Truthfully, I wasn’t even going to talk about this trade this week. Instead, I was going to talk about the NBA Draft. Then along with the text from Goolsby, I also got a call from my mother saying that my little sister wanted me to talk about the Shaq trade this week. She also said that I never use any of her topic suggestions. That being said, this blog should make my little sister happy as well as share Mr. Goolsby’s thoughts with the world (per his request).
Shaquille O’Neal is a sure fire Hall-Of-Famer and is arguably the best center to ever play in the NBA (not matter who you think is the best, he can be placed no lower than fourth). He has already won three NBA championships as “Batman” and one title as “Robin”. He is great and nothing said in this blog is meant to diminish his accomplishments or his greatness. That being said, he is no longer the double-team demanding, game controlling beast that he was in his prime. To be perfectly honest, the current version of Shaq is even a shell of the 2004-05 version that won a title with DeWayne Wade and his band of merry men. So, do you really think that he is the missing piece to the Cleveland championship picture?
There are several REAL reasons why anyone who feels that Shaq, LeBron, and the current incarnation of the Pips will be good enough to bring a title to Cleveland will be disappointed when another team raises the Larry O’Brien Trophy next June. These reasons are as follows:
Cleveland had a difficult time defending Dwight Howard in Orlando’s pick-and-roll offense. Guess what Shaq’s biggest defensive weakness is. Anyone? Anybody? OK, I’ll tell you. Shaq struggles defending the pick-and-roll. If you don’t believe me, take a look at any game last season and count the number of pick-and-rolls they ran at Shaq successfully. For further evidence, take a look at the 2004 NBA Finals. Detroit’s stated goal was to involve Shaq in as many pick-and-rolls as possible, because they felt as though he couldn’t consistently flash out to the guard and then recover to cover the roll guy. They were right. Keep in mind that he was five years younger when they exposed him. Trust me; his quickness has not improved in five years.
Cleveland was very successful this regular season because they were able to spread the floor and allow LeBron to operate in the lane and on the block. Big men such as Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao have the ability to spread the floor and consistently make 15ft jump shots (which Shaq does not). This allows LeBron to live in the paint and drive to the basket as he pleases. Shaq on the other hand is a space-eater and clogs the lane. I have a feeling that LeBron will be taking a lot more jumpers next season, because there will be two right lanes blocked going down the paint. While LeBron does have a pretty good jump shot (he also isn’t Ray Allen), he makes his money in the paint.
Shaq can’t guard Dwight Howard. Simply put, he is too old. True enough the Shaq of 2000 would OWN Howard, but as I said earlier, STANKONIA came out nine years ago!
Shaq can’t guard Rashard Lewis or Hedo Turkoglu. Cleveland didn’t have an answer for this dynamic duo in the playoffs, and they didn’t just acquire that answer from Phoenix.
Boston will be healthy. Enough said.
Orlando has also improved. For those of you that were blinded by the Kobe – LeBron Nike and Vitamin Water commercials and didn’t get a chance to actually see the Orlando v/s Cleveland Series, I would like to let you know that Orlando won the series rather handily. Also, in case you haven’t heard; that Orlando team that easily beat LeBron James and the Harlem Boys Choir in the playoffs also improved quite a bit. They added a guy named Vince Carter. While it may be true that he hasn’t always played to the peak of his talent, it is also true that he is so much better than Courtney Lee that it is laughable. Comparing Courtney Lee to Vince Carter is like comparing Acie Law to Chris Paul (Sorry I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hit Acie with a parting shot on his way to the airport. That’s one more shot than he hit as a Hawk).
Signing Shaq at this stage of his career is basically an act of desperation by the Cavaliers to try to get a title out of LeBron before he bolts next year or show him that Cleveland can be consistently competitive so that he will stay. Either way, it reminds me of other superstar signings that didn’t work out. Remember that KARL MALONE & GARY PAYTON both joined Shaq and Kobe in LA and didn’t manage to win a title. I know that both of them were well past their prime, but SO IS SHAQ! And let’s not forget the Jets (last season) and the Vikings (this season) thinking that Diva Favre is the missing piece to their championship. We have seen that the Jets were definitely wrong (by the way Mr. Diva did lead the league in interceptions), and I can assure that Favre won’t be leading the Vikings to a championship this season either.
I do believe that the Cleveland Cavaliers are a better team with Shaq than they were pre-Shaq. I just don’t feel that their roster as of June 28, 2009 is good enough to win a championship. That could all change if they add one more bona-fide player to the mix at power forward or as a perimeter scorer off of the bench (Carl, if you mention Damon Jones here, I will delete your post). Truthfully, I am a big LeBron James fan and I would love to see him win a championship. If the people of Cleveland expect this to be the year, they better get LeBron some more help, because Shaq simply isn’t enough.
