Last week, I wrote that if Amare Stoudemire is indeed available, the Bulls would be wise to show interest. And according to Yahoo! Sports, they’ve done just that. But so have the Heat, Sixers and Nets. The Arizona Republic adds the Cavs, Warriors and Wolves as other teams that have shown interest.

In short, a lot of teams want Stoudemire. And for good reason. But I can’t see Stoudemire agreeing to re-sign with any of them outside of the Heat, Cavs, Bulls and maybe the Nets, so those destinations might be more in play than the others.

And beyond that, I’m not sure the Bulls are going to be able to offer the best package, or even a package the Suns would agree to. They want salary-cap relief, young talent and draft picks for him and are looking at small forwards.

Stoudemire would be a good fit for the Bulls, but at the expense of Luol Deng, their most consistent offensive player this season? And what if the Bulls trade for Stoudemire and he ends up not re-signing with them for whatever reason?

Losing Deng and Stoudemire in a few months time would be a crushing blow to the Bulls.

Bottom line: if the Bulls are currently in the mix for Stoudemire’s services, they should continue to be in the mix for his services. But if they have to part with Deng or perhaps Joakim Noah, I’m not sure the addition of Stoudemire is worth it.

Last night in their loss against the Clippers, as the Bulls were just launching and missing shot after shot in the third quarter and early in the fourth before they started screening and driving to get easier buckets, one thought popped into my head: “If only this team had more of an inside scoring threat.”

Amare Stoudemire could be that guy.

Now, I know Stoudemire really isn’t a back-to-the-basket-post-up player, but he’s highly effective in the pick-and-roll, something he could run nice with Derrick Rose. He gets fouled a lot.  And with Shaq now in Cleveland and Stoudemire’s scary retina injury not being an issue this season, he’s returned to form, scoring 21 points a night and grabbing 8.7 boards. Couple him together down low with Joakim Noah, and that’s a nice one-two punch. Chris Bosh is still the preferred choice, because he is more a guy you can dump it down to and let him create in the post, but Stoudemire might be an easier get for the Bulls.

Here’s why: At the start of the NBA season, the Suns were hot, and with Alvin Gentry steering the ship, they’ve returned to that up-tempo brand of ball that made them famous under Mike D’Antoni.

But they’ve cooled off a bit of late — losers of 15 of their last 26 — and where it once seemed like Stoudemire would not get moved before the trade deadline, as the team would ride it out with him and hoped he re-signed over the summer, it’s now starting to turn the other way. Chad Ford has been all over the Stoudemire news this week, and here’s a few bullet points:

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If an article in today’s Arizona Republic is to be believed, then yes, “Shaq Vs.” is a stolen idea.

Here’s how the story goes: When Shaquille O’Neal was traded to the Suns in February of last year, Steve Nash told him about this super-amazing-awesome-tubular idea for a television show in which Nash would take on other athletes in their respective sports. Sound familiar? Sound pretty much exactly like “Shaq Vs.,” which debuted on Tuesday night?

Well, that’s because it is. Nash got his name in the credits, however.

Nash eventually sought out an entertainment lawyer, according to sources, which is why he now has an executive-producer credit and the compensation that comes with it.

When reached Wednesday, Nash would not confirm the story.

“We collaborated on parts of the show,” he said. “I support him 100 percent. I thought the first episode was a fantastic episode, and I can’t wait for the next one.”

That’s something you would expect Nash to say. He often has played the role of locker-room peacemaker. He is known as a teammate who diffuses tough situations before they escalate.

In reality, a source close to Nash said, “Steve was pissed. He couldn’t believe Shaq’s lack of integrity.”

I buy it, simply because Nash has branched into the entertainment world a bit recently: he was a Letterman correspondent during the NBA Finals; he was on this week’s episode of “Entourage”; he’s directing one of the ESPN “30 for 30″ documentaries.

And he’d be a good fit for something like this: he’s a talented athlete, and has some serious soccer prowess. But since Shaq has become older, and discovered Twitter, and now flashes his humor at every turn, he’s become one of the most charismatic athletes on the planet. He’s huge; he’s goofy; he makes for a better personality than Nash for a project like this.

That’s likely why TV execs went with him. It seems like a back-handed move, but hey, they’re both making money from it now. Can’t complain about that.

So, Shaq is now a Cleveland Cavalier, for their price of a diminished-skilled Ben Wallace and um, Sasha Pavlovic.

