How do you push USA’s upset of Spain to the back burner?
Trade Shaq to the Cleveland Cavaliers of course. What started as a rumor in February & picked up immediate steam the second LeBron left the court of the Eastern Conference Finals has now become reality…at least in principle.
The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Phoenix Suns have come to an agreement on a blockbuster trade that sends Shaquille O’Neal to Cleveland to team with LeBron James, according to sources.
The deal has been agreed to in principle and is expected to be finalized Thursday, according to sources.
Cleveland will send Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic to Phoenix for the future Hall of Famer. Sources said the Suns will also receive the 46th pick in Thursday’s NBA draft and $500,000.
This is all contingent on both sides finalizing the deal, but is pretty much a lock to go through. Cleveland is desperately looking to appease King James & Phoenix is looking to dump salary as they come to grips with looking at an upcoming rebuilding project. Not a bad way to lead up to the draft.
David Stern has to be the only person happier than LeBron as this is the perfect segue into tonight’s draft. But that’s not the only deal that went down as SportsCenter may be forced to let the MLB highlights fall back for a day.
In a three team deal between the Milwaukee Bucks, San Antonio Spurs & Detroit Pistons, Richard Jefferson went to the Spurs for Bruce Bowen and Kurt Thomas. The Spurs’ Fabricio Oberto went to the Detroit Pistons for Amir Johnson, who ended up with Bucks.
The Washington Wizards traded the 5th pick in the draft along with Oleksiy Pecherov, Etan Thomas and Darius Songaila to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Randy Foye and Mike Miller. Giving the Timberwolves four first round picks: 5, 6, 18 and 28. Between now and the draft, the Timberwolves will be feverishly trying to work out a package for Memphis’ 2nd pick & Ricky Rubio. The Grizzlies are holding out for both the 5th & 6th pick, but Minnesota is rightfully not giving into that.
The Portland Trail Blazers got the 22nd pick from the Dallas Mavericks for the 24th and 56th picks in this year’s draft, and the worst of their second round picks in 2010.
All of these deals will affect the how the draft plays out where Blake Griffith remains the safe bet for going number one to the frugal Los Angeles Clippers, who will develop then lose him to free agency or being forced to trade him. After that, UConn’s Hasheem Thabeet, Spain’s Ricky Rubio, ASU’s James Harden, Davidson’s Stephen Curry, Memphis’ & Syracuse’s Johnny Flynn will be picked in some order.
Nothing’s guaranteed outside of Griffith and anything is within realm of possibility as teams jockey for position on the draft board. Needless to say the NBA will dominate the sports world today and this is only the beginning.
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DOPE!
I bet this means Brown is out the door as Cleveland’s coach. You need an offensive scheme to deal with Shaq and LeBron. And Mike Brown hasn’t had one of those in 3 years…
What is Steve Kerr doing over there, I feel like Phoenix got burned. Wallace? Pavlovic? 500k? IDK. Now the Suns completely suck. They only have Amaire (spl). Anyways I think that this is gonna be a GOOD season in the east.
David D:
Mike Brown coaches like he is offended by offense. lol!! While Shaq does give the Cavs a back to the basket scorer; he still does not answer Clevland’s problem of guarding the pick and roll. Orlando killed them with the pick and roll, and Boston has used the pick and roll to beat them. If they can get a couple of more pieces it may push them over the top.
Co-Sign Bigga. While Shaq does indeed give them the post-up back-to-the basket presence they sorely lacked, he doesn’t fix all of their holes. They still have major issues at the 4, where they need to upgrade over Vareajao (send him to the bench as the backup big at 4/5 getting 25 mins a night). If the Antawn Jamison rumors come to fruition, he’d be an ideal fit. I also think they need to find an athletic 2 who can defend and shoot so that Delonte can go to the bench and be a super-sub backing up both guard spots. If this is the only move they make, we won’t be witnesses next year, haha.
Dream scenario Wolves get Tyreke Evans and James Harden. Fugg Rubio!
Cavs add another aging-better-years-behind-them player, wow.
PS – Shaq is officially, in Chi slang, a “bustdown.” First Penny, then Kobe, then Wade, now Lebron. Dude stays on the jock-riding elite wing players haha.
@El R…. you got it twisted … dude gives good wing players the space to operate to become elite wing players. He may be on the downside to his career but a motivated Shaq is still a problem.
I told yall 216 would be back. What up Cleveland
Cell – Phx still has Nash (who they won’t be giving up any time soon), free up money by dropping salaries & it opens their offense back up. Not a bad move.
All of them woulda been elite wing players with or without Shaq. They may not have gotten the rings though. To say Shaq is the reason Kobe_ Wade & Penny are as good as they are/were is all kinds of wrong.
@ el rosado…shaq’s buss down status FTW…hahahah.
