Days later, we still can’t make any sense of it.

Phoenix’s decision to trade Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks to the Heat last week for Shaquille O’Neal remains one of the year’s more baffling decisions. Marion is an All-Star caliber player who plays 40 minutes a game and never gets hurt; O’Neal is still a decent player but is frequently hurt and fouls often limit him to 25 minutes or less.

Sum it up and even if you buy the unlikely premise that Shaq could be just as valuable to the Suns as Marion was, there’s still the little matter of Marion being on the court roughly twice as often.

Marion’s importance to Phoenix has always been underestimated because, unlike Steve Nash, he was already there when the team wasn’t any good. But consider this: The Suns during the past three years went 177–69, and the common denominator in their success was Marion.

He played by far the most minutes — nearly 1,400 more than Steve Nash. In that time he led the team in points, rebounds, blocks, assists, and steals — all by enormous margins. Apparently they hated him in the locker room, but I’m not sure they ever understood his value on the court.

That said, this doesn’t mean the Suns will immediately crash and burn. They still have Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Leandro Barbosa, and Grant Hill, and of course they have Shaq too. Even if the Suns only play .500 basketball the rest of the way they’ll make the playoffs, and there’s a good chance they’ll have a top four seed in the West.

In the meantime, Pat Riley has a new lease on life, dumping the final two-plus years of Shaq’s cap-killing contract and getting two greyhounds in Marion and Banks to run with Dwyane Wade. The irony of the deal is that the Heat have in some ways become the Suns. Throw in a high lottery pick this year and a couple of free agents, and a rebuilding project expected to be torturous could be completed with shocking speed.

1. BOSTON CELTICS (39–9) (LW: 1): The Celtics are now 5–2 without Kevin Garnett, including Sunday’s 98–90 win against San Antonio, offering further proof that the supporting cast is doing a lot more supporting than most people realize.

2. DETROIT PISTONS (37–13) (4): Rasheed Wallace was named to replace Garnett on the All-Star team; one has to wonder if league honchos forgot that Marion is in the East now. Meanwhile, Detroit’s win streak hit nine with a rout of the lowly Bobcats.

3. UTAH JAZZ (33–19) (3): Utah’s 10-game win streak came to an end in Sacramento, but they still remain waaaaayyyy under the radar in the crowded West. The Jazz are on a virtual bye week — from Sunday to next Monday their only game is at Seattle.

4. LOS ANGELES LAKERS (33–17) (6): Their acquisition of Pau Gasol has struck fear into other Western teams. First the Suns made the panic trade for Shaq, and then an incensed Spurs coach Gregg Popovich ripped the Grizzlies for giving Gasol to L.A.

5. NEW ORLEANS HORNETS (34–15) (2): They’re treading water with Tyson Chandler nicked up, but the bench-starved Hornets need their big man healthy to keep hanging with the West’s elite … or they need to trade for some frontcourt help.

6. TORONTO RAPTORS (27–22) (8): It doesn’t seem possible that they could be this good with just one All-Star player and several mediocre ones … and yet they are. And with speedy T.J. Ford returned from a neck injury, they’ve added another dimension.

7. SAN ANTONIO SPURS (32–17) (10): They won four straight on the road without Tony Parker before losing in Boston on Sunday, including a gift from the boneheaded Knicks on Friday when New York was up three in the final seconds and failed to foul.

8. PHOENIX SUNS (36–15) (5): The first three games posttrade weren’t exactly encouraging — close shaves at home vs. Sonics and Wizards and a loss in overtime to the Hornets — but Shaq hasn’t played yet. He’s likely to suit up Thursday.

9. DALLAS MAVERICKS (34–16) (7): Sunday’s inexplicable blowout loss to New Jersey continues Dallas’s recent one step forward, one step back trend, and again makes one appreciate injured point guard Devin Harris.

10. ORLANDO MAGIC (32–20) (9): I’ve talked to a lot of people who think Hedo Turkoglu should have made the All-Star team; frankly, I don’t see it. Neither his averages (19.4 points, 4.6 assists), nor his Player Efficiency Rating (17.6) stand out from the crowd.

11. HOUSTON ROCKETS (30–20) (13): At least the Knicks did one thing right: Steve Francis accomplished little while he played and now is out for the rest of the season. Regardless, the Rocks regained a spot in the West’s top eight this week.

