Utah Jazz: Jazz get first look at Suns and Shaq

PHOENIX — The Jazz's Jarron Collins may never forget the first time he flopped — ahem, drew a charge — on superstar center Shaquille O'Neal.

"He didn't really have a response as much as he threw his whole right side of his body through me," said Collins, now Utah's backup center. "There were no words. It was just basically, 'Stop flopping.'

"I'm down there on the floor, on the ground. I got the charge, obviously," he added. "I get up, and I'm like, 'You've got to play another 40 minutes.' I mean, it was like the first play of the game. I was like, 'Oh, (no)."'

These days, the body may be more worn and the uniform may be another new one for O'Neal — he's burned through ones with Orlando, the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami before last month's trade that now has him with Phoenix — but Shaq is just as respected as ever by those with the Jazz.

"He's the best big man, to me, (center), right now," said Jazz starting center Mehmet Okur, who also calls the 7-foot-1, 321-pound O'Neal the strongest player he's ever faced.

"They definitely have an inside presence now with Shaq," Collins said of the Suns, traditionally a team that prefers run-and-gun small ball. "You know, he's huge. You have to account for him in the middle. You have to meet him early. He can still dominate the paint. He's an effective rebounder for them now. He's not the first option offensively like he's been in the past for his teams, but he can still score down there if you give him the ball."

Despite all that, coach Jerry Sloan suggested Thursday that the Jazz won't drastically alter the game plan for tonight's first meeting with Phoenix since he arrived from Miami for a package that featured forward Shawn Marion.

"We just have to play whoever they have. That's just the way it is," he said. "We don't play against just one guy. We have to play against their whole team. We can't say one guy's gotta stop Shaq. We're not gonna stop him, if he gets the ball inside. I don't think anybody's ever stopped him.

"We'll see how the game goes," the Jazz coach added. "I don't think we go in there and say, 'OK, we're gonna run 55 pick-and-rolls; try to have Shaq involved in 54 of them.' Because we can't take the game from our other people who are still involved in playing."

Sloan dodged passing judgment on the trade Thursday, but did suggest he thinks it's a good thing if Phoenix can successfully integrate a slower O'Neal-suited style of play with their usual up-tempo game.

"The ideal thing to do, if you're effective, is to do both," he said. "Running, and also, if you can't get a layup or a fastbreak basket, then get in the half-court game."