Shaq and Cavs?

[houheffna]

Would love to see it, just so Howard can dunk on him repetitively...

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/9680810/Report:-Cavs-renew-interest-in-Shaq

 

[Hendu0520]

Lol, I think it would be funny too, but I heard that if they did do this deal that the Cavs would go hard after Ben Gordon, and I don't want them to steal him away. Especially after he made that statement about winnning being everything, it would be hard to pull him away from their offer.

 

[TheStig]

I just don't what they will do with Big Z. They can work offensively but on D they have to be the slowest frontcourt in the league. I mean they would make Brad Miller look fast.

 

[dunkside.com]

I doubt there would be many quicker ways to sabotage the Cavs chemistry than trading for Shaq aka The Big Thrower of Former Teammates, Coaches and Owners under the Bus aka MDE (as in Most Deluded Ever)

 

[jsain360]

This would further complicate their problems, Shaq won't help, their backcourt is still small, their frontcourt needs to get younger and faster, The Cavs play too slow for the players they have, they need a more uptempo style of play, Mike Brown step your coaching game up

 

[Newskoolbulls]

I hope they do get Shaq, he will clog the middle which will make it hard on Lebron getting to the basket.

 

[Shakes]

While Shaq clearly thinks he's still better than he is, he'd still make the Cavs a better team next year. Lets not pretend the Cavs have that many problems, if they got the Rashard Lewis of the past two games against the Lakers rather than the one who hit about half his threes they'd be the ones in the finals.

Given Shaq expires at the end of the year so you're not stuck with him, it's a pretty low risk move.

 

[Diddy1122]

Shakes wrote:

While Shaq clearly thinks he's still better than he is, he'd still make the Cavs a better team next year. Lets not pretend the Cavs have that many problems, if they got the Rashard Lewis of the past two games against the Lakers rather than the one who hit about half his threes they'd be the ones in the finals.

Given Shaq expires at the end of the year so you're not stuck with him, it's a pretty low risk move.

Its a little different when you have Ariza, Bryant, & Odom running out at you, as opposed to West & Williams. There backcourt is small, no denying that. They have no #2 option either. Shaq could help change that. He will draw double teams n open up things for LBJ.

 

[Shakes]

Ariza, Bryant and Odom are the starting SF, starting SG and backup PF. A fairer comparison on the Cavs would be Lebron, West and Sideshow Bob. I really don't think there's that much difference there, Bryant is a lot better than West, but both Lebron and Bob are better than their Laker counterparts.

The Cavs were a better defensive team than the Lakers throughout the year, and had the best 3 point defense in the league. The Magic got hot and burnt them, nothing more to the story than that.

Adding Shaq would have probably won them the series against the Magic regardless because they'd have had Howard in more foul trouble.

 

[Diddy1122]

Shakes wrote:

Ariza, Bryant and Odom are the starting SF, starting SG and backup PF. A fairer comparison on the Cavs would be Lebron, West and Sideshow Bob. I really don't think there's that much difference there, Bryant is a lot better than West, but both Lebron and Bob are better than their Laker counterparts.

The Cavs were a better defensive team than the Lakers throughout the year, and had the best 3 point defense in the league. The Magic got hot and burnt them, nothing more to the story than that.

Adding Shaq would have probably won them the series against the Magic regardless because they'd have had Howard in more foul trouble.

LeBron was on Alston the entire time so he wouldn't get tired from having to lump the whole team on his back every game. Lewis was guarded by West, Varejao, & Wallace probably the majority of the time, which are all still matchup nightmares. No doubt Cavs had the best D but the Magic were a matchup nightmare at 3 positions & that's why they owned them in the regular season & in the playoffs.

LA has size & length up front that can stay on Howard man-to-man that's what the biggest difference probably was in the series. Bynum, Gasol, Odom, Kobe, Trevor Ariza, all matchup well & are good individual defenders. Ariza has turned himself into one of the best defenders in the league. He's a FA this offseason & I'd love to see him in red, white, & black.

Also, Dwight Howard is the receipient of some really bad calls in this league. It's like Shaq in a way, where players are diving & flopping all over the place to get a call. I thought they were getting rid of that. What the hell happened!?

 

[Shakes]

I really think the only matchup problem they had was Howard. That they felt they couldn't single team him was really what gave the Magic the change to shoot threes. I really think when you've got Z, Wallace, Varejao and Smith you just hack the guy if you have to, make him beat you at the line rather than let the team rain threes on you.

 

[houheffna]

Lewis was a matchup problem and so was Hedo.

