Wallace to Suns would have made more sense than Shaq

Apparently, living in the suburbs has more in common with running an NBA team than we originally thought.

Here in the land of carefully named subdivisions, if one resident gets something new -- a nice grill, brick patio, all-terrain vehicle -- a few neighbors will inevitably follow suit.

In the NBA, a new trend has become all the rage, particularly in the Western Conference: Stock up on big men before it's too late.

Golden State kicked things off by pulling Chris Webber from the brink of retirement. Webber is expected to make his Warriors debut tonight against the Bulls.

Then the Lakers pried Pau Gasol from Memphis for next to nothing in return. Gasol got off to a nice start Tuesday with 24 points and 12 rebounds as he made 10 of 15 shots against New Jersey.

Now Phoenix is joining the party with the acquisition of Shaquille O'Neal from Miami for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks.

Those first two transactions were easy to understand. Golden State took little risk by signing Webber, while the Lakers may have pulled off the steal of the season.

But Shaq to the Suns?

That one makes no sense. Phoenix is a fast-paced offensive machine that averages 109 points per game. O'Neal is a lumbering dinosaur who will turn 36 in less than a month and has missed 14 games in recent weeks with a hip injury.

A hip injury and a guy with a history of not staying in shape would appear to be a bad combination.

True, the Suns are last in the league in rebound percentage, and Marion doesn't get along with Amare Stoudemire. As of Wednesday morning, though, Phoenix owned a 34-14 record and was the No. 1 seed in the West. This is no time for a panic move.

It's difficult to believe former Bulls guard Steve Kerr is making decisions for the Suns these days. We all thought he was smarter than this.

Maybe Phoenix believes O'Neal will be effective when the pace slows during the playoffs. Against the Bulls on Jan. 16, O'Neal was able to score 24 points in 32 minutes.

But it's worth mentioning that the Bulls scored 126 points that night and shot 57 percent from the field. O'Neal was an unmatched defensive liability, and his contract runs two more seasons at $20 million per year.

It probably would have made more sense for the Suns to trade Marion to the Bulls for Ben Wallace. He won't add any scoring, but Wallace can run the floor faster than O'Neal and might have helped improve Phoenix's interior defense.

Are any of the other Western Conference contenders still in the market for a big man? San Antonio (Tim Duncan), Denver (Marcus Camby) and Houston (Yao Ming) should be set, while New Orleans and Utah don't have enough spare parts to trade for a big contract.

That leaves Dallas, a team with plenty of trading pieces, a high payroll and two 7-footers, Erick Dampier and DeSagana Diop, who may or may not get the job done at playoff time.

It's difficult to imagine the Mavericks having much interest in Wallace. Milwaukee's Charlie Villanueva, Indiana's Jeff Foster and most anyone on the Knicks' front line besides David Lee might also be available.

The Bulls won't have many complaints about Wallace if he continues to produce the way he did Monday in Seattle, with 10 rebounds (8 offensive), 7 assists, 7 points and 3 steals.

But logic suggests they wouldn't mind getting out of the $28.5 million left on his contract the next two years if an opportunity comes along.