Shaq to Miami? (UPDATE: It's Official - He's a Miami Heat)

If I were Heats, I would insist on 1st round but keep Butler. Wade/Jones/Butler/whoever/Shaq is pretty good.

 

Damn. Good deal for both sides. Who would play C for the Lakers? I doubt Malone will come back if Shaq is gone.

They need to trade either Fox or Devean George for a C and they're set. They won't be the best team in the league, but it will finally become the barometer for how good Kobe actually is. That team is a strong supportign cast surrounding Kobe.


Whoever
Grant
Odom
Kobe
Payton

If they can lure Keon Clark and any other big man, they'll be pretty good.


Wouldn't Odom be pretty damn PISSED at Riley after this deal? If Riley wasn't in Miami he would not have come to the Heat.

Shaq will never get the ball with a backcourt of Wade/Jones/Butler btw.

Still, this is good. Yao doesn't have to face Shaq 4 times, become the best C in the East, is a guaranteed starter in the All Star game, and only has to meet Shaq MAAAAAAAYBE in the Finals.

 

It's a business!

I agree though, Odom comes to Miami because of Riley. Then Riley quits to go upstairs and it upsets Odom. Then Odom begins to enjoy Stan Van Gundy and then gets traded again! And back to LA! LOL

It's a business.....Odom should love Rudy though.
Odom can be the Pippen to Kobe's Jordan.

As for the Lakers/Miami trade. My thoughts are this. I think it is the best LA can do. They of course are not going to get equal value for Shaq just like the Magic didnt get equal value for McGrady. That's the way it is with trading superstars. However, the Lakers do move Shaq to the East and I think that is BIG for them. They dont want Shaq terrorizing the Lakers 4 times a year.

I think the fact that the Lakers get a YOUNG STAR player like Odom is huge. They dont want old players like Walker, Finley etc or unproven players like Harrington etc. Odom is a star player that is breaking out. And he is a player that would AUGMENT Kobe's game. He is a player that is going to make plays, pass and get Kobe the ball. I think that is important. Grant is thrown in for salary reasons but still fills a void of a Big for the Lakers. Either Butler or the #1 draft pick adds another young player to the Laker nucleus.

From Miami's POV...they are only dealing Odom for Shaq. They would LOVE to slash off Grant's salary. And if Shaq leaves in 2 years he leaves a 30M hole on the Heat roster where they can resign him or have that cap space. But in those two years the Heat become instant contenders in the East with Shaq and Wade. Plus if the Heat make this move they STILL have their MLE they can use to fill in some holes. Shaq being there might attract a good value FA.

I think it is a good trade both ways, gives both teams what they are looking for. It is the best that can be done with trading Shaq, which isnt a real easy task.

 

The only thing I don't like about this was that fact that I would have loved to see Yao/Tracy and company take on Shaq/Kobe and their crew. That would have been great! Good talent the Lakers are getting back, no presence down low to speak of though, save for Grant. At least Yao doesn't have to play Shaq 4 times a year and in the Western Conference playoffs anymore if this deal goes down!

 

I cannot seriously believe L.A is considering this deal. Te deal involving Shaq will be lop-sided, but this is just way too much and L.A. will be stuck in mediocrity for many years.
There are 2 major problem with this deal, IMO.

Firstly, there is no gurantee that Kobe will re-sign with the Lakers. Both Clippers and Denver have better surrounding than the fakers, there is no reason to believe that Kobe will definetly re-sign with the Lakers just because Shaq is gone. In that case, Lakers are stuck with two most underserving max players with zero cap-flexibility for next couple of years.
Secondly, even with Kobe Lakers will be mediocre; they werent be bad enough to get Lottery picks nor they will be good enough to challenge for the Championship. They will lack depth, and inside presence to compete in the West: Rockets, Wolves, Spurs, Kings, will rip Grant apart. Lakers, even with Kobe, will battle out for 7 or 8th seed at best: Rockets, Wolves, Spurs, Kings, Mavs are gurantee. Then there is Jazz, Grizz, Blazers, Suns, Nuggets class. And Nuggets still have enough money to sign one max player.

