Filler: As Shaq rises, the Suns sink

Shaquille O'Neal, who will represent the Phoenix Suns at the 2009 All-Star Game, has been described as the Suns' most valuable player through the first half of the season. Yet if the Phoenix Suns are to somehow make the playoffs, they will do it in spite of Shaq, not because of him.

The Suns used to send three players (Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, and Shawn Marion) to the All-Star Game on a regular basis and continually won 55 to 60 games a year. It's no coincidence that with the team only a handful of games over .500, the team's two-time MVP is absent from All-Star weekend.

The problem is that Shaq's game is incompatible with the way the Suns run their offense. When Marion was with the team, all five players on the floor could run with Steve Nash. But with Shaq, Nash has to wait until the "Big Aristotle" lumbers to the front-court, otherwise the Suns would be at a 4-on-5 disadvantage.

When the ball is delivered to Shaq, the Suns' torrent offense slows to a crawl as Shaq pounds in down low, pounding and pounding until he's close enough to the basket. Nash, Grant Hill, and Jason Richardson, who are best in the open court, become jump-shooters, while Stoudemire becomes completely useless. There's no reason to play Shaq and Stoudemire at the same time; if one of them gets the ball, the other becomes wallpaper.

To illustrate my point, the Phoenix Suns have more scoring in their starting lineup that at any point in the Steve Nash era. Shaq, Stoudemire, Richardson, Nash, and Hill have all been 20-point scorers at one point in their careers, and while Hill and Shaq are in their twilight, the other three are still in their prime. But those three players have seen their stats plummet this season; Nash is having by far his worst season with the team, and Stoudemire and Richardson are down 5 PPG between them.

There's no excuse for Nash, Stoudemire, and Richardson having their averages drop without the payoff of an improved record, i.e. the Boston Celtics. But they aren't being sacrificed -- the points they could be scoring are getting swept away with each pounding dribble Shaq makes. So while the Celtics' big three can drop their averages and become the crown of the league, the Suns are seven games off last year's pace and are within percentage points of dropping out of the playoff race.

This is of course no slight at Shaq, who for his part is having a terrific season. He has managed to stay healthy and is even hitting free throws consistently for the first time in his career. But if the Suns, whose starters will have played in 32 All-Star Games, can't make the playoffs, Shaq's solid season won't be a saving grace.