AND NOW FOR MY BALLER & SCRUB OF THE WEEK
BALLER: Atlanta Hawks Management & US Men's Soccer - This week I have Co-Baller's of the Week. First, the Management of the Atlanta Hawks. I must commend the decision makers of my favorite NBA Team for an excellent NBA Draft night. On Thursday night, we drafted a player that I enjoyed watching in college and that I think can be our Point Guard of the Future in Jeff Teague, from Wake Forest. It seems as though we learned our lesson and decided not to pass up on another Point Guard from Wake Forest. That wasn't even the best part of the night. We also landed Jamal Crawford, who is a bona-fide scorer and will be ready to play big the next time Joe Johnson decides to play small in the playoffs. That's still not why the Hawks management in Baller of the Week. They earned this award for FINDING A TEAM DUMB ENOUGH TO TAKE THE SECOND BIGGEST DRAFT BUST IN RECENT HAWKS HISTORY OFF OUR HANDS!!!! ACIE LAW IS NO LONGER A HAWK!!!! We were able to unload him in the deal that brought us Jamal Crawford. I must give the Hawks credit. They have made two monumental draft mistakes in the past three years (Shelden Williams being the other) and managed to find teams stupid enough to take them both off of our hands. GREAT JOB!!!!
BALLER: US Men's Soccer Team - Although I am not a big fan of soccer (except the World Cup), I must congratulate the US Men's Soccer Team for making the finals of the FIFA Confederations Cup Soccer Tournament. Not only did the make the finals, they also beat the # 1 Team in the world along the way (SPAIN). I would say more about it, but I am sure that Northside Marty will take care of that in his comment. So be sure to check out his comment to read all about it.
SCRUB: Billy Gillispie (Former Head Basketball Coach at the University of Kentucky & Texas A&M) - Everyone who knows me or who reads this blog know that I am a huge basketball fan (it's my second favorite sport). You should have also noticed that my two favorite teams are the Atlanta Hawks and the University of Kentucky Wildcats. That being said, I am honoring Billy Gillispie as my SCRUB OF THE WEEK because I just realized the negative affect that this one man has had on my two favorite basketball teams. First he sends that pathetic excuse for a point guard (Acie Law) to my Hawks, and then to pour salt on my wound he takes the best job in college basketball (University of Kentucky) and manages to totally bomb there. I would have never thought that you could manage to miss the NCAA tournament at UK, but Billy managed to do it. So, Billy Gillispie you are my scrub of the week and I hope to never see you employed by or communicating with any organization near and dear to my heart ever again. Even though I went to a small Engineering school that plays NAIA sports, I sincerely hope that they never hire you either.
ON A MELANCHOLY NOTE:
As you all know, Michael Jackson passed earlier this week. I know that this is a sports blog, but I feel as though I would be remissed not mention the passing of such a world ICON. I also heard a very interesting nugget about Michael Jackson this week. Apparently, his performance at halftime of Super Bowl XXVII marked the first time in Super Bowl history that viewership actually increased during halftime. That means that MORE PEOPLE TUNED IN TO SEE MICHAEL JACKSON, THAN THE ACTUAL SUPER BOWL!!!!! That is amazing. So please take a moment to think about the loved ones that he left behind. Also, click on the video below and enjoy a portion of his performance from Super Bowl XXVII.
4 comments:
Great blog this week, you should take my advice more often.
-"The Little Sister"
"I do believe that the Cleveland Cavaliers are a better team with Shaq than they were pre-Shaq."
So, will they make it at least to the championship next year? I mean, better than last year suggest that they will make execute better than last year, or they will make it to the next round. Well, I really don't know about better than last year at all. I too received the text from the honorable Pharoah Goolsby at an ungodly hour. I did at first, and still, terribly do agree with him. It's not about being better Carlos, its about pride. Let's use the Mavericks as an example. The Mavericks were better, but they were PUNKS! Nough said. Shaq stepped aside (of which he will do in King James' world) at let D-Wade commit murder to the baby-daddy drama Mavericks(Shoutout to Dirk). Shaq will only play 15-20 minutes a game. This effort will not gain him a season scoring titles, or anything like that. Shaq's physical presence will be used to slow down Howard. He will use that large body and blanket Howard the entire time there. He will average around 9 points, 5 boards, and 4 fouls a game. This will be enough to get to the finals. And lets not forget--David Stern loves drama more than T.O. at a strip club with Pacman. He wants to see Shaq, Kobe, and the air- apparent, King James. As to the soccer team, please. I played the sport, and the United States has no place amongst the elite teams that will actually die for the sport. US has no defense at all. KaKa killed them the entire game. He completely toyed with the US. Are best athletes play football, basketball, and run track. Are guys aren't good enough to run with the big boys yet.
