Posts Tagged “Shaq”

For some strange reason I like the game LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal have going with their pregame introductions.
Watch LeBron’s here:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X10dlU5cU0A

And here is Shaq’s, which I think is hilarious. Mostly because you know these guys don’t dare say “no” to Shaq:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTxGmqdntwo

I love that guys like Shaq, who is 37 years old, can still laugh and have fun getting paid to play a game.

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Something has to be done, right? Obviously for the Suns the Shaq trade didn’t work. They traded for him specifically to have an inside presence against the Spurs. That obviously failed miserably. Tim Duncan is clearly on the downside of his career. However, he averaged 24.8ppg, 13.8rpg, 2.6apg and 2.8bpg the five playoff games vs. Phoenix. For the season, his averages were 19.3ppg, 11.3rpg, 2.8apg and 1.95bpg. I don’t think Shaq helped. Steve Nash just can’t stop Tony Parker either. I like Steve Nash and really like how he plays. I just don’t think he has the physical ability to stay in front of Tony Parker. Parker averaged 11 more points per game in the playoffs than he did in the regular season.

Is it time to break up the Suns? I think so. Good luck finding a taker for Shaq. He has two years left at $20 million per year. Nash has one year left at $12.2 million and a team option for a second year. Boris Diaw, the guy who averaged less than nine points, five rebounds, and four assists per game during the season, is still owed three more years at $9 million per year with a player option for the fourth. If they could find a way to unload Shaq this summer they have a “chip and a chair” to turn things around.

Phoenix is the team who traded Joe Johnson for Diaw and pieces and also traded Luol Deng for a box of Wheaties (what turned out to be Nate Robinson and Jackson Vroman).

The Mavs basically traded Devin Harris for Jason Kidd (yes, Keith Van Horn somehow made millions of dollars in this trade too). In the Mavs first round series, Jason Kidd was able to hold Chris Paul to 24.6ppg, 12apg, 5.6rpg and 2spg. In other words, if New Orleans could play Dallas every game Chris Paul would be a first ballot Hall-of-Famer by the All-Star Break, 2009. But Jason Kidd scored too. 8.6ppg, 7.5rpg and 6.8apg. AND “ason” (which is Jason with no “J”) shot 42% from the field. What do you do when you aren’t shooting well? You get to the free-throw line. Jason Kidd got to the line eight times per game? No. Eight times in FIVE games. With Dallas, Kidd averaged 9.9ppg, 9.5apg and 6.4rpg. Kidd will make $21 million next season. With the Nets, Devin Harris averaged 15.4ppg, 6.5apg and 3.2rpg. Harris made $3.9 million this season.

Kidd has one more season at $21 million. Nowitzki is owed $38 million the next two years with a player option for a third year. Josh Howard has two more years at $10+ million per year with a team option for a third year. Jason Terry is owed $41 million for the next four years. Erick Dampier has three years and $30+ million left on his contract. On a positive note, Dampier is only slight below his career average of 8.1 ppg (he averaged 6ppg this year).

On second thought, maybe the Mavs don’t need to break it up. Michael Finley ($18.5 million), Shawn Bradley ($5.2 million) and Juwan Howard ($1.2 million) come off the books this summer. The Mavs have $68.1 million tied up next year for Kidd, Nowitzki, Howard, Dampier and Terry.

As a Timberwolves fan who had to suffer through poor management and decisions for so many years. I will enjoy watching these two franchises struggle for the next few years.

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