Does Shaq make Cavs 2010 NBA title favorites?

The Cleveland Cavaliers just called a do-over. By acquiring Shaquille O’Neal on the eve of the draft, the Cavs are admitting they should have gotten the big man back in February.

But Cleveland didn’t feel the need to mess with a good thing back then, and LeBron and Co. went into the playoffs with the NBA’s best record and home-court advantage throughout. And not having Shaq sure didn’t matter in Rounds 1 and 2 against the Pistons and Hawks, respectively, but then came the Orlando Magic and Dwight Howard.

Howard simply tore up every big man the Cavs threw at him, rendering Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao simply powerless to stop him; Howard averaged 25.8 points per game on 65 percent shooting. In losing that series in six games and expecting to have to deal with Howard again in next year’s playoffs, the Cavs hope they got the Howard-stopper in O’Neal.

In six meetings between O’Neal and Howard over the past four years, Howard has averaged only 16.7 points and 8.5 field goals a game.

Certainly this is a great, no-lose deal for Cleveland, and it absolutely changes their 2009-10 futures odds on WagerWeb.com – the Cavs might move ahead of the Lakers as the favorites depending on if L.A. can bring back Lamar Odom. All the Cavs gave up is Ben Wallace and Sasha Vujacic (and a second-round pick and $500,000), two guys who had minimal contributions.

O’Neal averaged 17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game last season and made his 15th All-Star Game. The Cavaliers also were in talks with New Orleans about obtaining Tyson Chandler. If they had not made the trade for O’Neal, they would have likely traded for Chandler.

The Cavs wanted Shaq over Chandler because O’Neal’s contract is up after next year – which is the summer that James comes up as a free agent and the Cavs probably target Chris Bosh to team with LeBron. Chandler’s goes through 2010-2011.

Look for Cleveland to limit Shaq to somewhere around 55 games next season – this move is entirely for the playoffs. O’Neal also has a tendency to play very well in his first season in a new city, and you know he wants to one-up Kobe Bryant with a fifth championship ring. The Big Diesel will be very motivated.

For Phoenix, this is a total salary dump, and the Suns also might trade Amare Stoudemire. The Suns will likely cut Vujacic and buy out Wallace, thus saving almost $10 million right there.

NBA Betting at WagerWeb.com

Bet on Sports at Bodog Sportsbook and cash in on your share of huge bonuses!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Subscribe to comments You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Post Tags:

Browse Timeline