By John Manasso
Foxsportssouth.com
According to a media report, the Atlanta Hawks have missed out on the opportunity to sign center Shaquille O'Neal.
In
one sense, it's hard to tell how much the Hawks really "missed out"
because with the money that Shaq reportedly will receive from the
Boston Celtics ($1.4 million per year over two years), it doesn't seem
like the Hawks were out-bid. It seems more of a case of ownership and
general manager Rick Sund deciding that they did not want Shaq enough
to offer what is a relatively paltry salary by NBA standards.
So what does the move do in terms of the balance of power in the East?
Well,
it's hardly another example of a team that was behind the Hawks
potentially blowing past them next year the way the Miami Heat appear
to have done with the signings of LeBron James and Chris Bosh. (Call me
crazy, but I'd say the jury is still out on whether the Heat finish
first in the Eastern Conference; it is a team game, after all, and teams don't exactly gel after a few weeks of training camp. But I digress...)
The
Hawks and Celtics have shared an interesting rivalry the last few
years, dating back to their dramatic seven-game playoff series in 2008,
and signing Shaq with the Hawks as a potential suitor should spice it
up a bit. Remember, the Hawks swept all four games from Boston last
year. So does adding Shaq change that calculus dramatically? I don't
think so. Maybe adding Jermaine O'Neal counts for more in that sense.
O'Neal did have some pretty good games against the Hawks in their 2009
first-round playoff series but his play remains largely inconsistent as
he ages not so gracefully.
What signing Shaq does is it makes
the Celtics even older. I was listening to Tuesday's PTI podcast this
morning and I believe it was Michael Wilbon who mentioned that the Celtics now have five members of the 2005 All-Star team. That would be good if it were 2005 but those players are all five years older now and some of them (like Shaq) were old then.
With the addition of Shaq, the Celtics will
have five players 32 or older when the season starts: Jermaine O'Neal
(32 who is a 14-year veteran), Paul Pierce (33), Ray Allen (35), Kevin
Garnett (who is an old 34, having entered the league straight out of
high school), Michael Finley (37) and Shaq (38). If Rasheed Wallace
pulls a Brett Favre (another topic for another day) and elects to
un-retire, he would be 36.
The Hawks,
as Sund likes to point out, have four of their key players age 24 or
younger (Al Horford, Josh Smith, Jeff Teague and Marvin Williams.) Does
that make the Hawks better than the Celtics?
Not necessarily.
Boston did advance to the seventh game of the NBA finals last season
after finishing behind the Hawks in the regular season and Shaq
reportedly signed with the Celtics because he thinks that they have a
better chance of winning a title. Maybe that's true, but maybe it's
also true that the Hawks did not make an offer.
In a past blog
post, I endorsed the Hawks' pursuit of Shaq. For their particular needs
-- Horford, a more natural power forward who plays the center spot, is one advocate of bringing in a "true" center -- I thought that O'Neal would help.
Sund,
who has a bit more when it comes to basketball credentials, evidently
does not believe so. Shaq's stats have declined dramatically in recent
seasons and his ability to stay healthy is questionable. He averaged
12.0 points and 6.7 rebounds in 23.4 minutes per game last season in 53
games with Cleveland -- nothing at all to sneeze at -- but that is down
from 17.8 points, 8.4 rebounds and 30.0 minutes in 75 games with
Phoenix the season before.
It's possible that his production
will fall off a cliff this season and then there always is the question
of keeping him happy. Sund had to weigh how much of a potential
distraction Shaq might have been if he did not receive the playing time
that he believed he deserved -- whatever his close relationship with
new Hawks coach Larry Drew might have been in the past. It's all
hypothetical, but, in the end, Sund must have decided that signing Shaq
was not worth the risk with his young team.
Only time will tell how it all works out.
