Even with Shaq, the Suns' day is over

Or maybe that Shaquille O'Neal deal really wasn't such a good idea.

Not that all us skeptics were saying that when they won 15 of their last 20 and ran over the Spurs in San Antonio and Coach Gregg Popovich said they were the hottest team in the West.

The wily Popovich just pulled off the magic trick of a career that includes four titles, but he wasn't lying in the weeds.

Even as the Spurs finished off the Suns on Tuesday, he continued to show the toll the season took on him, giving TNT sideline reporter David Aldridge a withering look for asking who would get it done if struggling Manu Ginobili couldn't.

"Somebody, I hope," said Popovich, turning on his heel to rejoin his team, shaking his head.

Here's the bottom line:

The trade did work as the Suns proved again, leading by 16 points in Game 1 and by 14 in Game 2 in San Antonio . . . before the Spurs stole both back.

(They did it by hacking Shaq, who went 32 for 64 from the free-throw line, but that's an abomination for another day.)

The problem was, the trade just didn't work well enough.

That was the real quandary. O'Neal could make them bigger, better defensively (which was a long way from good with O'Neal letting Tony Parker turn the corner on 100% of the 50 or so pick-and-rolls they ran at him nightly) and bring Amare Stoudemire in line . . .

And with all O'Neal did, it still might not get the Suns over the top in the West.

As it turned out, it didn't even get them out of the first round in the West.

Worst of all, with so many young powers on the rise (Lakers, Hornets, Jazz, Trail Blazers), the Suns, like the Mavericks who traded for Jason Kidd, just got a lot older.

Oh, and there goes the neighborhood.

SI.com's Jack McCallum, who spent a year with the Suns writing a book, just reported that Mike D'Antoni is leaving on his own initiative.

Another D'Antoni intimate says the entire staff will be Toronto-bound to work for their old GM, Bryan Colangelo, if he can get ownership to fire Sam Mitchell, who has $10 million coming.

Choice No. 2: Chicago, which is desperate and has a Suns-style roster (well, if you squint enough for Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng to look like Steve Nash and Stoudemire.)

Then there are the Knicks, taking their coach search slowly to see if D'Antoni, Mitchell or Detroit's Flip Saunders becomes available. Dallas' Avery Johnson was made available Tuesday when the Mavericks fired him.