US Football, My Partna Dem! Northside Marty, My Partna Dem!
CARLOS FINALLY WRITES ABOUT THE WORLD'S GAME! It's about dang time. To be honest, I didn't even read the blog when I saw it was about the NBA. Watching an NBA game these days is like staring at the sun. I can't imagine what reading about it must be like. But that's neither here nor there.
I'll keep this short. Major major major props, big ups, shouts out, whatever you want to say to the our footie team (my partna dem). What an amazing turnaround from the beginning of the tournament where we looked like Trinidad and Tobago to the final where we hungn with Brazil. The fact that we even advanced in a group with Spain and Italy is a miracle let alone how the events played out that allowed us to advance. I'm actually somewhat glad that we did not beat Brazil because of all the added pressure from non-football fans like the people on this blog would not be good for our trip to South Africa next June.
Carl - you sound like the rest of the world with your refusal to give respect to US Football. I'm totally cool with that...like my boy Landon Donovan said, "We don't want respect. We want to win games." Don't tread on this. You can go ahead and be like the rest of the world and go on (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLdPu1v8hrA) By the way, calling the US out for getting "toyed with" by Kaká is unnecessary. He is Kaká. He is one of the top footballers in the world. It's like Lebron or The Bean toying with an NBA team and then you call them out. Our boys don't have to be good enough to run with the big boys yet. We just have to be good enough on the day we play the big boys like we did with Spain. Dos a cero, pinche cabrones!!!!
PS - One of the reasons I love our footie team is because of how emblamatic it is of the American people. You've got all types of people from Tim Howard to Jozy Altidore to Michael Bradley to Landon Donovan to Carlos Bocanegra to Francisco Torres to Gooch. Heck...you've even got Benny Feilhaber and Jonathan Bornstein who are part of the tribe like myself. Its a beautiful thing.
You're about to have a blast from the past! David Robinson did it in the final stages of his career(yes with the help of Tim Duncan). Also, Lebron's game will elevate to a level we have still yet to see. He will work relentlessly this year to prove that he is the "KING". Shaq will bring the experience(4 rings) and be Lebron's right hand man(meaning he will handle Lebron's dirty work). Nobody will be able to beat up Lebron for any reason as long as Shaq is on the floor. As far Dwight Howard goes, he doesn't have a shot yet. He has two moves. He better work very hard this offseason with Patrick Ewing(who doesn't have an NBA Championship Ring). Shaq is going to have to work hard too. If he wants a championship he'll have to be on point. When he went to Phoenix to play with a former MVP Steve Nash he thought it could work...WRONG. Steve Nash is a great offensive player, but he can't check me or better yet Carlos so Shaq was badly mistaken. And on top of that Amare Stoudemire catches ebola every year so that was not going to happen there.
I like Boston's Three Party, but their as old as the "BOSTON TEA PARTY". Rajon Rondo is like Chris O'Donnell in Scent of a Women, having to lead Al Pacino's BLIND character around from place to place. Boston is going to get more OLD good players to help out and they're not going to be able to hang with the youth of Cleveland or Orlando.
Orlando is a "punkish" team and it starts from their HEAD COACH on down. They matched up well with LA and couldn't win so I'm not convinced that they're ready to WIN. And now their adding the epitome of CRY BABY in Vince Carter. He'll be another option but he's not a champ because he doesn't work hard ENOUGH. He'll pout, Dwight'll blame, and Van Gundy will PANIC...Beautiful.
As far as your HAWKS go, they'll make the playoffs but they need a legitimate BIG MAN...No Carlos, Leg..iti....mate big man. They have like 6 dudes who all play the same POSITION!! They barely beat Dwayne Wade and it was 5 on 1! (Had to throw that in there, and Joe Johnson is a number 2 not a LEGITIMATE number 1. Jamal Crawford is a scorer, but he'll need a big man to take the pressure off and I don't think that ROCKY looking character is going to hang. You can only be RUDY so long. He might as well be JON KONCAK...yes JON KONCAK. ATL won't even be in the picture. It's all about matchups and Lebron is about to up his game, so now 4 people will have to check him. All Shaq has to be is what he is...an IMMOVABLE OBJECT, because as we already know LEBRON is an UNSTOPPABLE FORCE and they're on the same team...CHAMPIONSHIP & YOU HEARD IT HEAR FIRST...YESSSS!!!!
Oooh I just noticed that Carl called the Magic PUNKS too! Hmmm it's more to the game than stats....we'll leave that topic for later:)
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