Comments on: Trade for Shaq?

By: jeff t.

jeff t. — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:00:57 +0000

You don’t need 5 runners to fast break — however, you do need the ball. I think Shaq could help the warriors fast break as a dominant defensive rebounder. Other players could leak out early with the confidence that shaq would grab missed shots. In fact shaq would only need to trot past half-court 50 percent of the time. And of course, he would be helpful at playoffs time and those Dunan, boozer, and bynum match-ups. Heat needs to rebuild so lets give them next year’s number 1, Pietrus and O’bryant. Need to keep Harrington — people aren’t giving this guy credit for his improved game — 6′ 9″ and a 24 year-old vet.

By: manhattanproj

manhattanproj — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 23:04:30 +0000

well, if warriors wouldn’t play adonal in the playoffs to counter boozer, it’s hard to see nellie playing shaq. yes, shaq is a much better offensive post player, other than that, he’s not much of a rebounder or a defensive stopper. he doesnt create the type of mismatches that nellie likes (ex. al vs. yao) and shaq would upset the offensive schemes that w’s are using. no pick and roll with baron, clogging up the lane, basically, w’s would lose all movements on the offensive end. this was evident in the heat game as both nellie and riley decide to go small ball in the 4th quarter. but having a shaq would be nice just for a playoff run when the w’s absolutely needed a big man post scorer because their jumpers werent falling. for the regular season, nah.

By: danielturman@fearthebeard.org

danielturman@fearthebeard.org — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 22:25:52 +0000

Marcus,

Love reading your work, but this time you done stepped in it. Shaq? Please, he’d quit the team three minutes into his first game after getting screamed on by Nellie for not running. He would simply never be able to keep up. Last night pretty much proved it. All they got out of him was a big puddle of sweat on the pine and a relatively invisible 21 minutes. Big Aristotle would need a year of Dr. Ian’s Fat Smasher Diet to even have a chance of keeping up. But even when he was young he never much liked to run.

Basically, you can’t put an earth mover on the autobahn and expect it to run with Lamborghinis and Porsches.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:26:26 +0000

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, first of all i’m curious how we keep all our starters, Beans and Monta and still get shaq? Straight up for Croshere and Hudson?

Second of all NO SHAQ! He’s done. He was breathing heavily five minutes into the first quarter. Great idea five years ago, but it would kill the team this year.

By: Leary

Leary — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 06:49:18 +0000

Marcus
Whatever you are smoking, change brands?

That’s the craziest idea I’ve ever heard.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 05:14:03 +0000

I’ll tell you what, the guys who I like most on the Heat, aside from Wade, are Dorell Wright and Udonis Haslem. I’ll taken any one of those two. Wright may be redundant on this team, but Haslem would be perfect. He rebounds, defends and sticks the open midrange jumper.

By: JustPuked

JustPuked — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 01:38:00 +0000

The Warriors don’t do dump it into the post because we don’t have the players for that. Post players in Nellieball need to be able to roll toward penetration, backdoor cut, pick ‘n roll, shoot from the high post/wing etc to get their points. Shaq already admits he’s not that guy and he’s never really been that guy. His game is all about fighting for deep position and someone feeding him the rock.

Not to dismiss the guy, because I’m not, but he’s become more and more ineffective as a primary post scorer. Sure, WHEN he gets deep position, he’s a terror but he’s often too slow/tired/old/out of shape or unmotivated to fight for position throughout possessions. How often would he be too gassed to fight for position as a Warrior if he was constantly trying to catch-up to the fast break?

It would be even worse, when opposing team pulled a Nellie and countered Shaq with quicker players (as we’ll see tonight). The opponent would be defending 5 on 4 while the Warriors waited for the Diesel to finally wander to the outskirts of the paint and then not have the gumption to fight for deep position all with the shot clock winding down.

No thank you! This team is exciting because they play old school, (Yes, “Fast break” basketball pre-dates Magic Johnson), share the rock and move your butt quickly basketball. The way, Keaney, Auerbach, Reinhart and Wooden taught it. The way it should be played. I don’t want to go off on a rant here….but a definite factor in the decline of the USA Basketball team in international play can be directly attributed to an over reliance on dump it into the post and it’s off shoot, isolation basketball. The sport is at its most beautiful, artful and skilled when played with five guys that can move and share the rock seamlessly. Shaq, while a fairly good passer, is definitely not that guy. As you have reported, “I don’t shoot jumpers, and I’m not a pick-and-roll player.” Then Shaq…you’re not a Warrior.

Warriors win tonight 115-97.

By: zgreat

zgreat — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 01:00:58 +0000

It would all depend upon what we’d to give up to get him. A package with Biedrens? um, no thank you, AB is a pretty good fit for Nellie’s system.
Harrington & MP? Definitely something to consider, but would we better if we had to slow things down and wait for Shaq to get down court? Most players on the team seem to thrive on uptempo.

I think he still has two years left on his contract after this season which may not be a good thing, since he has a rep for not working out in the off season. It would also mean fewer guys would be returning next season due to cap space.