Yao vs. Shaq in next year's finals

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/...G_sports.shtml

July 12, 2004) - Don't be surprised if Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming are the
marquee attractions in the 2005 NBA Finals.
Assuming the O'Neal-to-Miami trade becomes official this week, Yao's Houston
Rockets will become the team to beat in the Western Conference and Shaq's
Heat will become a threat to win the Eastern Conference.

Yao and two-time NBA scoring champion Tracy McGrady probably are the
league's best 1-2 punch at the moment, but Shaq and Dwyane Wade could be
even better if O'Neal decided to get into top shape (he probably would
considering how much he'd want to show up the Los Angeles Lakers) and Wade
improved only slightly in his second NBA season.

Here's how the O'Neal trade would alter the balance of power in the NBA:

Eastern Conference - There are two dominant big men in the NBA. The West
(Yao) and East (Shaq) each would have one (Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy and
Miami coach Stan Van Gundy couldn't have imagined this when the brothers
were attending Nazareth and SUNY Brockport, respectively, two decades ago).
Miami wouldn't be a cinch to win the East (defending champion Detroit and
Indiana would be formidable foes) but it would become a genuine contender.

Western Conference - The Lakers no longer would have two of the five-best
players in the world, but they'd still be among a long list of legitimate
conference title contenders, including Houston, Dallas, Minnesota, San
Antonio and Sacramento.

Heat - Key holdovers from last season are Wade (16.2 points per game) and
Eddie Jones (team-leading 17.3 points per game). They'd join Shaq to form a
solid three-man nucleus. It would be up to Pat Riley to surround them with
complementary talent. Lamar Odom, Caron Butler and Brian Grant (the trio
reportedly headed to the Lakers) and Rafer Alston (headed for Toronto)
combined for 45 points per game last season.

But Shaq already has proved he can combine with one outstanding smaller
player to take an Eastern Conference team to the NBA Finals. In 1995, O'Neal
and Penny Hardaway posted an East-best 57-25 record (with a supporting cast
featuring Nick Anderson, Dennis Scott, Horace Grant, Donald Royal, Brian
Shaw and Anthony Bowie) before being swept by Houston in the Finals.

Lakers - The starting five would be more athletic, but chemistry and
rebounding would be big question marks. Assuming Kobe Bryant remains (how
could he not after inspiring the departures of O'Neal and coach Phil
Jackson?), it would be interesting to see how Odom and Butler would adjust
to Bryant dominating the basketball. Brian Grant is breaking down, Karl
Malone might retire and the Lakers probably wish Gary Payton would retire.

The bottom line - The Lakers would get more for O'Neal than they gave up to
acquire Wilt Chamberlain from Philadelphia or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from
Milwaukee in past trades involving the NBA's most dominant big men, but
they'd still get the short end of this deal - at least for the next season
or two. Odom and Butler figure to be useful NBA players after Shaq retires,
but he'd have a better chance to add another championship to his resume than
they would.

"s_knight8" <s_knight8nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ccudt5$nfe@dispatch.concentric.net...
>
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/...G_sports.shtml
>
> July 12, 2004) - Don't be surprised if Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming are
the
> marquee attractions in the 2005 NBA Finals.
> Assuming the O'Neal-to-Miami trade becomes official this week, Yao's
Houston
> Rockets will become the team to beat in the Western Conference

Err..counting out Minni, Spurs so early? Not to mention Kings and Lakers.

