<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Was Jerry Buss right? Buss ? or "that old man," as O'Neal referred to him recently in a USA Today story ? is the Lakers' owner who decided last summer that if he couldn't keep both his superstars, he'd go with sizzle over size. He paid a mint to keep Kobe Bryant, who is six years younger than O'Neal, and traded O'Neal to Miami. Call him deluded ? you wouldn't be the first ? but Buss had the feeling O'Neal was a farewell tour waiting to happen. Instead it was the Lakers that everybody waved bye-bye to this spring after they failed to make the playoffs for the first time in 11 years. While Bryant stumbled under the weight of his ego, O'Neal led the Heat to the best regular-season record in the Eastern Conference and mentored superstar-in-waiting Dwyane Wade. O'Neal got to crow first. But who's to say Buss won't end up crowing last? It could happen. Imagine Phil Jackson returning to coach the Lakers and Bryant allowing himself to be coached and the dynamism of Jackson luring a strapping free agent, say, Cleveland's 7-foot-3 center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, to L.A. Why, Bull Durham's Ron Shelton couldn't write a better Hollywood sports story. For O'Neal, Jackson's possible return to the Lakers has to be adding indigestion to injury. It was O'Neal, after all, who was Jackson's faithful field general during the Lakers' title runs in 2000, 2001 and 2002; O'Neal who demanded to be traded out of loyalty to Jackson upon hearing that Jackson would not be retained as the Lakers' coach; O'Neal who once said he'd sooner retire than play for anybody other than Jackson. What if O'Neal doesn't have the luxury of retiring on his own terms? What if his body has been trying to tell him something these past four months? O'Neal's value to the Heat has been immeasurable, his presence immense. Wade may be the engine driving the team but O'Neal is the fuel. If he's not good to go against Detroit or Indiana in the Eastern Conference finals, it's going to end badly for the Heat. And then what? </div> Source Ever since Shaq got injured, the Miami media has been writing a lot of articles with concern about Shaq's future. This is the third or fourth one I've come across (I posted the other one's in the Heat forum).
Trading Shaq looked absolutely retarded in the short run but with articles like this, it shows that trading Shaq was a good decision for the long run. Shaq is on the decline. Still a lot better then majority of the centers out there but I expect his decline to only get sharper in the future.
Let's see: Heat gets the best piece to the championship puzzle Heat keeps the best player on the team and an MVP candidate in Dwyane Wade Heat keeps Eddie Jones+filler and gets rid of Brian Grant's horrible contract. Heat are in the playoffs and are still very competitive without Shaq Lakers miss playoffs Laker players are reportedly unhappy playing with Kobe Lakers are in a bad cap situation for years Once Shaq retires (3 more years?), the Heat will be big players in the FA market. Yup, I'd say Riley still got the best of the Lakers. Shaq got hit with a injury. No matter what age or condition a person is in, a deep thigh bruise is a bad injury. Were any Laker fans saying how bad it was to resign Kobe when he injured his ankle this season? What about if he injures himself in the playoffs? Will it still be a failure?
Overall, I thought that the Lakers got the best in the long run, but on the contrary, they got the best, player wise, and Miami absolutely got the best out of it. But, despite Shaw's old, he is still the MDE, and will always be the MDE, and he wil help them out for a couple seasons to come(/..maybe), and when he isn't helping Miami, Miami won't have to worry about facing him. Even with Phil JAckson psosibl returning to the Lakers, it all relies on the playres and their acceptannce of the triangle and Phil's philosophy. That's pretty mcuh why the whole Glove/Mailman didn't work, kobe didn't help either. I think Kobe and Phil wil have to try and keep the tension as lowa s possible too, or else it won't work. Oh, you also gotta realize how Shaq sorta put Miami out there to national televiosn audiences, I knwo the HEat were popular, but Shaq pt them over that hump, and the money is pouring in. totally unrelated, i wonder when shaq gets into the HOF, will he want to be ther as a laker, heat or magic?
