If the only thing that stopped the Cavaliers from acquiring Shaq was replacing Ben Wallace in the trade with Wally Szczerbiak, then the Cavaliers let their fans down.According to reports, the talks stalled when the Suns insisted on replacing Wallace with Szczerbiak.
Financially keeping Wally made sense because his $13 million dollar salary will expire after this season, while Wallace’s $14 million dollar contract expires after the 2009-2010 season.
If they had replaced Wallace with Szerbiack, they would have had to pay Shaq's $21 million dollar salary and Ben Wallace's salary next year.
The Cavaliers are also almost guaranteed to be paying luxury tax this summer. If they had traded Szczerbiak for let's say a non-expiring contract with a similar salary to Szczerbiak's, the Cavs would have had to pay around $13 million additional in luxury tax next summer.
Even so, Danny Ferry, the G.M of the Cavaliers, had a chance to put a championship team together this year. Do you know how many GMs in the league wish they were one move away from a championship?
Just ask the GM on the other side of the deal, if he would have traded spots with Ferry.
Shaq is still arguably the second best center in the league this year, even if he isn’t what he used to be, and a team with Lebron and Shaq would have proven to be difficult to defend.
I don’t want to hear the whole "Shaq would have ruined the team's chemistry" nonsense. If you remember, Shaq had a secondary role to a very similar player to LeBron in Dwyane Wade on Miami and in their fist year together they had the best record in the East.
Not to mention, the Cavaliers aren’t going to win a title with who they have right now. The Cavaliers may have a great regular season record, but I’m not buying the fact that they can actually win a championship this year. The Cavaliers remind me of the Hornets last year.
Just like the Hornets, they're a surprisingly great young team that revolves around one superstar. However, the Hornets, who finished with the second best record in the west last year, proved that regular season records aren’t everything.
There is no way the Cavaliers can beat both the Celtics and the Lakers in the playoffs, and that is most likely what they are going to have to do. Adding Shaq would have changed that.
Some people are not sure if the Cavaliers ever really intended to trade for Shaq. People have been speculating all day that the Cavaliers were just trying to show LeBron that they're trying to win a championship to ensure they resign him in 2010.
According to CBS Sports, two rival GMs believed this exact thing.
"I think it was blowing smoke," one rival executive said.
"I think they're swinging for the fences, knowing that they're probably not going to get a pitch to hit," another executive said. "Then LeBron sees that they're trying to do stuff. They're at the plate, but they'll take a walk before they swing at a pitch over their head."
However, Steve Kerr apparently did throw them a pitch to hit. If the Cavaliers replace Wallace with Wally Szczerbiak, the deal is very likely to go through.
If the Cavaliers really wanted to ensure that LeBron was going to sign with the Cavaliers in 2010, taking out their checkbook, adding Shaq, and winning a championship would have done just that.
HEY WHAT ABOUT ME??
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