Could George Kokinis’ Firing Be Used Against Eric Mangini?
December 24, 2009The Browns Will Win If…
December 24, 2009This is part five in our 10 part series counting down the best moments/stories in Cleveland Sports for 2009. Many of you have left comments for us and we appreciate it. Remember, this isn’t just the best game, shot, or play; its the stories as well. When we last left you, we were talking trade. We will continue down that path, but this time, we will change sports and move to the positive.
#5 Shaquille O’Neal is brought over from Phoenix to help “win a ring for the King.”
After the Cleveland Cavaliers ended their season earlier than they would have liked thanks to a spanking by the Orlando Magic, GM Danny Ferry went back to the drawing board to find out how he could improve his team. Never has one team revamped strictly as a reaction to being manhandled by one specific team. If you learned anything from the six game series loss to the Magic, it was that the Cavs badly needed a low post scoring threat and bigger athletes who could guard the perimeter.
Watching Dwight Howard abuse everyone who attempted to guard him frustrated everyone who watched the wine and gold. There was an answer out there, but would Ferry pull the trigger? Rewind back to the ’09 trade deadline. Just a day before, the name Shaquille O’Neal was floated out there in rumors that had him winding up in Cleveland. At the time, the Cavs were holding one of the top trade chips available – the expiring big contract of SF Wally Szczerbiak. The rumors turned louder and louder, as the Suns were looking to clear cap space. While the Suns wanted Wally’s contract and Sasha Pavlovic, Ferry didn’t want to mess with the chemistry of this close knit bunch. He instead offered C Ben Wallace.
Neither side would budge with their demands, and the deal never happened.
Looking back, the chemistry the Cavaliers had which served them so well during a 66-win regular season, meant nothing when the Magic stole game one of the Eastern Conference Finals in Cleveland. The Cavs never recovered. This led to the offseason changes.
The first thing Ferry did was call up old buddy Steve Kerr and re-visit the Shaq trade talks. Now with the expiring contract of Wallace and the non-guaranteed contract of Pavlovic matching up close enough with Shaq’s bloated year left, the two teams jumped at the chance to make this deal happen. For the Suns, they were able to get rid of the anchor that held down their run and gun ship and essentially open up two rosters spots. They had no thoughts of keeping either Wallace or Sasha.
The Cavaliers on the other hand essentially snagged one of the greatest Centers of all time and a legitimate low post threat, while giving up absolutely nothing. It was a low risk, high reward deal for them. If O’Neal was a disaster who couldn’t move and was finished, he was still on an expiring contract for big money, which meant he would be a top trade piece at the deadline. If he turned into the player they hoped for, Lebron James would finally have a true post man to dump ther ball into which would open up the perimeter even more for guys like Mo Williams, Boobie Gibson, Delonte West, and the soon to be acquired Anthony Parker.
It was a big bold move by the GM. “Our goals are aligned with what our players want, including LeBron, and that’s to win a championship and win it next year,” Ferry told reporters. “We don’t want to be patient.”
The day of the press conference was excitement galore in Cleveland, and the Big Fella certainly did not disappoint. It was vintage Shaq; all comedy, all the time. The first thing he did was tell the media that when Danny Ferry called him, he had to look up who he was on Google and when he did, he came across a picture of Ferry and Shaq from their days in San Antonio and Los Angeles in a compromising position on the court. He held up the photo and the room howled in laughter. He told everyone his new motto was “Win a Ring for the King.” When asked how much longer he wanted to play, he said “I’d love an extension, who wouldn’t? But we’re not going to negotiate in public,” O’Neal said before lightning the mood. “If they offer me $35 million a year I’d sign it right now, I wouldn’t even read it.”
The Cavaliers and Shaq seemed like a perfect match. But would his ego allow him to play second fiddle to The King? So far, the answer has been yes. Would his play be good enough to make the Cavaliers that much better? The answer so far has been no. I wrote at the quarter poll that I thought O’Neal was finished, but as many commenters pointed out, his true value cannot be assessed until the playoffs. He wasn’t brought here for November and December. He was brought here for May and June. A good sign came in the Cavaliers early season win over Orlando in which they started the game by feeding the Big Fella right from the tip. Shaq got Dwight Howard into foul trouble within the first three minutes of the game and the Cavaliers steamrolled the Magic in Orlando 102-93 in a game which wasn’t nearly as close as the score dictated.
The bottom line here is that bringing Shaquille O’Neal to Cleveland was a monster move for the organization and hopefully will pay big dividends in the NBA Playoffs, because in reality, that is all that really matters.
1 Comment
The trade last year seemed to have been pulled off the table by the Suns. Also, I think they offered Ben instead of Wally more because having Shaq and Ben’s contracts would put us SO far over the luxury tax, not even Dan Gilbert wanted to pay that. We would’ve had something like $45M(?) coming off the books going into this offseason. BUT, that’s a lot of luxury tax money for something that isn’t guaranteed.