Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 12:50 am  |  196 responses

Shaq To Cleveland? Done

Here comes The Big Cav…

by Lang Whitaker

Not so fast, LeBron. Danny Ferry just got you a big man.

With one year and ticking until Mr. James reaches free agency, the Cavs have made their boldest attempt yet to vault into the upper echelon. The Cleveland Plain-Dealer is reporting that the Cavs have agreed to trade Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic to Phoenix for the Big Cactus, the MDE, the Diesel, the Daddy: Shaquille O’Neal.

No, seriously, that’s all they had to give up, just Pavlovic and Wallace. (UPDATE: And the 46th pick and $500,000.) Of course this means Cleveland’s going to be on the hook for giving Shaq $20 million next year.

But heck, it’s Shaq.

A Kobe/Shaq Finals in 2010, anyone?

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  • http://www.manutd.com Z

    Villanueva campaigning for himself on Twitter: ‘well, twitterland like I said there will be more trades to come, very interesting, Shaq to Cleveland, nice, all Cleveland need is a PF now’

  • http://www.slamonline.com Myles Brown

    A midrange game gives him more options when Shaq has planted himself on the block, along with his defender. Saying hes getting older is irrelevant? Theyre trading for the 2009 Shaq, who has always been one of questionable work ethic, without the Suns miracle healers. Shaq is around 37,38 years old with a ton of mileage on him. If you think the same Shaq as right now is going to be around next April when hes needed, welll….yeah. Look at every other great center of the past twenty plus years and when they started to break down. Olajuwon, Ewing, Robinson. Shaq is not immune. And hes not going to change who he is either. So Cleveland didnt give up anything in teerms of talent or cap space, but they may have given up something in team chemistry. The first thing hes going to do is guarantee a chip. Then hes going to talk about teaching Bron and making him better. Then hes going to demand the ball. Then he going to start making subtle jabs at any and everyone in an attempt to absolve himself of any blame should things go wrong. Forgive me for sounding jaded, but Ive seen this movie too many times to expect something new.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Why are people ignoring the fact that finding as quality wing player in the NBA is like finding a gential wart on Paris Hilton?
    And why are we pretending that Lebron can’t play with shaq clogging the lane?
    Has anybody watched Ben Wallace and Anderson Varejo play? Did y’all forget how DWade got to the paint just fine against the Mavs.
    Shaq plays low post defense. He reduces big Z’s minutes. Once the Cavs get 2/3 who can defend and hit the three occasionally, they will match up with all the top teams in the East.

  • bike

    Cleveland’s gonna be a freak show. They ought to come up with a play where Shaq…acting like a center in football..clears out the lane and LeBron uses him as a launch pad to put down the most outrageous dunk in the history of basketball.

    Assuming, of course, that Shaq can get his big butt off the bench.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Myles
    You are absolutely right about the pattern of Shaq’s behavior.
    He’s followed that pattern everywhere.
    And everywhere outside of Phoenix, they went to the Finals.
    Can’t forget that.

  • http://www.manutd.com Z

    There’s a big difference here. 1- There will be no teaching, there will be no big brother thing like in Orlando, LA and MIA. Even Wade wasn’t really Wade before Shaq got there. He’s coming into town with an already established superstar. This is Jame’s state. He is Ohio. 2- I think we can all agree that Bron is a very, very willing passer. He has no problem giving it up to freaking Sideshow Bob down low. Why would he b!tch about giving Shaq his touches? That’s EXACTLY what they want. Shaq will get the ball early and often, Bron is not a gunner. 3- Shaq WILL complain somewhere along the road. That’s part of the package deal. Like Sheed with the techs. As long as he delivers what he was brought for. No biggie.

  • GeT On ThE LeVeL

    Free Anthony Johnson!

  • http://coco-vents.blogspot.com Co Co

    There are still 2 years on Shaq’s contract. Some of you seem to be missing that.

  • GeT On ThE LeVeL

    Ok seriously One athletic wingman to help ease off extra duties of LeBron will make this all come together for the cavs

  • http://www.slamonline.com Myles Brown

    I havent forgotten. Not have I forgotten that Shaq was a part of the biggest regression of a championship team in league history in Miami and that Phoenix didnt even make the playoffs. Im not trying to completely denigrate Shaq, Im just saying that the results from the last few seasons have not been encouraging and hes getting older everyday. The playoffs dont start for another ten months from now, is he going to be stronger/better by then?

  • http://coco-vents.blogspot.com Co Co

    whoops my bad.

