Cavs get ShaqDifferent articles about the trade.
One is the King, a reigning MVP who at age 24 needs only a championship to complete his resume. The other is a larger-than-life personality who may be past the prime of his career but remains an undeniable force and hungers for a fifth NBA title.
LeBron and Shaq. Teammates.
The Cleveland Cavaliers executed a monster trade Thursday to unite the superstars, acquiring Shaquille O’Neal(notes) from the Phoenix Suns in hopes he can help LeBron James(notes) deliver this seemingly sports-cursed city its first major pro championship in 45 years.
The deal creates a tandem that instantly rivals any in sports today and calls to mind some of the great duos in NBA history: Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bob Cousy and Bill Russell, Shaq himself and Kobe Bryant(notes).
More important, if Cleveland’s gamble works and the 37-year-old O’Neal delivers a title, it could keep James around. James is an Akron native, knows Cleveland’s pained sports history and has always maintained he wants to stay in his home state, though there is no guarantee he will sign an extension with the Cavs. Cleveland can offer him one as early as this summer.
But that’s for another day.
Hours before an NBA draft that figured to be overshadowed by the Shaq-to-the-Cavs move, the reality of James playing with O’Neal, a 15-time All-Star, was just sinking in.
“Shaq is an incredible ballplayer and a four-time NBA champion,” James said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. “I have a lot of respect for him and his game. It will be a real honor to play with Shaq as my teammates and I look forward to another great season with the Cavs.”
The Cavs sent center Ben Wallace(notes) and swingman Sasha Pavlovic(notes) to the Suns, along with a second-round pick in the 2010 draft and $500,000 in cash, for O’Neal, the 7-foot-1 center who won three straight titles from 2000 to 2002 with Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. His fourth title came with Dwyane Wade(notes) in Miami in 2006.
“I was elated about the trade because I get to play with one of the greatest players to ever play the game in LeBron James,” O’Neal said during ESPN’s draft telecast. He expects “a lot of fun, a lot of just having a good time and a lot of smiling, and a lot of winning.”
The teams first talked about a deal in February but couldn’t work out an agreement before the deadline, a missed opportunity that cost the Cavaliers in this year’s playoffs when they had no answer inside for Orlando center Dwight Howard(notes) in the Eastern Conference finals.
After the Cavaliers were eliminated with a Game 6 loss, a frustrated James stormed off the floor in Orlando without shaking the hands of any Magic players, including Howard, his U.S. Olympic teammate.
Cleveland general manager Danny Ferry and Phoenix GM Steve Kerr, former teammates and close friends, never closed the book on the O’Neal deal and finally reached an agreement early Thursday morning.
Ferry completed the deal because he wants to win a title. Now.
“Our goals are aligned with what our players want, including LeBron, and that’s to win a championship and win it next year,” Ferry said. “We don’t want to be patient.”
The Cavaliers didn’t expect to find immediate help in this year’s draft, and selected raw forward Christian Eyenga from the Republic of Congo with the final pick (No. 30) in the first round. The 20-year-old Eyenga played in Spain last season. Cleveland used the No. 46 pick on North Carolina forward Danny Green, who played more games than anyone in school history.
Cleveland then purchased the No. 57 pick from Phoenix and selected Turkey’s Emir Preldzic, who can play both guard positions and small forward.
For sheer celebrity value, the O’Neal-James tandem is as captivating as any on the sports landscape. And if it works, and lasts, the pairing may one day belong in the same company as some of the all-time combinations: Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, Joe Montana and Jerry Rice.
For now, the Cavaliers, who came up short this year despite winning 66 regular-season games and their first eight playoff games, are only thinking of unseating the Lakers as champions next June.
O’Neal could be the missing piece. But there’s no guarantee he’ll stay healthy, and it’s way too early to know what impact his arrival will have on Cleveland coach Mike Brown’s offense or the Cavs’ chemistry—or whether he and James, who have been friends for several years, can coexist.
“They both badly want to win,” Ferry said. “Our team and organization want to win. With that leading it, everything else is going to work out.”
