Suns Should Rethink This Whole 'Resting Shaq' Thing

When Suns' head coach Terry Porter mentioned before the season that he was considering resting Shaquille O'Neal at various times throughout the season, I took it as him saying it was something he may do occasionally. As it turns out though, it appears to be the rule rather than the exception so far, and (needlessly) doing so at this point in the season cost the team a game that would otherwise have been winnable last night in Chicago.

The Suns planned to give Shaq the night off in Indiana, when the team was playing the second game of a back-to-back, and the big fella had put in 24 strong minutes the night before in New Jersey. In fact, Shaq was dressed in a suit up until about 20 minutes before tip-off, but was called to action after starter Matt Barnes left the team to be with his fiancee, who was giving birth to a set of twins. O'Neal played less than 12 minutes though, and with Amare Stoudemire blowing up for 49 points, the team got by without him.

After a day off, the Suns traveled to Chicago, but decided to give Shaq a night of rest because they again were facing back-to-back games, and the thinking was that tonight's opponent, the Milwaukee Bucks, would pose a bigger challenge in the paint than the Bulls. The Bucks have Andrew Bogut; the Bulls play Drew Gooden and Joakim Noah. But with the Suns already missing one of their starters, did they really need to give Shaq a night of rest, just six games into this young season?

Without Shaq and Matt Barnes, the Bulls had no trouble containing Stoudemire and limiting the contributions of the Suns' bench, leading by as many as 27 points before cruising to an easy win. I guess I just don't see the logic in resting Shaq in November, especially when you're already down one of your starters.

Now, was this simply a miscalculation on Porter's part, underestimating the Bulls and feeling that his team could still get the win even while missing two starters? Or can we expect for the rest of the season to see Shaq on the sidelines anytime they play back-to-back games? And is it possible that the Bulls took offense to his choice to rest Shaq against them instead of the team's next opponent, and played with a little extra motivation because of it?

Lots of questions, few answers. Unless there's something we don't know, and Shaq has told his coach that he physically can't bring it on consecutive nights anymore, Porter should consider reevaluating his plan of resting his center this early in the season. All indications though are that the coach actually had to do some convincing to get Shaq to agree to sitting some games out.

So for now, and until we hear otherwise regarding Shaq's ability to play in back-to-back games, we'll have to place the blame for last night's loss on the team's coach for choosing to play without two of his starters. The same will hold true for any future losses against subpar competition where Porter decides to "rest" Shaq, because there would appear to be a limit to how tired he could actually be just a week and a half into the season.