Shaq Diesel Going to Cleveland

The Big Aristotle is on the move again, and this time he’s going to Ohio. Two of the NBA’s most dynamic personalities, King James and The Diesel, will be united on a championship-caliber team. It’s a basketball wagering writer’s dream, and the fans in Ohio are bound to be just as excited. Even better for the Cavs, they gave up virtually nothing in this deal with the Suns. Going to Phoenix are Ben Wallace, Sasha Pavlovic, the 46th pick in this year’s draft and $500,000. Ben Wallace might retire (that’s what Phoenix is hoping), and was basically a non-factor in the postseason. Sasha Pavlovic is a capable backup wing, but he had fallen out of Mike Brown’s rotation.

This trade for Shaq has been floated around since the trade deadline, and the Cavs must be kicking themselves for not making it then. Their lack of a reasonably strong interior defender cost them the Eastern Conference Finals, because Dwight Howard was basically left to dunk at will. Shaq definitely fills a hole up the middle, and now Big Z goes from a very marginal starting center to a very capable backup. The Cleveland roster is by no means stacked from top to bottom, and they still have to resign Varejao, who plays a vital energy role for them. The Cavs are already over the cap, but their window to convince LeBron to stay Cleveland next year means that owner Dan Gilbert and GM Dan Ferry have to do everything in their power (mostly spending cash) to put a championship team together. If they can re-sign Varejao they’ll have a starting lineup of: Mo Williams, Delonte West, LeBron James, Anderson Varejao and Shaquille O’Neal.

Shaq changes the dynamics of the team, and not just against the Magic (although that probably was the clinching reason to bring him in). The Cavs play at a slow tempo anyway, so having Shaq lumber up and down the floor doesn’t hurt them nearly as much as it hurt Phoenix. He’ll take offensive pressure off James whenever he gets a mismatch down low, and he won’t be asked to play too many minutes until the playoffs, because Cleveland got the top seed this year without him. Shaq is also in the final year of his contract, which means that Cleveland retains their 2010 cap space. That’s key because they want to add another superstar, like Chris Bosh perhaps, to pair with LeBron for the future. Despite the team’s issues, Shaq actually had a very good year with the Suns, a resurgence really. He averaged 17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game in 30 minutes. If he can have anywhere near that type of production with Cleveland, you simply have to put them up there with L.A. as title favorites. I’m rarely so universally positive about a trade, but this is an absolute slam dunk for the Cavs, because they basically gave up nothing. Even if Shaq gets injured and doesn’t play, they’re not that much worse than last year. That’s the kind of limited downside you have to love if you’re a Cleveland fan. On a side note, the Cavs had some crazy sideline antics last year, can you imagine how much fun they’ll have with Shaq?