NBA Trade Deadline 2018: 5 worst trade deadline deals ever

3. February 2008: Shaq to the Suns; Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks to the Heat

With former MVP Steve Nash, All-NBA talent Amar’e Stoudemire and the ever underrated Shawn Marion leading Phoenix’s lethal attack, the Suns were title perennial title contenders in the mid-2000s. A few weeks before the 2008 deadline, the Suns went for broke and essentially took a crack at forming a superteam by adding Shaq from the injury riddled, free falling Miami Heat.

Phoenix’s move for O’Neal was one of the first recent examples of a superteam experiment going horribly awry. At that point Shaq was in his sixteenth NBA season at age 35 and had already begun to demonstrate some serious decline on both ends of the floor. Even more risky however, was the fact his plodding and deliberate play style clashed with Phoenix’s up-tempo seven seconds or less blitzkrieg offense. By trading away Marion, the Suns lost one of their most vital pieces and limited the positional versatility that had made them so potent on the offensive end.

The push to acquire Shaq was partially driven by a desire to finally defeat the Spurs, Phoenix’s perpetual playoff tormentor. Phoenix’s gamble didn’t pay off though. In quite ironic fashion, the Spurs convincingly dispatched the Suns 4-1 in round one of the Western playoffs. The next season, the Suns missed the playoffs for the first time in the Steve Nash era and promptly traded Shaq to Cleveland after the 2009 playoffs. In the end Phoenix’s acquisition of Shaq substantially shrank the franchise’s window of championship contention; by not standing pat, the Suns probably lost out on two years as potential title threats.

At least we’ll always have this:

On Miami’s end the effects of the trade were eventually immaterial. Marion was later traded to the Raptors for Jermain O’Neal and 2011 first rounder, a pick which the Heat bizarrely sent back to the Raptors upon acquiring Chris Bosh.