So here's my 2 cents on the Shaq trade that seems all but inevitable at this point. Bravo. Thank you Lakers. Thank you Shaq. Thank you to the Ego that is Pat Riley. Thank you for shifting the balance of power, if only slightly, back to the East. Granted, the West still is light years better--but the league's most dominant player (when he wants to be, which is usually only in the playoffs) is out of the conference. And this is a VERY good thing.
I know I know I know--the Pistons won the title. As TheJer so elloquently pointed out--it's the 1st time in about forever that the team with the best player hasn't won. Chauncey Billups (thanks again to Kevin McHale for not keeping him around. Couldn't have used him at all in Minny)winning MVP proved that. but this does not mean the East is no on-par with the West. I don't see this whole teammwork thing working much longer though for the Pistons. Rasheed got his title--and he's about to get paid big-time, which means Rasheed will be fading into, as Mike Tyson put it "bolivion" at any moment here.
Wait, this was supposed to be about Shaq, wasn't it? Sorry, I just don't get to write about the NBA often enough so like 90 million ideas start coming out here. (focus...focus...focus) I do not think this is a great trade for the Heat. Shaq, Dwayne Wade (who has to be the happiest player on the planet at this point), and 3 plastic people they pull out of the stands in Miami are STILL not better than Indy, Detroit or even New Jersey (only IF they get K-Mart back). So they're 4th, which is right where they were last year. Yup you have Shaq, who hasn't come to play in a regular season game since... well it'll come to me eventually. But it's been a LONG time since Shaq has cared about more than one regular season game at a time. And before you start saying how motivated Shaq will be after all the off-season turmoil and an NBA playoffs where Kobe wouldn't pass him the ball, remember who we're talking about here: this is Shaquille O'Neal.
This is a man who SHOULD have been the best player of all time. No I'm not kidding. THE best ever. Should have been. But he didn't really care. Never really has. The rapping, the "acting" (a term I use for him as loosely as Gary Payton was playing D last year), the fact that after more than 10 years in the league he STILL can't shoot a free throw. The man is content dominating when he wants to, of loafing through the regular season, dominating when it's there, and then turing it up for the post-season. I don't blame him for the Lakers losing to the Pistons. Shaq was unstoppable--as long as Kobe would pass him the ball.
So that shouldn't be a problem in Miami, right? No, it shouldn't. But Shaq SHOULD average 30 and 20. AT LEAST. Yet he's nowhere close. He'll get the ball all he wants, but he's moving to South Beach, which has to be the #2 most alluring place in the country besides Vegas. How long till Shaq gets more involved with the pretty plastic people than he does with the game? That is unless the Heat can get him in that titanium box they put Lamar Odom in all last year when he wasn't on the court. Seriously, Odom couldn't stay out of trouble in Boise, Idaho. How in the world did he stay trouble-free in a place like Miami? Somebody needs to look into this.
My point to all this rambling is that for Miami to be the best team in the East Shaq has to be dominate for 82 games. This of course is a problem considering he hasn't played 82 games in a season in about 7 or 8 years. If K-Mart doesn't come back to the Nets, which looks like a distinct possibility at this point, then the Heat are the best team in the Atlantic by default. IF K-Mart doesn't come back, they'll be the only team that will finish about .500. Yes, it's that's bad.
As for the Lakers, they're now the 6th best team in the West. 6th. And they don't have Shaq to fall back on when the playoffs come around. This trade isn't anywhere near as good as the one they could have gotten from Dallas, but it does get him out of the conference, and for all of us basketball fans, that's a VERY good thing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Yes, I'm responding to my own blog (maybe it will motivate OTHER PEOPLE TO RESPOND TO OUR BLOG). I don't have time this week to write another full column, so I'll just add this: that sound you hear is the mass-exodus of the Laker's band wagon. And no, there is no room on the Wolves bandwagon for Lakers' fans. That is, unless the T-Puppies' bandwagon inventer, master, captain and driver, Mr. TheJer, wants to let you on. And considering he hates the Lakers as much as I do, I don't like your chances.
Oh, and if you're Kobe, do you even go back to the Lakers at this point? You can play with Odom and a really old Brian Grant and no cap flexibility for 7 lifetimes. OR you can go to the Clips, who have an allstar post player in Elton Brand, an excellent SF in Corey Maggette, and a talented (although VERY) young PG in Shaun Livingston. And a sweet big stiff 7'0 white center from the midwest. They're ALL in their early-mid 20's. And ALL of these guys would defer to Kobe in a hearbeat. I hate Kobe, but the best decision has to be the Clips. Or am I crazy? Wait, don't answer that.
One final thing- even IF the Lakers get Kobe back, they struggle to make the playoffs. I'm not sure they're better than the Nuggs with or without K-Mart, Utah, Memphis OR Phoenix (who will add Q-Rich to Marion, Young Moses Malone--aka Amare Stoudamire, and my boy Nash). I'll argue that with anyone.
Jeff
Post a Comment