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

maima is still dumb. They should of kept butler. But they give up butler and to add to it a number one pick. LOL!

 

u guys forget how good penny was in 93-96. he was just as good a scorer as kobe, a better passer and ball-handler, quicker, and just as clutch. kobe got shut down by prince in the finals... no way that would have happened to a 95 penny.

 

who does he think he is? the pope?

 

Ya think???

Yeah, Marc Stein IS ESPN's best writer, although that still ain't saying much.

 

Sorry man, the 2000-current version of Kobe is in a different league than Penny. Penny was an awesome player, but he had nowhere near the scoring/shooting ability of Bryant. You're talking about completely different levels of ability in terms of getting open and putting the ball in the basket. Because of this and his better individual one on one moves, I'd much rather have Kobe with the ball in his hands with 10 seconds left on the clock. Although Penny was athletic, Kobe is more atheltic than Penny ever was and his ability to finish in traffic is far superior to Penny's. I'll give you the passing ability; Penny was the better passer. Defensively, there's no comparison at all, Penny was never the defender Kobe is today. There's really not much comparison...Kobe is on a different level than Penny ever was.

 

Grant-Odom front combo is waiting to be killed. It will be fun watching Fakers get dominated inside for a change.
They will struggle to make the playoffs IMO.
Nuggests, Jazz, Suns, Grizz to me have more balanced squads.

 

I can’t believe Miami threw Butler into the deal. I’m not sure why Miami is so desperate for Shaq that they’re willing to give in to all of the Lakers demands. The Lakers need this trade much more than Miami does. They are becoming extremely close to losing Kobe if they don’t trade Shaq soon, and pretty much every other team has taken themselves out of the Shaq sweepstakes. I don’t know what Pat Riley is thinking. Miami was right on the verge of joining the Pistons and Pacers as the East elite.

 

I agree. Miami has basically gutted a team which would have been competitive for 5-7 years in order to make a two year run with Shaq. And they still won't be able to beat the Pistons. By the time Wade is in his prime they'll be starting over again. If they don't win the title over the next 2-3 years, it will be a disaster for this franchise.
Also, how did the Lakers get the leverage to add Caron AND a pick to the deal? Aren't the lakers the ones who are desperate to get this done before kobe signs with the Clippers? Riley should have pulled a Weisbrod on this one, could have proved beneficial. There is a big difference between giving up Malik Allen and giving up Caron Butler AND a future first.

 

both teams will improve for next year i think...maybe not the lakers, but they got the best deal they could get with this. even if kobe doesn't sign, they are still a pretty solid team if Rush steps it up a notch.

miami did what it had to do to get the most dominant player in the league. i think they were stupid to add in butler -- cuz with him they'd be pretty damn solid : wade, jones, butler, haslem, shaq...but now they need at least one mid FA signing or else they'll have next to no bench. malik allen is prob a starter on the after shaq lineup.

 

i gotta disagree. check penny's fg percentage before he got injured. it was a lot higher than kobe's, like .510 or something. kobe shoots like 45% or something.. and often chucks up bad shots.
and if my memory serves me correctly, penny was a great finisher in traffic and had like 20 buzzer beaters one year. also i think penny was just as athletic as kobe its just he didnt show it off as much, but he's had some nasty dunks over ewing and other big men. and he was definitely quicker than kobe.. beating 6'2" point guards off the dribble. and as for passing and handles, its no comparision.
defensively, yeah kobe is better.
anyway, i'm biased since penny was my favorite player growin up, but i think what i'm sayin is accurate.

 

Shaq wanted to go to the East so he could start in the All-Star game again.


Oh and by the way, who cares about the Fakers? Not me. I'm glad they are imploding.

 

Sportscenter.

Every time I turn on ESPN, they're doing another Laker story. It's been like that for months. Even while they were in the process of getting b****-slapped by the Pistons.

 

Yes, a Fakers orgy. I delight in watching them blow up. Hopefully Kobe will go to the Clippers.

 

I am not sure what Caron Butler has done to deserve all this hype. I hope the Lakers use him as trade bait(in 60 days) to secure a decent, servicable big man now that he has the attention some NBA teams.

Wow.

 

Maybe we could get in a deal for one of our PFs for Grant.

 

Put in those tapes again then. Penny was not the shooter Kobe is. Yes, Kobe does take an alarming number of bad shots and shots to beat the shot clock because of himself dribbling too much. That's partly why his FG% is low. You can't use FG% as a measure of whose the better shooter. The level of difficulty of Penny's shots compared to Kobe's shots isn't even comparable. And that's a good thing for Penny...that he didn't chuck up as much garbage as Kobe does.

Was Penny a good finisher in traffic? Sure, he had a terrific first step, but have you seen Kobe finish in traffic? He makes some of the most ridiculous floaters, leaners, and acrobatic shots, even while getting fouled. Kobe just has better body control, concentration, and elevation.

Clutch-wise, Penny was clutch, but not on the level of Bryant. He didn't have the killer instinct, let alone the individual moves of Kobe. There's a reason why people never talk about Penny when the topic of being clutch is brought up. He simply wasn't "that" clutch. You would think if someone hit "20 buzzer beaters" in a year, that his name would come up even once during such a discussion.

It's nice that Penny was your favorite player and all, as he was one of the most popular players in recent memory, but everyone knows that he was a couple notches below Kobe Bryant.

 

Yeah, it's pretty sad how obvious ESPN is making it, that they're on the fakers jock. I can understand the coverage now, as more is going on with the fakers than with any other team, with the "breakup of a dynasty." But the amount of coverage they got in the finals while getting their butts handed to them was ridiculous. Get the breakup over with and get them off the air.

 

my words exactly...you never heard anyone comparing penny to mj EVER. though there are people that disagree that kobe is just as good as mj, at least there is discussion about the two being on the same level. kobe is just more of a dynamic scorer and ball handler than penny and i can just tell that he has more drive to be the best than penny ever did. but that's just an opinion (though i'm sure most people will agree with me)

 

He dominated Detroit on offense, so what? He's not going to beat anyone with offense anymore, defense and rebounding is the only place he can completely dominate a game now, but he doesn't want to do that anymore. It's a shame too, next season he should let Wade score 25+ per game, and concentrate on defense and rebounding with 20 or so points and the Heat could be #1 in the East. Oh, and he better be working on his jump shot because he isn't going to have a clear path to the basket with Shaq clogging the lane.

 

About Penny and Kobe, I think most people would agree that he was the best guard in the NBA for at least ONE season, but Kobe has been the best for 4 or 5, they don't compare.