There is no way you can defend Laker management even if one can understand the difficulty they are in right now. It only comes to show how desperate they want to keep Kobe, and making short-term and ill-fated decision in the process. The best deals are often those that arent made: I actually believe Lakers might be better off with giving up Kobe and starting all over again next year than making a deal with Miami.

 

All I know is moving Shaq to the East is gonna be good news to us. I don't care how many years the Fakers will suck after this trade. Just do it!!!

 

If the Heat can pull this deal off without having to give up Caron Butler, this will be one of the biggest steals in the history of the NBA - steal for the Heat, obviously.

 

the newest article has caron butler going, but i'd still do it if i was miami. that definitely puts them in the east finals next year in my opinion.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1837581

 

I hope this happens. Shaq will do great in the east, and the Rockets will have the dominate center in their conference. Sounds good to me.

 

umm, didn't O'Neal and a guard do some damage just last year?

 

O'neal won't do nothing next season unless Wade turns out to be as good as Penny Hardaway was -before he got hurt- or nearly as good as Kobe Bryant.

 

I know I know I spelt Shaq's name wrong. I wanted to post before the police recognize.

 

name one player in the East that can stop Shaq, one. He dominated Detroit, but they didnt continue to give him the ball, Miami is the number 1 team in the East if this trade happens. And BTW Wade is as good as advertised. and he's been working on his jump shot all summer. He's gonna be great.

 

Has anyone run the math on the proposed deal? I don't see how the salaries are going to match up.

 

I'm not sure why I'd do this trade if I were the Lakers. Assuming they believe Kobe will resign, that would probably give them a starting lineup of Medevinko-Odom-Butler-Kobe-Payton. Seems pretty smallish to me, and has the same problems of the Mavs. Unless Kobe has told them that he most definitely won't resign with Shaq around, I'd rather take another 2 years of Shaq/Kobe combo than that group.

Overall, I'd love the trade should it go through. It would probably mean less competition in the west. The Rockets could easily find themselves as one of the top 3-4 teams in the west after this trade.

 

Yes, it matched.

L.A. Lakers trades: C Shaquille O'Neal (21.5 ppg, 11.5 rpg, 2.9 apg in 36.8 minutes)
L.A. Lakers receives: SF Caron Butler (9.2 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 1.9 apg in 29.8 minutes)
SF Lamar Odom (17.1 ppg, 9.7 rpg, 4.1 apg in 37.5 minutes)
PF Brian Grant (8.7 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 0.9 apg in 30.3 minutes)
Change in team outlook: +13.5 ppg, +9.9 rpg, and +4.0 apg.

Miami trades: SF Caron Butler (9.2 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 1.9 apg in 29.8 minutes)
SF Lamar Odom (17.1 ppg, 9.7 rpg, 4.1 apg in 37.5 minutes)
PF Brian Grant (8.7 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 0.9 apg in 30.3 minutes)
Miami receives: C Shaquille O'Neal (21.5 ppg, 11.5 rpg, 2.9 apg in 67 games)
Change in team outlook: -13.5 ppg, -9.9 rpg, and -4.0 apg.

TRADE ACCEPTED

Due to L.A. Lakers and Miami being over the cap, the 15% trade rule is invoked. L.A. Lakers and Miami had to be no more than 115% plus $100,000 of the salary given out for the trade to be accepted, which did happen here. This trade satisfies the provisions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

 

So, Shaq is trying to avoid playing Yao in the western conf.

 

Looks like Shaq couldn't stand the heat and got out of the kitchen. A blurb on ESPNEWS stated that Shaq liked how Riley had managed the waning years of Jabbar's carreer. That was one of the factors that attracted him to Miami. He was tired of getting beat-up by the big centers in the West and thought it would extend his carreer to play in the East. Poor Cato, he probably thought he had escaped beeting up Shaq so much. Big bodies will all of sudden be at a major premium in the East.

This move will change the whole make-up of the NBA. I am, all-of-a-sudden, not as concerned about the Rox lack of a banging PF. I haven't paid much attention to 'Big Z' , Carmelo, and Boozer (shoud be major competition); but it looks like Dallas has broken up, SA has lost DRob, Sac loses Divacs(?), and Minny is pretty much unchanged. With the addition of TMac we should compete immediately.

 

I guess Duncan, Garnett, Brand, Amare are bigman too

 

In other words, the reported deal doesn't work. Caron has to be added.