I know that’s what you meant; but the problem is that that is that the CAVs thought, too.

They didn’t consider what they would give up on the floor by playing Shaq. It’s very similar to the Lakers. Sometimes management treats the rosters like it was a fantasy league, where they will get to use the stats from the previous season. And if it doesn’t work out very well, I seriously doubt that they (the Cavs) will be willing to stop playing Shaq. it would be too much of a black eye for them.

You are right. We agree. Shaq can’t do what Pau and Drew did to Dwight. We’re all scratching our heads too. That’s just what I think Cleveland *thought* could help them after they had the butts handed to them.

I get what you’re saying about not giving up a lot. In the case of any other player besides Shaq, I’d agree that it was worth a shot for what they gave up.

But Cle had to realize that Shaq is a special case. He’s not a guy that you can bring in, see how he fits and decide to just sit him down on the bench. Shaq is going to command and want the focus. Shaq would be great for Cle if he was willing to come off the bench. He’d dominate most 2nd unit centers, he could try to slow Dwight down for spot minutes, ala a hobbled Bynum and with limited minutes not be as big of a defensive liability in the other areas.

But you can’t do that with Shaq. He’s not that type of personality. He’s a player that requires a remaking of a team’s offensive and defensive philosophy. Good GM’s/coaches should recognize that. It’s not fantasy basketball of just plugging players in.

I also think Clev should have stood pat. Really they would have beaten Orl if Mo and others didn’t have such horrendous shooting series. If those guys shot even 40%, they win that series. Dwight was good, but not overwhelming. Clev plays really good defense. I think they could have done something similar to what Lakers did. Doubles from different angles and dig at the ball if he puts it down.

Flat out Clev FO panicked. The spectre of Bron fleeing and lack of mental fortitude to believe in the team and it’s philosophy. Arguably, they could have stood pat and used the Wallace trade to get another proven vet shooter and/or decent mobile non scoring big man to help with the D. That would have addressed the problems they would have had with Orlando without sacrificing the matchup weaknesses that Boston has now exposed.

As for Boston, I agree that they are a vet team and also they have quality depth. They are a very dangerous team if healthy even if they are older.

Still it’s early in the season. I want to see how Lakers, Boston, SA and Orlando all matchup and play against each other. It’s all speculative right now. But I think those four teams are so close to each other. Some unlucky breaks, that ball bouncing wrong, hesitation, etc, that could make the difference in a win or loss. But at least in a regular season game you can see how the matchups work and extrapolate to a 7 game series where you hope the bounces equal out.

Orlando has 4 all star quality players in the starting lineup like the Lakers. There is one X factor for each team. For Los Angeles its the all star type player they have coming off the bench in Lamar Odom. For the Magic its the all star PG they no longer have on the bench… J Nelson. The only weakness as we all know the Lakers have is at the PG spot and Orlando to go along with great talent all over they’re roster has the offensive talent at PG to exploit that major weakness.

The Celtics have nice talent but Rondo (who I love) isn’t the offensive threat you need at PG to torch the Lakers enough to offset the Lakers advantage at the other positions.

The Spurs are too small in the frontcourt to even make it a truly competitive series against Los Angeles. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the Spurs made a move during the year to acquire a starting Center.

The Cavs just aren’t in the same league as the “big 4″ from a talent standpoint to compete for a championship as much as I love Lebron James. And I do think he is the best player in the NBA by a relatively wide margin.

I do agree that acquisitions that address problems can’t be evaluated on paper. What happens on the court is all that matters and Shaq is contributing his fair share to this situation not working out. He’ll need to do better as will the other Cavs if they are to meet their goals and live up to expectations. However, as I said earlier, I think they’re better off in all facets of the game with Shaq replacing Wallace. But they’d have been much better off with a player like Rasheed Wallace over either of those two as he’s the type of guy that can hold up on defense in the post and effectively hedge and recover in the P&R game (Shaq can only do one of those things and Wallace can’t do either).

Wait, now I’m confused. :S I thought that what we did to Dwight Howard was a combination of Pau and Andrew in the paint, deadly passing and ball movement, and having other effective scoring options than Pau and Andrew on the team?

I’ve no doubt that Shaq in his prime was an unstoppable monster similar to what LeBron is now, but he is not in his prime anymore, and I don’t think anyone would realistically expect that he’ll be able to keep up with either Perkins or Howard the way Andrew was able to. If nothing else, because when Andrew couldn’t, Pau or Lamar stepped in and helped him, and the Cavs have no one like Pau or Lamar.

Assuming all you guys who know a lot more about basketball than I do are right — and there’s no reason to doubt that you are — then the Cav’s management watched the Lakers beat the Magic without really understanding what they saw. Yeah, we had an explosive dominant big guy that could handle Dwight Howard, but that’s not the only piece they’re missing. Shaq is not going to help fixing their issues on defense, their role players are not as good as ours, and I doubt their playbook is more than five pages thick.

It’s a bit like thinking that in order to learn how to punch like Muhammad Ali, all you have to do is build your arm strength, and ignoring the fact that you also need to work on your shoulders and core muscles, build your leg strength and increase your speed, not to mention technique.

Adding Shaq to the team sounds like a step in the right direction for the Cavs, but if they stop there, I don’t think it will make a big difference when the play-offs come around. Not with Boston desperate to prove themselves and the Magic bitter over how close they came to the trophy, only to see someone else claim it and celebrate.

it only breaks down when the losses start piling up.. instead of saying things like “we need to improve.. work together.. etc” he says “feed the big dog”..

like cancer.

His body language says:

“Oh yeah, I have to set this stupid screen. This is so stupid having me, a 7’2″ 375 lbs. Center, set a pick 25 ft. away from the basket. What happened to posting up, and passing to a cutter?”

I know everything is blamed on Mike Brown, but you cannot tell me there is no way the offense is allowed to stay the same unless LBJ *wants* it.