12. DENVER NUGGETS (31–19) (15): Looks like their squad is beginning to coalesce now that some injuries have healed, with Sunday’s road blowout of Cleveland cementing that impression, but Denver could be active at next week’s trade deadline regardless.

13. GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (30–20) (12): They are on a playoff course despite a penchant for mailing in games against weaker teams — witness Thursday’s puzzling turkey at home against shorthanded Chicago — and the curious move to sign Chris Webber and install him as a starter.

14. CLEVELAND CAVALIERS (28–22) (11): Sunday’s blowout loss to Denver sent a frustrated LeBron James pouting at the end of the bench. But as much as he might want Jason Kidd, Cleveland isn’t anywhere close to having the assets to get a deal done.

15. PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS (28–22) (14): With a more difficult schedule ahead and nagging injuries to Brandon Roy and James Jones, it’s questionable whether the Blazers can keep pace with West’s top eight the rest of the way.

16. PHILADELPHIA 76ERS (21–30) (19): I don’t understand how or why, but this team really might make the playoffs. They’ve won three straight and five of seven, and their younger players (Thaddeus Young, Louis Williams, Jason Smith) are coming on.

17. SACRAMENTO KINGS (23–26) (16): They stopped Utah’s 10-game winning streak when Rutgers alum Quincy Douby helped ignite a fourth-quarter rally, but they’ll be happier when Mike Bibby regains his shooting form (39.8% in 13 games since returning).

18. WASHINGTON WIZARDS (24–26) (17): Washington has dropped seven straight, the past six with Caron Butler on the sidelines, to derail any hopes of catching Orlando for the Southeast Division lead. Now they just want to make sure they get into the playoffs.

19. ATLANTA HAWKS (21–26) (18): Josh Smith was one steal short of the league’s first “5×5” (at least five of points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks) in more than two years in last Monday’s win against Philly, finishing with 17 points, nine assists, nine blocks, six rebounds, and four steals.

20. CHICAGO BULLS (20–30) (21): Owner Jerry Reinsdorf is in trouble with the locals after Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley said they couldn’t do a Gasol deal with Chicago because the Bulls didn’t want to pay luxury tax.

21. INDIANA PACERS (21–30) (20): Their playoff strategy appears to be winning one game in three and hoping the other East teams mess up even worse. It’s a sad commentary on this conference that it might actually work.

22. NEW JERSEY NETS (22–29) (26): Sunday’s blowout of Dallas probably surprised the Nets even more than the Mavs. Rookie Sean Williams continues to be productive when he gets extended time, but too often mistakes end his outings after just a few possessions.

23. MINNESOTA TIMBER – WOLVES (10–39) (23): Yes, they lost three straight, but two of them were last-second affairs against the top-ranked Celtics. The young Wolves are still awfully rough around the edges, but they’re far from an automatic win these days.

24. LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS (16–32) (25): Pulled off their once-a-fortnight surprise (road upset of Toronto) and then went right back to being the Clippers. Big question is whether they’ll deal Corey Maggette or Sam Cassell before the trade deadline.

25. NEW YORK KNICKS (15–36) (22): The play San Antonio used to get the game-tying 3 on Friday is a popular one in Spursville — in the same situation, they ran it against Sacramento in Game 2 of the 2006 playoffs. They got the same result, too, and won in OT.

26. CHARLOTTE BOBCATS (1 8–33) (24): Suspicion in C-town is that the players have tuned out rookie coach Sam Vincent; regardless of their tuning, they’ll have a hard time this week with Gerald Wallace (injury) shut down until after the All-Star break.

27. SEATTLE SUPERSONICS (13–37) (27): Wally Szczerbiak pulled a Chris Webber and called a time-out he didn’t have with 15 seconds left in their loss to Phoenix on Friday; one wonders if this will be his last memory as a Sonic.

28 MIAMI HEAT (9–40) (30): The team looked more competitive with Marion and Banks running with Wade, but without Shaq and ‘Zo, the frontcourt will need to be addressed in a major way this off-season.

29 MILWAUKEE BUCKS (19–32) (28): I’m really not sure why they aren’t breaking out the dynamite at this point. The Bucks are falling behind even in the sad-sack East and are handcuffed by several long-term contracts, but have generated little chatter thus far.

30. MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES (13–37) (29): As unpopular as the Gasol trade was around the league, I’m not sure there were better offers out there. The lone surprise is that Memphis couldn’t dump Brian Cardinal’s deadweight contract (two years left after this one at $13 million) in the deal.

jhollinger@nysun.com