Shaq deal to Cavs to be finalized Thursday
Excerpts from an article by ESPN's Chris Broussard:
The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Phoenix Suns have come to an agreement on a blockbuster trade that sends Shaquille O'Neal to Cleveland to team with LeBron James, according to sources.
Cleveland will send Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic to Phoenix for the future Hall of Famer. Sources said the Suns will also receive the 46th pick in Thursday's NBA draft and $500,000.
The trade gives the Cavs a player they've coveted since February. With center Zydrunas Ilgauskas starting to break down, adding Shaq to the roster gives them a dominant force in the middle. The Cavs were obviously unhappy with their ability to defend Dwight Howard in the playoffs and bringing Shaq into the fold should help. O'Neal averaged 17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game last season and made his 15th All-Star game.
For the rest of the article, click here
For off-season rumors and goings-on regarding other Eastern Conference teams, check out the post under mine by WeRDevos.
The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Phoenix Suns have come to an agreement on a blockbuster trade that sends Shaquille O'Neal to Cleveland to team with LeBron James, according to sources.
Cleveland will send Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic to Phoenix for the future Hall of Famer. Sources said the Suns will also receive the 46th pick in Thursday's NBA draft and $500,000.
The trade gives the Cavs a player they've coveted since February. With center Zydrunas Ilgauskas starting to break down, adding Shaq to the roster gives them a dominant force in the middle. The Cavs were obviously unhappy with their ability to defend Dwight Howard in the playoffs and bringing Shaq into the fold should help. O'Neal averaged 17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game last season and made his 15th All-Star game.
For the rest of the article, click here
For off-season rumors and goings-on regarding other Eastern Conference teams, check out the post under mine by WeRDevos.
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 2:11 AM
4 Comments:
At 5:18 AM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Ol' Shaq (17.8 ppg on 60.9% FG shooting, 8.4 rpg) will be an improvement over Ilgauskas in the low post for the Cavs both offensively and defensively, but I don't see how this will make them better than the Magic, as Dwight Howard is so much younger, quicker, and more athletic than Shaq on both ends of the court, as Shaq's flopping on the court trying to draw a foul on D12 in March when the Magic played the Suns can attest to.
Chris Broussard of ESPN said on SportsCenter Wednesday night that he thinks the Cavs might also try and sign an athletic, tall wing player (like Matt Barnes) to improve their chances competing against the Magic.
With the Magic dominating the Cavs the last couple of years, the rivalry between the two teams will become more intense with the addition of Shaq, because of Shaq's dislike for D12 and his worse dislike for Stan Van Gundy.
Since the Magic and Cavs played each other only three times in the regular season last season, they should play each other four times this coming season.
I wish it were November 1st already!
At 8:42 AM,
WeRDevos said…
Shaq left LA with Kobe hating his guts. Shaq left Miami with Wade hating his guts. Shaq arrived in Phoenix and said things that made Amare hate his guts.
Makes me wonder how this is a good thing for Lebron. The last time he had a team mate who advertised with puppets (Penny) Shaq hated that guys guts.
He is a bully who is jealous of anyone else on his team (not to mention the rest of the league) who gets more attention than he does. How is he going to handle the way over-hyped LBJ?
At 8:45 AM,
WeRDevos said…
Hey Mike Brown! Update your resume! Every team Shaq has ever played on has had to replace its coach quickly.
At 12:08 PM,
Big Figure said…
Getting shaq just gives cleveland a hall-of-fame version of Z. Shaq is slow,old and injury prone. What a trade(NOT!). They let go wallace and pavlovich which neither really contributed against the magic so from that standpoint they added something and didnt really lose anything to do it so i'm sure they are happy about that. But shaq being the answer to combat against dwight is laughable. He should now call himself the "BIG FLOPPER".
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