The Pacers really got a steal---based on today's market---on Artest's contract. He plays great offense AND defense. Looks like he can handle the ball fairly well. Or maybe they didn't get a deal, considering the guy is a head case waiting to explode. But if he can keep that temper in check, damn, he's one hell of a player. And Shaq? Maybe he was simply adjusting to the new guys, but he wasn't setting the world on fire before twisting his ankle (looked nasty on TV, I'm glad it wasn't serious). Certainly the Heat aren't gonna pay him $20,000,000 per year (don't know when that new contract kicks/kicked in) to be a decoy?
I've been saying ever since the Heat made the Walker trade that Shaq was going to miss no less than 20 games this year: 1. After working out so hard the offseason he was traded to the Heat, he's slid back into his bad conditioning habits 2. He's on the downhill slip and slide that all the great centers went on (Dream, Ewing, Robinson), and it's always a fast track 3. With the surrounding talent he know has, he's not going to kill himself to get back onto the court and will likely over-nurse nagging injuries to skip regular season games (which he doesn't care about) If he needs a week to get over the ankle, he'll take 3. Evan
It was totally blatant. I don't know how the refs, missed it. Or even the commentaters. Seriously, it was that bad.
That contract was actually genius. Shaq wanted $33 mill a year for 3 years. That contract would have made it impossible for the Heat to make any moves, especially because of luxury tax considerations (they would literally only have about 25 million non-Shaq dollars for the remaining roster before hitting the threshold; this year's non-Shaq payroll is ~40 mill). So what do they do? Take the grand total of what Shaq wanted (33 * 3 ~ 100 mill), and stretch it out over 5 years (no one expects him to still be playing by the last year). He gets his money, but stretching it out allows the team to still surround him with talent without going over the lux tax threshold (They're right at it). Seriously genius. Evan
man, shaq being injured, impossible. and like someone else said, i'm sure he'll take his time getting back. as for getting more in the shaq trade, it does seem like the lakers had to get more, but maybe we should give other gm's credit. 32 year olds who are breaking down and want $30M/yr aren't exactly the greatest trade bait and maybe everybody actually realized it and wasn't going to offer the lakers anything great. with wade already on board, the heat were one of the few teams who could take the short term gain for the long term pain. and are people complaining about a missed traveling call in the nba? come on now, may as well start wondering how they missed a blatant palming by iverson or something.
