Who knows, maybe Miami’s interest is earnest.  Maybe they want to add a shooter (with an expiring contract slightly larger than Blount’s expiring deal) to play with Dwayne Wade; maybe, if Wade and Richardson are as bff as the reports make them out to be, this is adding a risk-free piece to make Wade happy in his contract year.  Whatever the case, it’s funny.

“Look at poor Phoenix, which won 46 games in 2008-09 and barely missed the playoffs. If the Suns had the same odds as everyone else to land Blake Griffin in June, and they did, wouldn’t this be good for the league? They’d be an instant contender again!”

Here, Simmons mistakes the Suns for a team worthy of sympathy.  I’ve posted about this before, but below is a concise summary of why the Suns deserve no sympathy whatsoever for their slide from contention.

Immediately after signing Steve Nash, in 2004, new owner Robert Sarver became the stingiest owner in the league.  Consider the 2004 to 2007 stretch.

2004: Drafted Luol Deng 7th overall, but didn’t want to pay his rookie-scale $2.2 million contract, so they traded him to the Bulls for their second round pick (Jackson Vroman) a future first round-pick, and…cash.

2005: Drafted Nate Robinson ($900K) 21st overall and traded him in the package for Kurt Thomas, to replace the injured Amare Stoudemire. (We’ll come back to this.)

2006: Drafted Rajon Rondo ($1.1M) 21st overall, but used him to dump Brian Grant’s salary, trading them for Cleveland’s 2007 first-round pick (via Boston) and…cash.

Six picks after Rondo, they drafted Sergio Rodríguez ($900 thousand) and traded him to the Trailblazers for…cash.

2007: Used the first round-pick, acquired in Rondo deal, to draft Rudy Fernandez ($1M), but used him to dump James Jones’ $2.9 million salary, trading them to the Trailblazers for…cash.

A few weeks later, the Suns dumped Kurt Thomas’ salary by trading him and TWO FIRST-ROUND PICKS to the Sonics, for a FUTURE CONDITIONAL SECOND-ROUND PICK.

2008: Fittingly, Thomas helped the Spurs whup the Suns in the First Round, in 5 games.

To summarize, poor Phoenix had an owner worth $550 million who wouldn’t put a few more bucks into a contending team to put them over the top. By the time Steve Kerr hypnotized Sarver into spending some dough (trading for Shaq) the Suns’ window had already closed.

Look, at least Clippers fans know their team is going to disappoint them, year after year.  The 7-seconds-or-less Suns, on the other hand, flirting with greatness, were ultimately just a big tease.

His play this year has been notable, as well.  I saw him the other night in Los Angeles, and he looked really good.  I took these notes:

• Shaq still has it. Consider, he’s 37 next week. Yes, his durability and ability are serious issues, but his production—he’s still playing on an allstar level.   He’s got such great hands, footwork.   Hypothetically, alternative universe-style, if this version of Shaq were a 22 year old rookie, without injury history, but you somehow knew that he wouldn’t improve, that this is what you were g0ing to get through his career, where does he get drafted? 30 minutes of allstar level (but not hall of fame level) ball? Even in a strong draft, he’s still a lotto pick.

A day later, I still feel the same way.  I’d be interested to see what meaningful metrics say about him, accounting for his  defense as well, but I’m not sure I know of any meaningful metrics.  Well, I think shooting percentage is meaningful, even without context, and he’s shooting brilliantly: a shockingly high (for him) 63% from the line, to go with his typically amazing 60% from the floor.

Whatever the case, it makes me happy that Shaq dominated last night, because a dominant Shaq has been a big part of the NBA that I have watched and loved for twenty years.  Reading the recap of his game last night, I felt something akin to what I experienced a few nights ago, in San Francisco, when I couchsurfed with the daughter of an old family friend.  One of the lamps in my host’s living room had been made by her mother, a potter, and it closely resembled several pieces in my own mother’s living room—gifts from the same series.  I’m 2,500 miles from NYC, but that lamp was a little piece of home, for me.  There are a lot of things about the NBA that are problematic, that hurt the league and drive me nuts, but Shaq dominating is home for any fan of the game.  And when he does (provided it’s not against my team), everything is right and good in the NBA universe, if only for a night.