O’Neal is coming off an All-Star season with the Suns, averaging 17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds in 75 games, but there were times he clogged Phoenix’s high-powered offense under coaches Mike D’Antoni, Terry Porter and Alvin Gentry. Still, the 7-foot-1, 325-pounder can be a defensive stopper.
“He’s a wall around the basket—a tall, long wall,” Ferry said.
The Shaq experiment failed in Phoenix. The Suns won one playoff game in O’Neal’s season and a half, and this spring the Suns failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
Ferry, who said O’Neal’s arrival could push Zydrunas Ilgauskas(notes) out as a starter, is convinced O’Neal will be able to adjust to Cleveland and vice versa.
“Phoenix played a different way when they had him,” he said. “It was a drastic change. We’re more of a half-court team. We play more of the tempo that fits Shaq’s game.”
The Suns got little in return for O’Neal, but the deal gives them financial flexibility in the future. All told, they will save $10 million.
“Obviously the last few years we’ve had a very high payroll,” Kerr said. “We’ve had a very good team and we’ve made a big, strong push. Clearly the last couple of years we’ve been on the decline, and things have not worked out as well as we had hoped, so now it’s time to adjust.”
The 34-year-old Wallace, who after the season said he may retire, is in the final year of a $14 million deal while the Suns plan to buy out Pavlovic, who has $1.5 million of his $4.95 million contract guaranteed.
For the Cavs, up front costs are less important than a chance to finally win it all.
The Big Rental got his way, again. That no longer should come as a surprise.In the end, Shaquille O'Neal has turned into the very man he mocked for a transient end of a career. Now, he is Patrick Ewing in a Sonics uniform and then a Magic uniform.
The Big Sidekick, of course, also gets to ride again.
He milked his relationship with Phil Jackson as long as possible to maintain his edge as the featured attraction in Los Angeles, until it became evident his days as a leading man were numbered with the Lakers. No, the Lakers never were going to choose an aging Shaq over in-his-prime Kobe.
Then Shaq attempted to play the main-man role in Miami, even as it was Dwyane Wade who lifted the Heat to that 2006 championship, the one that ended with Shaq grabbing the Finals MVP trophy from David Stern before handing it himself to Wade.
When that soured, the backdoor dealing began, first to get close to Mark Cuban's millions in Dallas, and, if that didn't work, to land alongside two-time MVP Steve Nash in Phoenix.
As we know by now, that certainly didn't work out very well. Total playoff series won by Shaq during his two-season tenure in Phoenix? Zero.
Now he latches on to LeBron James in Cleveland. Because when you no longer can be the best, then at least play alongside the best.
But is Shaquille O'Neal now too much of The Big Liability?
Let's get this straight: the reason the Cavaliers saw their NBA-best record end in an Eastern Conference finals demise against the Orlando Magic was not because of Dwight Howard's interior dominance. Even with Howard's scoring, the Cavaliers were right there.
It was not about establishing a post-up game. Orlando was packing the paint against LeBron, so it's not as if there was plenty of room to maneuver in the lane, anyway.
It was about defending the pick-and-roll.
And, if you haven't noticed, it's not as if Shaq has deteriorated into one of the worst defenders in the league against the pick-and-roll. He was awful even when he was winning his three consecutive championships with the Lakers. It's just that there was enough talent available to mask that deficiency.
Exactly what difference is Shaq going to be able to make against the length and skill of Hedo Turkoglu (assuming the Magic retains him in free agency) and Rashard Lewis on those sets?
No, this has very little to do with the Xs and Os and all the other studious elements of the game that Shaq has such little patience for.
No, this is about the Big Interim Prayer.
As with everything Cavaliers, this is about nothing more than keeping LeBron happy until the fateful Summer of 2010, when James can otherwise bolt as a free agent by invoking his opt-out clause.
This is about making LeBron feel good enough for the next 12 months until the true overhaul can be accomplished. This is not about getting LeBron to commit this summer to an extension. A one-year rental of Shaq does not inspire five more years of confidence.
Without enough expiring contracts, without anything tangible to deal, without cap space, Cleveland was in no position to offer a legitimate overhaul this summer.
