if shaq wants out of LA, i think the Rockets would be a great fit for shaq. so the line up could be shaq, yao, (sign ) bruce bowen, mobley, and (sign fisher or payton). I think this trade is appealing to LA with the advent of Rudy T as coach. Ok, the problem is the power forwards in the west in the 7 game series. I'd sign Rober Horry and McDyess for that. I think this is possible if Shaq forces his way out of LA. If we can get this done, forget T-Mac. We can win imediately. Our starting 5 would be Shaq, Yao, and Fisher. Then, we can plug jim jackson, Bowen, and Mobley. Coming off the bench would be Nachbar, Horry, Mcdyess, and either jackson or mobley. Jim Jackson would also be able to play some point guard to give Fisher a breather. 2005 NBA Champs!!!!!!
Francis & Cato won't get us Shaq. We'd have to throw in MoT also. That would leave us with Padgett as the backup 4 & 5. Not good!
I am not a Shaq fan... in fact. He ranks as one of my least favorite NBA players. That said... I think that Shaq and Yao would be a great fit on offense and depending on the matchups... a terror on defense. Would I trade Stevie, Cato and MoTaylor for Shaq? In a heartbeat. Yao/Spoon Shaq/Padget JJ/Boki Cat/JJ Ollie (if we make that trade)/Free Agent I like Padget getting more playing time as he is a hustler and great outside shooter. Yao plays the high post with Shaq down low. I can only imagine how many points Yao could score when given wide open jumpers at the elbow. Or his assist making the high entry pass to Shaq. Interesting...
One little problem with this fantasy. Shaq makes $32m/year. Less our $6.99m TE, we need $6m more than Francis and Cato.
CAP room is going to make it almost impossible for any team to trade for Shaq trying to put his grandfathered contract under the new salary cap. Everyone says the Lakers are trading Shaq but to who?
Well there's a couple of teams that have the contracts to deal for Shaq. New York, Dallas, Sacramento, New Jersey. And actually with the TE, the Rox do too, and without trading away the whole team. Believe it or not: Shaq For Steve Cato Pike Trade Exception actually works capwise. Hmm. Where did you get this figure. The salary that I've seen in the papers is $27 million for Shaq next year and $30 million for the year after that. Man I'd throw in Mo in a heartbeat. Try this: Shaq Payton for Steve Mo Cato Trade Exception Then we would have Padge and Spoon backing up which wouldn't be so bad since they put in some good minutes for us last year. Anyway the Shaq to Houston theory is pretty unlikely when you factor in Shaq's age and salary but if this T-Mac thing falls through, we should at least look at it.
