Rick Noland

The Gazette

Title-starved Cavaliers fans make a great point regarding the possibility of acquiring Shaquille O’Neal from the Phoenix Suns for washed-up big man Ben Wallace and do-little swingman Sasha Pavlovic.

“Why not?” they say. “We’d be getting something for nothing.”

The question that really needs to be asked, however, is, “Why would the Suns do this?”

At the trade deadline, when Cleveland reportedly was offering the same two players but the Suns wanted Wally Szczerbiak’s expiring contract instead of Wallace, the deal at least made sense for Phoenix. Szczerbiak would now be off the books and the Suns would have rid themselves of the $20 million O’Neal is due in 2009-10.

Now, from Phoenix’s perspective, a deal for Wallace and Pavlovic would basically mean taking on the whopping, expiring contract of a player with nothing left in the tank (Wallace) for the whopping, expiring contract of a player who still has something left (O’Neal).

Sure, Wallace is threatening to retire and is open to a buyout, probably for about half the $14 million he’s owed next season. Sure, only $1.5 million of Pavlovic’s $4.95 million deal is guaranteed. Sure, the Suns could save about $10 million by trading O’Neal, buying out Wallace and cutting Pavlovic.

But exactly how can Suns general manager Steve Kerr, a good friend of Cavaliers GM Danny Ferry, sell that approach in the Phoenix market?

The simple answer is this: He can’t.

The Suns could try dumping many of their large salaries (O’Neal, Amare Stoudemire, Jason Richardson, Leandro Barbosa), let Steve Nash and Grant Hill leave through free agency and go into total rebuilding mode, but this team has a ton of talent and is still trying to compete.

Already, reports are surfacing that the Suns have made inquiries about Cleveland shooting guard Delonte West, either in lieu of Pavlovic or in addition to him, which immediately throws the fans’ get-something-for-nothing theory out the window.

In short, it takes two teams to make a deal, and the Suns are likely to get a much better offer for O’Neal — say, a player or two who can actually play — from one of the 28 remaining clubs in the league.

That’s why, no matter how much Cleveland fans want to talk about O’Neal’s potential impact on the Cavaliers, this trade is unlikely to happen. (We didn’t say it had no chance of occurring, just that it probably won’t.)
Diesel

Adding O’Neal to Cleveland’s less-than-physical front line is intriguing on a number of fronts, foremost among them his ability to score in the low post, a commodity the Cavaliers simply did not have from the big men on their 2008-09 roster.

At somewhere between 325 and 375 pounds, O’Neal would also have the strength to defend Orlando’s Dwight Howard in the post, at least for short stretches.

What casual fans overlook, however, is just how bad the 37-year-old O’Neal is when it comes to defending the high pick-and-roll, the play that gave the Cavaliers fits in the Eastern Conference finals. It sounds like blasphemy to some, but O’Neal, who doesn’t like to leave the paint, show on screens and attempt to recover, is actually worse than the slow-footed Zydrunas Ilgauskas in this area.

There are also some worries about O’Neal’s low-post presence detracting from the Cavaliers’ drive-and-kick philosophy on offense, but those should be of far less concern than his defensive shortcomings. Legitimate title contenders need to have multiple ways to score, and adding O’Neal would give Cleveland another viable option.

Rumors

Almost always using unnamed sources, a newspaper beat writer — or, much worse, an online hack without any integrity — mentions two teams are talking about a possible deal. His (or her) paper posts the story on the Internet.

An Internet-surfing fan, in the opposing city of one of the players potentially involved, reads that story. That fan posts a link to it on something like Facebook.

Media members in the other city click that link or read the original Internet story. Those media members call their sources and write their stories.

Large online sites like ESPN.com weigh in.

Radio talk show hosts read all those stories and immediately become know-it-alls.

SportsCenter experts offer their takes.

That, folks, is how a rumor gains momentum.

Across the country, it will happen dozens and dozens of times over the coming weeks. Everyone will chime in. Everyone will have an opinion. Everyone will be an expert.

In the end, most trade rumors will be forgotten in a day or two, a week at best. They will be replaced by a newer, juicier rumor.

Once in a great, great while, a rumor will actually become reality, but it doesn’t happen too often.

Whether it’s Shaq, Zaza Pachulia, Charlie Villanueva, Rasheed Wallace, Ron Artest, Chris Kaman, Marcus Camby or some 7-foot European prospect you’ve never heard of, please keep that in mind.

Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.

In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement and discussion guidelines.
You must be registered and logged in to post a comment. If you aren't already registered, click here.
If you are registered, click here to log in.
Need help? Email Us.