A few thoughts that have seeped into my brain since late last night when it went down:

– First, before we get into Cleveland’s end … why did the Suns pull the trigger? I understand Shaq’s contract is expiring after this season, as is Wallace’s and Pavolvic’s. But they essentially gave up Shaq for absolutely nothing. I know they’re rumored to want to get rid of A’mare Stoudemire, and Shaq might not quite mesh well with Steve Nash and their shot at a title with this current incarnation is likely dead and gone, but it always puzzles me when a GM trades away a player of value for nothing. (Though I suppose it does save them a good chunk of change.) Maybe they’ve just decided to punt on the whole Shaq experiment?

– This DOES NOT vault Cleveland to the runaway winner in the East. Of course they will be quite good again next season. But this is not some Shaq-Kobe fusion. Shaq is still an intimating center who put up a resurgent season this past year, but he is not prime-of-his-career-I-finally-found-some-offensive-game-yall-better-watch-out Shaq.

That being said, it certainly makes the Cavs better, and his personality coupled with LeBron’s should be a joy to watch. (Unless you hate LBJ, and think Shaq’s Twitter antics are a cry to stay relevant.)

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Shaquille O’Neal has been traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Yes, as has been rumored for weeks, LeBron James will be stomping around the court with Shaquille O’Neal. Yes, I know. This is like when you were a kid, and you loved “The Jetsons,” and you loved “The Flintstones,” and then you saw The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones, and you wet yourself because, after all, you were only five years old. This is only the second most important thing to consider.

The most important thing to consider is that Shaq, it seems, was informed that he was traded via Twitter. Here’s how the Tweeting unfolded:

titans321: @THE_REAL_SHAQ heard you got traded to the cavs. good luck back in the eastern conference.

THE_REAL_SHAQ: @titans321 I did for real no I didn’t stop playin

allonso: @THE_REAL_SHAQ is it true u a CLEVELAND CAVALIER

THE_REAL_SHAQ: @allonso I didn’t hear dat yet

DJJTR3Y: @the_real_shaq U CLEVELAND BOUND…shaq found out he was traded thru twitter! lmao….hahahaaaaaa

THE_REAL_SHAQ: @DJJTR3Y I kno right

I’m aware of plenty of situations in which a player was informed that he was traded by someone other than his team or agent. But … Twitter. The medium he embraced relatively early on and almost seemed to transcend. He surprised us via Twitter, and now we surprise him via Twitter. It’s swung full circle.

When it was dark several hours ago, Steve Nash was on “Late Show With David Letterman” to show off a bit he did down in Orlando at the NBA Finals.

Funniest question he asked, which was to Jeff Van Gundy: “Did your brother get laid in high school?”

But, like Slam, I’m more enamored with both of Nash’s wardrobe choices here. With his loose tie and casual getup, he’s like the cool English teacher from high school.

“So you guys put the ’stud’ in students, huh?”

Shaquille O’Neal and Chris Bosh are developing a rather unlikely, albeit amusing, rivalry these days. You see, Shaq is so large that he can do what he wants in the paint. Sometimes, this involves pushing off. Other times it involves sitting there for more than three seconds.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t care: he’s Shaq. He defines the phrase Veteran NBA Big Man and therefore can do whatever he wants. But Bosh doesn’t feel the same way, and he called Shaq out. Shaq’s response? Fairly typical.

“I heard what Chris Bosh said, and that’s strong words coming from the RuPaul of big men,” O’Neal said. “I’m going to do the same thing (in their next meeting) I did before - make him quit. Make ‘em quit and complain. It’s what I do.”

Oh, Diesel. Don’t fool yourself. NONE of us can quit you. At least as long as you’re acting like the Shaq of old, throwing up 40 points and then tweeting about it. Or just misspelling “manana.” Both work quite well.

Which reminds me, why don’t they just throw down on Twitter? Sure, it’s fun to see quotes in the print media, but nothing is as “cool” or “hip” as a TweetWar. Am I right? Maybe not. But I can go ahead and tell you that I’m vastly more intrigued by the Carles v. Xzibit war that’s raging via social media than I am by Bosh and Shaq, if only because they can’t immediately reply to each other in 140-character phrases.

So, gentlemen, if you don’t mind, let’s go ahead and rev up this rivalry a little bit and take it to the Internetz.