Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Shaq

Best case scenario: Shaq was sandbagging this last year and a half in Miami because he knew they sucked and he didn’t like Riley anymore. Shaq’s arrival to Steve Nash’s team means that he will have a career year just like every other Nash teammate has before him. No one can double team Shaq without leaving Amare open, so Shaq and Amare get to be guarded one on one (how does that taste Timmy?). Boris Diaw and Grant Hill are inspired without Marion on the squad, so Boris returns to 04-05 shape and we make this a championship season.

Worst case: Shaq is always hurt, cries about having to share the stage with other stars, and we have just witnessed the end of the Nash era in one big boom.



Biggest thing that no one is talking about: Steve Kerr is no dummy, so there must be more to this than we all see. The first reaction of everyone is that this is a sucky trade, so why would they even consider it? There has to be a reason that stems from knowledge that everyone else cannot see. We lost a star, but he was leaving anyway, complained all the time, couldn’t create his own shot, had a bad out of game work ethic (see: horribly ugly jumper that he refuses to change, gone all summer instead of practicing with the team) and he was asking for a max level contract to boot. We also dumped an overpaid backup PG that was sitting on the bench, making room for our two good rookie signings from the summer.