Vlade does bother Shaq, but in the end, Shaq gets his career numbers against EVERY center in the league. The notion of the Shaq Stopper is a myth. There are only guys who can make him change his game ever so slightly. Vlade was good at that (but lately he's playing like a 92 year old). Hakeem could do all the things that Vlade could do (and better), but he would play Shaq straight up. Maybe he had more valor than Vlade. Vlade shies away from contact and uses a whole lotta whining. If Kandi did that to Shaq, I certainly don't remember it or it would've been common knowledge. Duncan hardly ever plays Shaq straight up. I wonder why so many people think they face each other. Duncan's a PF. Popovich will not play him against Shaq in order to save him from foul trouble. Not only that, but Duncan is resistant to playing C on general principles. You can credit any dip in Shaq's numbers against SA (if a dip exists) to David Robinson. He was another one of those jump shooting Cs who could draw fouls with the best. My opinion of the best straight-up Shaq defender (in Shaq's Laker years) was Sabonis. Not that Shaq wouldn't bust Arvydas' ass every so often, but Sabonis had comparable weight and could draw Shaq out farther than any other jump-shooting C. The Blazers at one time had a very effective help defense on Shaq as well. His MVP numbers against Portland in the 2000 WCFs really dropped. Those 7 games were the best sustained defense on Shaq that I've ever seen.
Of course nobody can stop Shaq, nobody's disputing that. The question is, "who gives shaq the most trouble?". And you can tell by Shaq's facial expressions and the way he verbally bashes Vlade in the media that Vlade can get under Shaq's skin. If Shaq wants to get 30 and 10, there's pretty much nothing you can do about it. But Vlade can make it a little less fun for Shaq and a little more frustrating. About Olowokandi, I remember seeing some stats from two years ago, where Shaq averaged about 23 and 9 against him, and Kandi had about 15 and 10. I'm not exactly sure about the numbers, but they were somewhere in that neighborhood. I remember it because Shaq demolished Kandi this year (when Kandi was on the court) and they put up a graphic of their head to head matchups last year compared to this year. We all know that Duncan and Shaq aren't matched up w/ each other the entire game. But there are occasionally prolonged stretches in each game where either Duncan is put on Shaq or vice versa. And Duncan does as good a job as anybody at defending Shaq, but we all know nobody can stop him. The best method is to push him away from the basket as far as he can, and run a lot (and attack) on the offensive end and set screens, so he doesn't end up getting rest while on defense. But when his jump hook is going down as well, there's pretty much nothing you can do.
Sabonis is a good point. He was probably the only center with the sheer mass to absorbe the initial contact of Shaq, but all that was really good for was giving his teammates more time to double team. Sabas still ended up picking up a lot of fouls and Shaq still got his points. There really isn't any stopping Shaq - the best way for a center to beat him is just to get someone to help double team him in the low post, and basically just try to out score and out rebound him. Hakeem was really the only guy that could do this consistently.
Shaq f'd with Sabonis' head for the first couple of years. In his first playoff game against Arvydas in '97, he put up 46 and 17. In the '98 playoffs, Sabonis actually started crying on the bench after getting worked over. He evidently took his matchups with Shaq personally. In later years, he mellowed out and eventually drew further and further out on offense so Shaq couldn't camp out under the rim. Then in 2000, before the zone defense rule, Sabonis would play Shaq straight up while Pippen and others would sag off into Shaq's lap while a Laker was trying to throw to him. They pretended like they were paying attention to their man while they were really bogging up Shaq's space. All that said, I think Arvydas would've given Shaq some headaches if he came into the league in 1986 instead of 1995. By the time they first met, Sabonis was already on his last leg.
That's always been a good strategy, especially in years w/o Rice or GP and Malone (3rd scoring threats). The Lakers' offense is dead without being able to hit Shaq within scoring distance. Even the spacing of the other players is thrown off in the triangle when Shaq's initial post up spot is outside of the paint. Fortunately for LA, Shaq doesn't take no for an answer. If he's too far out on the perimeter to post up, he'll throw back to the inlet passer and try to dig in further for a re-entry pass. Either that or he'll pass back out and run to the opposite corner to get an inlet from there. Running tires him out for sure, especially with his recent weight and foot probs. Not only should other teams run amap, but on days when Shaq feels frisky, the other center needs to keep up with him when he runs down court full speed just to get position under the rim.
Cavs? Finals? This year? What? The person who gives Shaq the most trouble is going to be Malone. Shaq doesn't have the footwork to avoid Malone's body on the ground after he flops.
