom, Derek Fisher, and one of the League’s very best set of reserves. And, of course, the Lakers still feature one of the top 3 coaches in the League, Phil Jackson. Mistakes made by the Grizzlies and the Suns may very well have just decided who will represent the West in the 2008 NBA Championship.
Also, the Golden State win may eventually end up causing the Nuggets to miss the playoffs, with the Warriors getting the last seed! Phoenix is going to drop, but they will still be 6th seed at a minimum. Denver could easily drop to 9th seed. Nuggets Playoff Dreams Hanging by a Thread
