Now as February has opened up, the Lakers make one of the strongest trades in recent seasons by acquiring Pau Gasol from the lowly Memphis Grizzles for underachieving, and former NBA number 1 pick big man Kwame Brown along with Aaron McKie (not in NBA) and Javaris Crittenton. So the Lakers get an all-star caliber player who averages close to 20-10 (points and rebounds) for 3 guys not even in the Lakers top 10 player rotation. Now that is what I call some serious credentials for 2007/08 candidate for NBA executive of the year Laker President Mitch Kupchak. All the other Western Conference teams have to be cussing Memphis for this deal.

Gasol will help the Lakers in both scoring and rebounding and will fit in fine for at least the next month or so, but what I am curious about is what happens when Laker Center Andrew Bynum returns from injury, will Bynum, Lamar Odom, Gasol and Kobe all be able to exist on the team? One thing for certain is that Phil Jackson will have his work cut out for him.

Not to be outdone however, the Phoenix Suns have made the most Shocking deal of the year by picking up the "Big Godfather" in Shaq O'Neil from Miami for the "Matrix" Shawn Marion. While the Suns dealing Marion is not that surprising as Marion was in the "player option" year of his contract so he could have walked away from the Suns after this season was over with the Suns getting nothing in return. However every single NBA expert is trying to figure out what in the world the Suns interest is in a 7 foot 340 pound 35 (soon to be 36) year old injury prone Big man. I'm even trying to figure out why the made that trade and I am certainally no expert.

While I do not subscribe to the theory that Shaq can't fit into the Suns "shoot in 7 seconds" scheme. I will agree that it is true that Shaq is not going to be leading the Suns fast break at age 36, but then he wouldn't be leading it if he were 26 either. Those that say that a 7 footer can't function on a fast breaking team, just don't remember that a certain 7 footer who was in his late 30's, early 40's played for the best "fast breaking" NBA team of all time. That would be the "Show-time" Los Angles Lakers lead by Magic Johnson. That certain someone would be Kareem Abdu-Jabbar. I believe that if you check the record books, you will see that the Los Angles Lakers in the 80's did win a "couple" of NBA championships playing that style.

However, I do not think that Shaq is not in the same physical condition that Jabbar was in either. For example, Shaq has not played 60 games in a season in more than 3 years and it has been 5 years (his last season in Los Angles) since he has averaged more than 35 minutes per game. Shaq's scoring average has dropped to a career low of only 14 points per game this season, which is 3 points lower than last season. His rebounds have dropped to 8 per game, which is actually about the same as last season. Now one thing in Shaq's favor is that every time he has been traded, he had a "spike" in his scoring and rebounding numbers. However he was much younger both previous times, and those trades took place during the off season and Shaq had the advantage of being in training camp at the start of the season. This is a little different joining a well-established team in mid-season and having to fit into a situation, rather than having a "get to know you" period of the pre-season.

One has to question why the Suns picked Shaq, I understand there desire in dealing Marion before he walks away after the season is over, but picking up Shaq, who has been battling lower leg injuries this season is a very big gamble. Steve Kerr, I believe made a panic decision in accessing his team compared to the other contenders in the Western Conference and while they may be a better team now than Dallas, I don't think they are better than the Spurs or even the Rockets or Jazz with the addition of Shaq. I have been wrong before, but this time I don't think so.

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