By John Manasso
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 (although it's possible that Shaq turned the Hawks down). 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.