Shaq and (Kobe, Wade, Penny) benefited from each other. El Ro your are right, they need an athletic big at the 4 and a big 2 guard who can defend. With the Spurs getting R. Jefferson, Udoka may be available. But to hell with all the Cav talk; once Shaq starts tweeting about Mike Brown being a worse coach than Stan Van Gundy and how Lebron’s moms tried to hit on him; Lebron is out of there. lol!! My concern is the Moron Mormon Danny Ainge going back to his brain wave theories. If he trades Rajon Rondo and Perkins he has lost his mind.
Too little too late.
Am I the only one that feels Blake Griffin is not going to be a NBA superstar. He doesn’t stike me as having the tenacity to be a great player. Also his mid-range game and ball-handling leaves alot to be desired.
the Cavs need to also sign Rasheed Wallace, he’s much more compatible with LeBron, as he can draw his man out to the 3-point line and keep the lane open for LeBron…..I’m surprised the Jamal Crawford to ATL deal isn’t getting more pub, the Hawks adding another legit player to go with their core without sacrificing any of their starting 5 may be enough to propel them to 50-plus wins
Crawford sucks. A SG that shoots 40% isnt gonna push anyone to 50-win season.
But i do co-sign that Rasheed fits better than Shaq. Shaq is gonna clog up that lane big time. Z and Sideshow Bob at least stay out on the perimeter for the most part
@Gotty, Nash is my dude but he’s been a shell of himself lately. He needs to find that fountain of youth Shaq found after the all-star game. Plus he’s like in his mid 30′s. He only has a couple seasons left. That aint good for starting over. IDK even with the 10 milli they save with this move they still have a long ways to go know before they will be contending again.
LMFAO @ Bigga, ahaha I can imagine Shaq tweeting now about Mike Brown having negative offensive plays in his playbook. Lebron’s going to be salty when he realizes Shaq hasn’t effectively defended a pick and roll situation since he was 15, LOL. I’d be worried if I were a Beantown fan too, trading Rondo, who became a top-flight pg this season and is only 23 is absolutely crackheaded. Trading Ray Allen makes sense because he’s an expiring contract with value as a baller and you need money to be freed up to keep Rondo/Perkins for the future but trading Rondo? Ainge is scared of them hood mufuggas lol. I was shitting bricks when I thought Rondo might be going to the Pistons, Dumars would have built a squad around him like he was Zeke 2.0
@ ComplexOne: It’s a decent trade for ATL’s bench. I think Crawford is going to be their super-sub 6th man on the wing that they missed last season when Josh “Blu” Childress dipped off to Greece.
Gotty, yo, what’s good with a live NBA Draft post on TSS tonight? I’ma be at a function with free red stripes and Jamaican music so I’ll be unable to watch, but I’m planning to follow from my blackberry, would prefer following on TSS with the comment goons over following on ESPN.com, lol. Do it. It’s the last basketball function of the season anyway!!
^ exactly…………..i’m not saying Jamal Crawford is a savior, but when you can add someone like him and only give up Acie Law & Speedy Claxton, that’s a win in my book
Aint y’all gonna lose Bibby tho?
Jamal is a mad chucker, good luck with that guy. We had a guy like him up here awhile back…Ricky Davis. He friggin shot at the other teams basket thinking he would get credit for a rebound for a triple double!
cosign that Shaq clogging up the lane…Cleveland is gonna definitely gonna have to tweek their Offense.
Surprised I’m not hearing any David Stern conspiracy theories, about Superman v Superman 2.0 or Shaq v Kobe in the finals.
STILL CAN’T SEE L.A.
EL Ro:
Ainge is a good GM at evaluating talent; but he has a vendictive streak. When he dislikes a player he down right hates him. Now the Moron Mormon is going on Boston Radio knocking Rando, how he has to grow up and his presence hurt the Celtics this playoff run. Yeah averaging a near triple double is very hurtful. How about keeping in house issues in house, especially when you are trying to trade Rando? How do you expect to get an impact player plus a high draft pick when you are calling Rando a team cancer. Ainge did the same thing to Antoine Walker, ended up trading him for Chris Mills and some Euro Trash player, only to trade back to get Antoine. No wonder Robert Horry doesn’t like his ass. lol
haha Bigga, my guy that I work with is from the Bean too, he’s been bringing up the Mormon thing too and how it’s fucking up Danny’s thinking throughout this whole process, lol.
EL Ro:
Oh I am from Brooklyn, other than the Celtics and Boston College Basketball team I can’t stand Boston. No Ainge really has a problem with free agency as well as how he conducts himself when he doesn’t like a player. I remember when Ainge 1st got the position, he went out of his way to insult Antoine Walker and Coach O’Brien. Now as much of a fan I am of Antoine Walker, I know he can be a headache at times; but he always gave maxium effort to the Celtics. Plus I don’t know to many “selfish” players who go from being the #1 option to the #2 option to a rookie. But he did it for Paul Pierce. Your boy is right Ainge is suffering from Big Love Itis. lol!!!!!