The Phoenix Suns, for years considered the most entertaining team in the NBA, known for its run-and-gun fast break philosophy and aversion to half-court offense, blamed coach Mike D’Antoni at the end of last season for his inability to coach the team to a championship. Mike D’Antoni went to New York, so the Suns brought in Terry Porter, a defensive-oriented half-court coach and the team seemed to lose their exuberance and their passion for the game, struggling to an 11-9 start.

So on Wednesday, they traded Raja Bell, Boris Diaw and rookie Sean Singletary to the Charlotte Bobcats for Jason Richardson and Jared Dudley. The trade of Raja Bell and Boris Diaw devastated Steve Nash who bonded with his former teammates over three-and-a-half seasons and called Raja Bell his best friend.

However, the trade signifies something else, a complete overhaul of the players favored in Mike D’Antoni’s system. Boris Diaw had a career season in 2005-2006 that led to him receiving a 5 year $45 million contract extension, however, he’s arrived to training camp out of shape and has played inconsistently in the past two seasons, souring management, and with General Manager Steve Kerr’s preference to not pay a 20 minute per game player starter money, Diaw was moved. Raja Bell’s trade is more problematic. The Suns lose their premiere defender for a player in Richardson, an athletic swingman who seems better fit for D’Antoni’s offense. While Richardson will relieve Nash’s scoring burdens, if his defense is not up to par, one has to wonder why the trade was made at all. Why did the Phoenix Suns partially abandon their philosophy only to revert to their original gameplan? When a team changes coaches and players, it is usually to win more or just win at all. The Suns were a perennial contender but appear to suddenly be in rebuilding mode. The situation in Phoenix must be watched carefully. It does not take much to fall from championship contender to also-ran. Sometimes the little changes are what brings catastrophe, especially when one loses one’s best friend.

The highlight of Wednesday night’s NBA games was definitely the scuffle in the game between the Houston Rockets and Phoenix Suns.

When Suns forward Matt Barnes set a hard (cheap shot) pick on Rafer Alston, that’s when it all got started. Alston took offense and got in Barnes’ face. Phoenix point guard Steve Nash decided to get in the mix and pushed (elbowed?) Alston. Then Shaq decided to intervene.

Instead of pulling people apart, Shaq put an end to most of the ruckus by pushing people down, including Rockets star Tracy McGrady.

Did you miss it? That’s okay, we have the video right here including some good angles on the replay. I’m not sure anyone deserves to be suspended, but I’m sure commissioner David Stern will hand down some fines. Barnes started it, but it was kind of funny to see Shaq pushing people down near the end.

When the Phoenix Suns signed Steve Nash and brought in Mike D’Antoni to coach the team, the Suns ushered in the Small Ball Era. The Suns won a lot of games, sold a lot of tickets and had everyone else looking to get smaller, faster and more explosive.
But the Phoenix team hit a road block on their way to revolutionizing the NBA. Small ball, as the Suns found out, is just too flawed. You can win a lot of games with small ball. You can even win playoff series with small ball. However, you aren’t going to win an NBA championship with small ball. Eventually, you are going to meet up with a bigger and stronger team that will be able to impose their will.

When the Suns were having their success, many organizations jumped on the small ball bandwagon. Nearly every team from the Golden State Warriors to the Los Angeles Lakers to the Chicago Bulls experimented with small ball.

But now that the Suns have traded for Shaquille O’Neal, the short lived Small Ball Era in the NBA is officially over. The Suns are no longer small – in fact they are suddenly transformed into a powerful team. The Lakers, who recently traded for bigman Pau Gasol, now have a giant frontline. Even the Warriors have abandoned small ball by bringing in Chris Webber and promising him a starting spot.

To the average basketball fan, the death of small ball is bad news. Scoring has been up in recent years due to small ball and its run and gun style. Now that the pendulum has started to swing back the other way, expect the scores to start dropping and NBA basketball turning back into a glorified wrestling match between seven-footers.

Thanks for the memories, small ball.

A lot of the national media is whining about how the Phoenix Suns trading for Shaquille O’Neal. They say that trading Shawn Marion was too much to give up for Shaq. They say that the Suns should have stuck to their guns.

And I say the people who are questioning the trade are crazy. This is Shaquille Freakin’ O’Neal we are talking about. I don’t care that he’s 35 going on 36. He’s one of the best players of all-time and even at his advanced age he’s still the biggest and strongest player in the league.

It’s no accident that in eight of the last nine seasons, either Shaq or Tim Duncan has won the NBA championship. Dominating post players win championships. That has been proven over and over again. Unless you have Michael Jordan on your team, you need a superstar bigman.

Sure, there are injury concerns with Shaq. But that was a risk the Suns had to take. They weren’t going to win a championship trotting out Steve Nash and a bunch of athletes. The Suns have attempted that route a number of times already and the result has always been the same.

Anyone who had watched the Suns this year could see the team wasn’t even as good as last year’s Suns team. The chemistry had gotten worse. Nash had gotten another year old and another year slower. If the Suns couldn’t win a championship any of the last three seasons, they weren’t going to win a championship this season.

Instead of being happy with another good regular season and a flameout in the playoffs, Suns’ general manager Steve Kerr made a bold trade to get a proven championship player. He could have easily been happy with status quo, however he decided to make a gutsy move that will either blow up in his face or be the best trade he ever made. Only time will tell.

The bottomline is Shaq gives the Suns a chance. Before he arrived in town, the Suns were a gimmick regular season team that had no chance at a championship. Now, if Shaq gets healthy and the team can gain some momentum heading into the playoffs, no team in the NBA will want to face this new look Phoenix squad.

That trade was crazy, alright. Crazy like a fox.