The Suns, on the other hand, gave up some young, athletic talent in Shawn Marion to get the lumbering Shaquille O’Neal. Time is not exactly on Shaq’s side and how nice would it be to see him paired with his former nemesis? The Suns didn’t win a title with their up-tempo style and now that Shaq is there and D’antoni is gone, why not give up Amare and transform into a veteran, half-court team? Nash likes to run, but I’m sure he won’t exactly have a problem getting easy buckets for the big men in the halfcourt either. And, Shaq and Duncan still both command double teams so it’s be a shooter’s paradise in Phoenix. Not to mention, Phoenix would have the best interior defense in the league.

I went over to RealGM’s trade checker to see if the deal works and it doesn’t when you make the trade straight-up because of Timmy’s salary, but the Suns would just have to add one more player, perhaps their draft pick Robin Lopez.

So, what do you think? Do you want to see the run-and-gun Spurs vs. the boring Suns next season?

• No more foul outs - Players should no longer be disqualified for their 6th foul.  I completely agree with Jeff Van Gundy on this count.  The easiest way to fix a game would be to get a star player in foul trouble.  Among the major sports, the star players in basketball far and away have the most influence on their team’s success.  Without the opportunity to foul out, we’d see more aggressive defense, but most importantly we’d never have to worry about our favorite team’s star player being disqualified due to a questionable call.  On a side note, I’m sure young big men prone to dumb ticky tack fouls would appreciate this rule change.

• Intentional fouls – Ok, now this one is an idea I have not heard yet, but I think it’s a good one.  This has nothing to do at all with flagrant fouls (which as has been discussed ad nauseam by Mike Breen & Co.).  If, in a referee’s judgment, a foul is committed intentionally and not in the last two minutes of a quarter, the aggrieved team would get one shot plus the ball.  Essentially this means teams can’t abuse the no foul out rule and play hack-a-Shaq all game long.  They’d be giving up far too many possessions to make it a worthwhile play.  I would make sure, though, that if a guy gets beat he still has the leeway to act like he’s making a play while making major contact to prevent a basket without being assessed an intentional foul.  The intentional fouls would be reserved for the two-arm wrapups of guys where its obvious you just don’t want to guard them straight up.  There’s a little room for subjectivity, but not a whole lot.

The obvious caveat in the no fouls outs rule is that you have to have something to dissuade teams from playing hack-a-Shaq and I think this second rule does just that.  I would love to see the NBA step up and make this a reality next season.