  • http://www.manutd.com Z

    No need to be better or stronger. Just as strong will be fine. He won’t play a ton of minutes for the Cavs during the reg season, they don’t need him to. He’ll prolly sit some back to backs. They will win 60+ again. They need him healthy and rested for the playoffs. That’s it. / Shaq is about the only thing that went right for PHX last year and he made the all-star team and the 3d nba team. Old or not, he’s the 3rd best center in the NBA. Fact.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Myles
    You raise great points about what Shaq will have at the end of the season.
    I think the Cavs will shift Z to the bench, and maybe try to follow the Suns lead in giving Shaq rest of back to backs. I would at least. That way, Z’s playing time isn’t cut as drastically and you rest the big fella.
    I would hope the Cavs are looking at Ariza. That’s where I would be looking right now, and possibly, maybe, considering Rasheed Wallace for one year.

  • http://www.slamonline.com wayno

    If they get sheed then look out. They’d be a force. That really doesn’t give them much for the future though. I though the whole goal of this offseason for Cleveland was to get players that will help them out now AND later.

  • Stan

    Can’t wait for the new season to start, there have been very interesting movements so far. Shaq will be good for the Cavs and I hope that he’ll do well.

  • http://www.manutd.com Z

    wayno: nope. the goal is to win now and have as much cap room as possible for next year.

  • http://www.another48minutes.blogspot.com Gerard Himself

    VC is on his way to Orlando, yahoo.com has the story (VC for Alston, Lee and Battie)! Cleveland will some competition!

  • http://www.manutd.com Z

    Whoa! Okay, that’s a scary line up. Does Hedo stay?

  • http://www.another48minutes.blogspot.com Gerard Himself

    Z: no news on that. Only the trade that is supposed to be in its “final stages”. Since yahoo and ESPN are reporting it, and popular site netsdaily.com is down, this will happen.

  • jumpman3224

    any news on this VC to ORL supposed deal?

  • http://www.another48minutes.blogspot.com Gerard Himself

    no extra news than what I already posted.

  • http://joeloholic.wordpress.com Joel O’s

    Good grief what have I missed? Incredible news. Are they contenders now, if they weren’t before?

  • http://www.another48minutes.blogspot.com Gerard Himself

    and now it’s as good as official.

  • TADOne

    Vince in Orlando is going to be crazy. WTH are the Nets doing? Are their ticket sales that bad??

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Nets must be hurting BAD.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Myles Brown

    Speaking of…all these trades have sent Michael Jackson into cardiac arrest.

  • vmcb

    I hate Steve Kerr so much. Words can’t describe how angry I am with the management in Pheonix for ruining an amazing team. Vince to Orlando is cool, though.

  • TADOne

    Ok, so what exactly is going on with the Amare rumors everyone is talking about?? I haven’t seen a dang thing on it.

  • http://www.another48minutes.blogspot.com Gerard Himself

    About a day ago there reports coming from the Nets owners that Carter didn’t have to be traded. With him gone, who will buy tickets to a Nets game now? They will have trouble averaging 85 ppg next season, but also averaging 10.000 fans I suppose (I’m a Nets fan, but I’m dutch, so I live in The Netherlands and can’t go to games myself). Well, at least now I know for sure that we’ll either end up with Williams or Henderson in the next couple of hours.

  • http://lastknickstanding.blogspot.com Bryan

    I found amare to the warriors for that biendris character.

  • http://www.another48minutes.blogspot.com Gerard Himself

    oh, and Ryan Anderson is going to Orlando too.

  • TADOne

    So i’m guessing the Amare rumors are just pure speculation without any factual eveidence. Well, one more hour till the draft.

  • http://lastknickstanding.blogspot.com Bryan

    Haha wtf myles.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Nah, MJ actually did have a heart attack. Not Jordan, Jackson.

  • http://slamonline.com B. Long

    Vince is heading to Orlando for Rafer, Tony Battie, and Courtney Lee.

  • http://Egotastic.com Michael

    Whoa…. Michael Jackson is Dead. Damn… like damn.

  • http://slamonline.com B. Long

    He’s been dead to me since he started touching little boys.

  • http://www.realcavsfans.com Anton

    You idiots, someone in another topic said “RIP MJ” and I thought you were talking about Air Jordan.
    F*cks sakes.

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  • http://www.lkz.ch Darksaber

    haha @ Anton.

  • nathan

    now thats a muthafcken loss but gain for the cavalliers coz lEBREEZY IS GONNA BE SHARIN THE COURT WITH THE BIG MAN oNEAL NOW THATS WASSUP A

  • http://slamonline Lenwen76

    This is going to be a huge thing come playoffs .

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