This is not like Joe Dumars and his cache of cash in Detroit.
This is not the Heat, which is in position to immediately flip Michael Beasley for Chris Bosh this summer.
This is not even as big as last summer's acquisition of Mo Williams that pushed the Cavaliers to the top of the standings.
Cleveland had nothing. So it packaged nothing — in this case Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic — to the Suns for the league's ultimate rental.
Understand, for the Cavaliers to get to where they ultimately want to get — a sense of long-term stability — Shaq can't be here a year from now. That's when there will be enough cap space to seduce a Wade or Bosh or any of the other prime 2010 free agents.
Instead, this is merely buying time. Can Shaq occupy Dwight Howard in the lane more than jump-shooting Zydrunas Ilgauskas? Certainly. Does he move better than Ilgauskas defensively? Yes, he is more agile than a sofa.
But what exactly has Shaq done to make his teams better these three years since riding Wade's coattails in those 2006 playoffs? (For those who forget, the Heat's difference-making center in that deciding game of the 2006 NBA Finals in Dallas was Alonzo Mourning, not Shaq.)
Even with the Heat, getting Shaq wasn't enough. It wasn't until Pat Riley added Antoine Walker and Jason Williams that a team that lost to the Pistons in the 2005 Eastern Conference finals was good enough to make it to the championship series.
Similarly, the Suns, just a year after acquiring Shaq, found themselves caught in the desperation of what turned into a failed grab for Jason Richardson.
No, there still has to be more for the Cavaliers than just adding Shaq. Suddenly, retaining free-agent Anderson Varejao becomes even more important. There has to be an active four alongside Shaq to make any of this work. Otherwise, there might have to be a reach with the mid-level exception for Rasheed Wallace, if only to find active enough legs and length to deal with those opposing pick and rolls.
The Shaq deal cost the Cavaliers about $10 million, but could wind up costing even more before the close of the summer. An active wing remains a needed acquisition. The price being paid to keep LeBron happy for 12 months is staggering. And that's before LeBron signs on the dotted line (they hope) for $120 million next summer.
And then, seemingly as there always is, there is the case of The Big Scorched Earth.
By the day, Kobe is looking better and better. Somewhere in Orange County he is smiling this morning. Smiling, not Tweeting, since being front and center isn't nearly as significant to the former sidekick.
It certainly was ugly enough when Shaq left the Lakers. At the time, though, it was difficult to determine the true villain in the dismantling of the dynasty.
Then, consider that when Shaq left the Heat, there were darts tossed at not only the team's training staff and Pat Riley, but also the teammate who helped deliver that supposedly liberating championship. No, it did not end well with Wade. It ended with Shaq, behind Wade's back, derisively calling his former teammate "Wonder Boy."
And then consider all that has transpired with the Suns, the type of irreparable damage that might never be salvaged by Steve Kerr before he, too, is shown the door.
Shawn Marion? Gone. Mike D'Antoni? Gone. Terry Porter? Gone. Amare Stoudemire? So disillusioned about being demoted to third option that he soon might be gone, with a free-agency window opening next summer. Boris Diaw? Gone. Raja Bell? Gone.
Beyond that, there were the undercurrents of unease with Steve Nash. Who the heck doesn't get along with Steve Nash? Who doesn't treasure a player who gets you the ball when you want it where you want it and how you want it?
It hardly was coincidence that amid these Shaq trade discussions, the Suns also were negotiating an extension with Nash.
What's next for the Suns? The type of overhaul they attempted to avoid with the acquisition of Shaq, as odd as that sounds alongside an aging point guard. But at least they'll run again, because that's the least management and ownership can return to the fans, after realizing such a limited return with Shaq.
When Heat owner Micky Arison dealt Shaq to the Suns in 2008, he assured Suns owner Bob Sarver that by the time Shaq's deal reached its final year, there would be a way to unload the final $20 million-plus on the center's deal.
Ultimately, that became the case.
Because, in the end, a former Most Valuable Player and a future Hall of Famer has turned into something that surely, albeit privately, has Kobe and Riley and Wade and Amare and Porter smiling today:
The Big Expiring Contract.
