My question is this...Do you guys think you will all of a sudden win an NBA Championship just because you signed Shaq and shipped way more than half of your starting team? This was kind of dumb IMO. Yes, I think Shaq will play extremely well. And I think if he stays healthy you should be at least a 2-3 seed, but do you expect to win it all? If not, why make the trade? To be slightly better than last year?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Warriorfansnc93:</div><div class="quote_post">My question is this...Do you guys think you will all of a sudden win an NBA Championship just because you signed Shaq and shipped way more than half of your starting team? This was kind of dumb IMO. Yes, I think Shaq will play extremely well. And I think if he stays healthy you should be at least a 2-3 seed, but do you expect to win it all? If not, why make the trade? To be slightly better than last year?</div> If the Heat don't make it out of the second round of the playoffs, this trade was a miserable failure. And what i'd like to know is what are the Heat going to do when Shaq decides to sit out for 15 or 20 games this season? We have nobody and Dwyane can't win games by himself.
We can't tell the future so let's just wait until until May next year. I mean, i hate this trade too and I'm sure that Odom and Butler must be feelig like sh*t by now but WHat's done is done right? I just hope that this trade would turn out to be a good factor. Not a failure
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">And what i'd like to know is what are the Heat going to do when Shaq decides to sit out for 15 or 20 games this season? We have nobody and Dwyane can't win games by himself.</div> Haha, I find that awfully true. At this stage of his career, Shaq cannot be counted on for even 70 games a season. I personally don't even think he could lead the Heat into a top 4 finish in the East. I think this has been a huge error made by Riley in dealing 2 young rising stars for a fading great.
Guys, Shaq still has 3-5 years in him AT LEAST. Do you even watch ESPN or ESPNEWS? All the experts are saying...what? BAD trade for LA, VERY GOOD trade for Heat. We got Shaq, we're one of the top 3 teams in the east now.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shinji3c:</div><div class="quote_post">We can't tell the future so let's just wait until until May next year. I mean, i hate this trade too and I'm sure that Odom and Butler must be feelig like sh*t by now but WHat's done is done right? I just hope that this trade would turn out to be a good factor. Not a failure</div> I don't know about Caron, but Odom has got to be loving it... he just got 9 million dollars in cash today because of a 15% trade clause in his contract.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Trip:</div><div class="quote_post">Haha, I find that awfully true. At this stage of his career, Shaq cannot be counted on for even 70 games a season. I personally don't even think he could lead the Heat into a top 4 finish in the East. I think this has been a huge error made by Riley in dealing 2 young rising stars for a fading great.</div> For the past 3 seasons, Shaq has missed EXACTLY 65 games for each of those years and as he gets older he will just miss more and more.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Accord:</div><div class="quote_post">For the past 3 seasons, Shaq has missed EXACTLY 65 games for each of those years and as he gets older he will just miss more and more.</div> That is for sure. However, I feel that if Shaq is healthy come playoff time, the Heat might go places, but the East is actually pretty hard to get out of now that Detroit and Indiana are both capable of topping Miami, and Orlando, Philadelphia and New Jersey are all sleepers.
So?? He wont be as effective, hes old and his toe is killing him. Pistons and Pacers still favorites this year.
You know, I read all the opinions favorable to the trade, and what gets me is that their main justification is to win the championship. Before you say "duh", think; is winning championships the only valid motivation? beacuse if it is, all of you who are fans of teams that aren't going nowhere are the biggest suckers there are. We should all be Lakers or Spurs fans. As a fan, I like my team to win as much as anybody, but I still went to games in the years when it was obvious we couldn't even make the playoffs, still cared for the players we had, even when they were atrocious. Isn't this called a "game" that is "played"? Maybe it's because I played (still play) sports for fun, but to me the whole point is to play, play hard and put on a show. I don't go to the arena to see my team win. I go to watch a -hopefully- good game. That's what I'm going to miss. Can we just root for a team that while not good enough to win it all, it's as exciting to watch as the Heat was last season? What's wrong with that? I can tell you right now I don't enjoy Shaq's style of play, nor do I know anyone who knows basketball that does. I much rather see Odom bring the ball down, crossover behind his back, split two defenders for a finger roll. That gets me off my seat. Shaq's butt raming, little hooks, pushbacks and plowing dunks are devoid of any basketball artistry. Olajuwon he is not. Only thing worth seeing is his passing, and lately even that side of his game is declining. Yes he scores. Yes, he draws double and triple teams. Yes, the only way to stop him is to foul him. Well, that big kid in "Karate Kid" sure threw powerful punches. He looked like he could kill Ralph Macchio with one finger, and if it wasn't a movie, he would have too. I wouldn't be rooting for him either.
After seeing the way Detroit played defense against the Lakers in the finals, I seriously doubt your going to see Shaq get double or triple teamed. What a horrible decision by the Miami execs. Miami needs to find good help cheap to win anything. Anyone who watched the eastern conf playoffs last season saw what direction nba is going in, team basketball. Intensity on both ends of the floor. Detroit, Indiana, New Jersey, & Miami fought each other like dogs, it was amazing. The L.A. execs saw all that, they knew they needed depth to win, they just got a big piece to thier puzzle. Imagine Miami from last season but instead of Wade they had Bryant, throw in Payton, George, Rush, Walton, & Slava. I didnt even name everybody from the bench. Its not all the pieces they need but its one hell of a start, look for them to add a center soon. L.A. just went from old to young fast & guaranteed themselves a good team for years to come. I know none of those guys is nowhere near the player that Shaq is individually, but at least with a stacked bench you have way more options to go to when your first one fails. Look what happened to L.A. in the finals when the Shaq option wasnt working, poor Phil was so desperate for some energy to match the Pistons defense that he was giving his rookies major minutes. Also, when I say that the Shaq option wasnt working, I didnt mean he wasnt playing well. As someone on here said earlier Shaq had 36 pts & 20 rebs in the most pivotal game of the series, Game 4, that is an amazing individual performance. What that person failed to mention was that Detroit won that game. Isnt that really the most important stat of all? It is to me.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Miami:</div><div class="quote_post">For the record I feel that the Shaq trade will be positive for the Heat.</div> Yeah... positive with Mickey Arison's pockets .
I just heard on the news that Shaq is going to wear number 32 again from his Magic days rather than number 34 which he wore with the Fakers.