>and Shaq's
> Heat will become a threat to win the Eastern Conference.
>
> Yao and two-time NBA scoring champion Tracy McGrady probably are the
> league's best 1-2 punch at the moment, but Shaq and Dwyane Wade could be
> even better if O'Neal decided to get into top shape (he probably would
> considering how much he'd want to show up the Los Angeles Lakers) and Wade
> improved only slightly in his second NBA season.
>
> Here's how the O'Neal trade would alter the balance of power in the NBA:
>
> Eastern Conference - There are two dominant big men in the NBA. The West
> (Yao) and East (Shaq) each would have one (Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy
and
> Miami coach Stan Van Gundy couldn't have imagined this when the brothers
> were attending Nazareth and SUNY Brockport, respectively, two decades
ago).
> Miami wouldn't be a cinch to win the East (defending champion Detroit and
> Indiana would be formidable foes) but it would become a genuine contender.
>
> Western Conference - The Lakers no longer would have two of the five-best
> players in the world, but they'd still be among a long list of legitimate
> conference title contenders, including Houston, Dallas, Minnesota, San
> Antonio and Sacramento.
>
> Heat - Key holdovers from last season are Wade (16.2 points per game) and
> Eddie Jones (team-leading 17.3 points per game). They'd join Shaq to form
a
> solid three-man nucleus. It would be up to Pat Riley to surround them with
> complementary talent. Lamar Odom, Caron Butler and Brian Grant (the trio
> reportedly headed to the Lakers) and Rafer Alston (headed for Toronto)
> combined for 45 points per game last season.
>
> But Shaq already has proved he can combine with one outstanding smaller
> player to take an Eastern Conference team to the NBA Finals. In 1995,
O'Neal
> and Penny Hardaway posted an East-best 57-25 record (with a supporting
cast
> featuring Nick Anderson, Dennis Scott, Horace Grant, Donald Royal, Brian
> Shaw and Anthony Bowie) before being swept by Houston in the Finals.
>
> Lakers - The starting five would be more athletic, but chemistry and
> rebounding would be big question marks. Assuming Kobe Bryant remains (how
> could he not after inspiring the departures of O'Neal and coach Phil
> Jackson?), it would be interesting to see how Odom and Butler would adjust
> to Bryant dominating taskeasketball. Brian Grant is breaking down, Karl
> Malone might retire and the Lakers probably wish Gary Payton would retire.
>
> The bottom line - The Lakers would get more for O'Neal than they gave up
to
> acquire Wilt Chamberlain from Philadelphia or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from
> Milwaukee in past trades involving the NBA's most dominant big men, but
> they'd still get the short end of this deal - at least for the next season
> or two. Odom and Butler figure to be useful NBA players after Shaq
retires,
> but he'd have a better chance to add another championship to his resume
than
> they would.
>
>
>
>

> Don't be surprised if Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming are the
> marquee attractions in the 2005 NBA Finals.

I hope they can still get good seats.

Je 12 Jul 2004 1201 EDT, "s_knight8" <s_knight8nospam@hotmail.com>
skribis:

>http://www.democratandchronicle.com/...G_sports.shtml
>
>July 12, 2004) - Don't be surprised if Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming are the
>marquee attractions in the 2005 NBA Finals.
>Assuming the O'Neal-to-Miami trade becomes official this week, Yao's Houston
>Rockets will become the team to beat in the Western Conference and Shaq's
>Heat will become a threat to win the Eastern Conference.

The Rockets should be improved, but there's still a LOOOONG way to go
before McGrady and Yao show how they can work together.

Shaq has three championships and nothing since then, even on teams
that were favored to win it all each year. The Heat will become a
contender again, sure, but there's still nothing that I see that makes
the Heat better than the Pistons.



--
Steve M - unspam@houston.rrdirt.com (remove dirt for reply)

If a man speaks in the forest and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?

"s_knight8" <s_knight8nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ccudt5$nfe@dispatch.concentric.net...
>
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/...G_sports.shtml
>
> July 12, 2004) - Don't be surprised if Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming are
the
> marquee attractions in the 2005 NBA Finals.

ok this author of this article just lost ALL credibility with me...

lee

> July 12, 2004) - Don't be surprised if Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming are
the
> marquee attractions in the 2005 NBA Finals.

They are going to perform a little song-and-dance number at halftime.

"Steven M (remove dirt and invalid to reply)"
<unspam@houston.rrdirt.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:9tm5f0t0sj0l3qtve7mis1fsp5p4cvgfk6@4ax.com...
> Je 12 Jul 2004 1201 EDT, "s_knight8" <s_knight8nospam@hotmail.com>
> skribis:
>
>
>http://www.democratandchronicle.com/...G_sports.shtml
> >
> >July 12, 2004) - Don't be surprised if Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming are
the
> >marquee attractions in the 2005 NBA Finals.
> >Assuming the O'Neal-to-Miami trade becomes official this week, Yao's
Houston
> >Rockets will become the team to beat in the Western Conference and Shaq's
> >Heat will become a threat to win the Eastern Conference.
>
> The Rockets should be improved, but there's still a LOOOONG way to go
> before McGrady and Yao show how they can work together.
>
> Shaq has three championships and nothing since then, even on teams
> that were favored to win it all each year. The Heat will become a
> contender again, sure, but there's still nothing that I see that makes
> the Heat better than the Pistons.
>

Not to defend Shaq, but the 4th year he came back from surgery. I don't
think the Lakers were favored to win that year. Last year they got to the
finals, which is pretty good in anyone's book.

>
>
> --
> Steve M - unspam@houston.rrdirt.com (remove dirt for reply)
>
> If a man speaks in the forest and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?