Ariza, Bryant and Odom are the starting SF, starting SG and backup PF. A fairer comparison on the Cavs would be Lebron, West and Sideshow Bob. I really don't think there's that much difference there, Bryant is a lot better than West, but both Lebron and Bob are better than their Laker counterparts.

No, Verajao is not better than Odom....give the Lakers credit. Odom is a better player than any frontcourt player on Cavaliers besides Lebron.

 

[Shakes]

I'm saying he's a better defender, not a better overall player.

 

[dunkside.com]

Shakes wrote:

While Shaq clearly thinks he's still better than he is, he'd still make the Cavs a better team next year. Lets not pretend the Cavs have that many problems, if they got the Rashard Lewis of the past two games against the Lakers rather than the one who hit about half his threes they'd be the ones in the finals.

Given Shaq expires at the end of the year so you're not stuck with him, it's a pretty low risk move.

it's a desperation move. it's a "lebron, please don't go, we'd do anything for ya" move.
what they are doing is shooting in the dark. ferry got lucky with mo williams (after trying with hughes) but otherwise i think he pretty much stumbled on this team. he's using trial-and-error as the method of building a team instead of looking for pieces that fit a certain style of play and philosophy.

now bringing shaq would be more of the same. cause then what do you do with Z ?
who's your back-up PF ? (i hope it's not Z, cause then you're toast)
what do you do when shaq starts asking for more touches (which will happen around november 2nd) ?
what do you do when shaq's pettiness ruins the cavs chemistry (the thing that helped them win 66 games) ?

 

[dunkside.com]

Diddy1122 wrote:

Ariza has turned himself into one of the best defenders in the league. He's a FA this offseason & I'd love to see him in red, white, & black.

but you won't. cause someone decided luol's talents were so rare they are worth his weight in gold. when i was saying on realgm that you can easily replace luol and that he's way overrated on the bulls boards ... oh boy ...

now i'd say ariza is better than luol already. more aggressive, more athletic, much better mentally, and has developed a 3p shot. and you might have him for 8 mil or even less. that's 5 million less than luol gets to sit his injured ass on the bench. that's why i say paxson is a bad (at most mediocre) gm.

 

[Shakes]

dunkside.com wrote:

now bringing shaq would be more of the same. cause then what do you do with Z ?
who's your back-up PF ? (i hope it's not Z, cause then you're toast)

The answer to both these is that Z is an expiring contract. I'm sure you could offload him for something. Possibly even in the Shaq trade.

what do you do when shaq starts asking for more touches (which will happen around november 2nd) ?

You give them to him. He's still a good offensive player. He's certainly a better option than anyone not Lebron on the Cavs.

what do you do when shaq's pettiness ruins the cavs chemistry (the thing that helped them win 66 games) ?

Shaq only cares about Shaq, and if the Cavs are in the hunt for a title he'll behave because it's in his best interests. Especially now Kobe got his 4th title, I think Shaq will be very motivated next year.

 

[dunkside.com]

Shakes wrote:

Shaq only cares about Shaq, and if the Cavs are in the hunt for a title he'll behave because it's in his best interests. Especially now Kobe got his 4th title, I think Shaq will be very motivated next year.

i agree he'll be very motivated. yet he'll be older and he still won't have any move (unless you count bulldozing people over as a move). if only he spent as much time working on some offensive moves as he seems to spend on twitter these days, he'd be hakeem light (if you can use the word "light" in the same sentence with "shaq" regardless of context)

Shakes wrote:

dunkside.com wrote:

what do you do when shaq starts asking for more touches (which will happen around november 2nd) ?

You give them to him. He's still a good offensive player. He's certainly a better option than anyone not Lebron on the Cavs.

is not like he'll want the touches that would go to varejao or west. he'll want the balls that otherwise would be in lebron's hands.

offensively, i'd rank the cavs options like this:
1. lebron
2. lebron
3. lebron
4. lebron
5. mo williams
6. lebron
7. mo williams
8. shaq
9. west
10. lebron

maybe you can switch 4 with 5 and 1 with 2.

but shaq will want the ball more than lebron, he'll want the team to be his. don't forget that on the suns he took a lot of touches away from amare, and at this point amare is a far better offensive option than shaq. i'm pretty sure he'll alienate lebron and make it all but certain that he'll leave in 2010.

 

[Shakes]

Does it really matter if he only bulldozers people if he gets away with it? The guy just topped the league in FG% while scoring 18 points a game ... not vintage Shaq, but still something left in the tank.

I just don't see Shaq complaining too much while they roll through the season. If they fail to win he might throw everyone under the bus, but by then who cares, since he'll be a free agent?