Well here is my view on what happens from now until next season in regards to Shaq. 1. The Heat win without Shaq, and Wade wins the Finals MVP. This hurts Shaq's value and we hear more, "maybe Shaq really can't carry a team on his own" stories. 2. The Heat lose in the next round or in the Finals with or without Shaq, and his value drops because the Heat mortgaged their future on Shaq being able to deliver a title this year. 3. The Heat win the title with Shaq and pay him his salary extension and cap their team out for the next 3 years. Having Brian Grant's contract is a double-edged sword. Right now it's hurting the Laker's flexibility to make any signifcant roster moves, but what will his contract vacancy land the Lakers in two years? It should get them a quality player to go along with the rest of their current young core. The Lakers also get the Heat's 1st Round Pick next year. Even though it's going to be very late 1st Round, they get talent at a cheap price and another asset to tweak their roster with. As it currently stands, the Heat will be over the salary cap next season with the following players Free Agents .... Damon Jones, Christian Laettner, Steve Smith, Shandon Anderson, Keyon Dooling, Udonis Haslem, and Alonzo Mourning If the Heat don't win the championship they stand a chance to be a shortlived contender.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Heat4Life:</div><div class="quote_post">Let's see: Heat gets the best piece to the championship puzzle Heat keeps the best player on the team and an MVP candidate in Dwyane Wade Heat keeps Eddie Jones+filler and gets rid of Brian Grant's horrible contract. Heat are in the playoffs and are still very competitive without Shaq Lakers miss playoffs Laker players are reportedly unhappy playing with Kobe Lakers are in a bad cap situation for years Once Shaq retires (3 more years?), the Heat will be big players in the FA market. Yup, I'd say Riley still got the best of the Lakers. Shaq got hit with a injury. No matter what age or condition a person is in, a deep thigh bruise is a bad injury. Were any Laker fans saying how bad it was to resign Kobe when he injured his ankle this season? What about if he injures himself in the playoffs? Will it still be a failure?</div> Look Dude Shaq will proably retire if they win the championship this year. If they win this year, the heat will not reextend his contract because they wanted to win this year and would start building the future with Wade. I don't know. I just hope Miami loses because I hate Miami and all of their success.
From a business perspective, how many years can you get out of Shaq? And how many years can you get out of Kobe? Miami is betting on Shaq bringing home a trophy NOW, the exact same way that the Lakers were betting on last year's Fab Four. The odds are in Miami's favor but IF they don't bring home a championship in the next 2-3 years, LA would end up with the best side of the trade because they planned on a longterm solution.
The Shaq trade obviously benefitted Miami and Lakers. Miami is now an official title contender for I'd say, a good 2 years and the Lakers gets Kobe his own team to lead, and more cap-room in the future. The way I look at it, Miami invested for the short term and Lakers, a rather long long term. Say what you want about Shaq's health, but he will be a dominant center for at least 2 more years. Miami will be a serious title contender for at least 2 years also. I've heard talks about how Miami won't make as much $ with Shaq than the Lakers with Kobe because Shaq's gonna last shorter than Kobe. I disagree. The intangible impact of a championship team (assuming the Heat wins) is quite big. Championship = lots of championship souvenirs, apparels, items, new Heat fans, etc etc. In fact they don't even have to win the championship to be big. As long as they get to the finals, it's still good. Miami, which has declined since the days of Zo, will be a revived franchise and I believe they would've done fine if they only have Wade, but together with Shaq, that brings the franchise to a whole level higher in terms of competition and business. Lakers, they get to keep Kobe for another half decade. That's alot of jerseys to be sold and who knows what kind of players they can put together to play along Kobe. I'll be up front, I've never been a big Lakers fan, and so you will understand when I say that I don't think Kobe will ever win a championship again if he doesn't get another star player in his team. Odom+Caron is not enough. Z will not be enough, especially since he's gonna turn 30 in June. He needs another prime scorer to take some loads off his shoulder. But with the flexibility that they get from trading Shaq, there are alot of options available to the Lakers.
Good point about the intangibles. We all know that there are bandwagoners out there and the reality is bandwagoners bring in the money. Winning = money. Miami is definitely getting all the intangibles you mentioned; just don't underestimate how much greater the intangibles are when a team actually wins the whole enchilada. I definitely agree with what you said about Shaq remaining as a dominant force for the next 2-3 years. No doubt about it. But after that period the question becomes "how much abuse can that body of his take?" Shaq is a freak of nature. His body takes a huge toll just from daily wear & tear. Imagine how much impact/stress he puts on his knees when he jumps. Then, factor in all the hard fouls, bumps and bruises he during games. The human body can only take so much, especially when you're aging. That's the reason why I foresee a sharp decline in his game after 2-3 years. Of course, he'll still be a very serviceable center but his dominance won't last forever. As for the Lakers, the team is still hindered by Brian Grants monstrous contract. But when that contract expires (or if we convince someone to trade for him), the team will have a lot of financial freedom.
i'm still convinced the lakers made the wrong move...never trade a dominant big man...dominant guards/swingmen come and go all the time, but there have been few dominant big men in the last decade or so...shaq still has 2-3 more good years in him...i believe that butler and grant wont be lakers for much longer, particularly grant...Odom is decent but he is a supporting player...the fact is that Kobe will need another dominant player alongside him if he expects to win another championship...but we shall see how it all plays out...
