Will Shaq post up Cleveland?
July 30, 2009 by James Edwards
Filed under Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James, NBA Basketball, Shaq
NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.
There was a lot of player movement in the off season with Jefferson to the Spurs, Artest to the Lakers, ‘Sheed to the Celtics, Miller leaving the 76ers, Gordon to the Pistons, Thomas to the Mavs, Okafor to the Hornets, and Turkoglu to the Raptors, but maybe the most intriguing move was Shaq to the LeBrons…er..Cavaliers.
Cleveland needs to keep LeBron in Cleveland and that could change next year, but so far they have done little to prove to LeBron that there will be any players of consequence helping him to fight for a NBA title.
Now some would argue that getting Shaq changes all that. Steve Nash makes such an argument.
Nash’s Phoenix Suns traded O’Neal to the Cleveland Cavaliers last month, where the 37-year-old center will try to bring James his first championship.
O’Neal is “still a great player, but LeBron is going to be the focal point,” Nash said. “I think he’s happy with that. At the same time, he’ll get a lot of opportunities to be in the spotlight, and he’s great at it.”
Will Shaq help or slow down Cleveland?
Cleveland still seems likely to lose LeBron after only finding Mo Williams and Shaq to add to the team after 6 years. Mo did not show up in the playoffs and Shaq is 37 years old.
Photo source Newscom
As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.
More blogs about basketball.
Shaq might surprise a few critics with this move. Anytime you have a fresh start, it always raises your game. Even though the Suns record didn’t show it while he was there, Shaq put up some decent numbers. With Amere Stoudamire hurt and Nash and Hill aging rapidly,he had to put more weight on his shoulders in Phoenix than he thought he was going to. In Cleveland, he obviously won’t have to do that. On the flip side of that, how much better can Cleveland get? They had the best record in the NBA! They aquired Shaq to handle the likes of Dwight Howard plain and simple. Only time will tell if bringing the original “Superman” to Cleveland was a bust or not. The Magic will not be in the Finals this year, but two things that are certian is that Shaq will be ready to play and if the Cavs can’t step up at playoff time and get that ring, LeBron is gone.
have serious doubts about Shaq in Cleveland. Just seems like he will gum up the works.
true, but either way teams are forced to re evaluate their defense with Shaq in the mix. Does Shaq still require a double team? More importantly, will Shaq slow down the Cavs explosive running style of play?