The Adventures of Diesel and Flash II
The Next Rise to Power – featuring LeBron James
Shaquille O’Neal and Dwayne Wade team up again to deliver another blockbuster deal, saving the city of Miami from basketball mediocrity. Like all great duos the two parted ways looking for brighter pastures, but when the city of Miami came calling, Diesel and Flash again came to the rescue.
I’m not here to predict a third Shaq trade in 2 years. Instead Shaq is going providing South Beach with a duo of such magnitude you could only create it on NBA Live. The Shaq Experiment in Cleveland is a failure, and in 2010, LeBron is heading south. There, I said it.
Bring on the hate mail; tell me I’m crazy. Better yet, show me some numbers and prove me wrong. I’ve been a critic since I saw the trade come across the bottom line on June 26th and I’m not backing down now.
There’s a reason Team USA doesn’t win the gold in every single Olympics, there’s a reason the Yankees don’t win the World Series every year and there’s a reason the Detroit Pistons knocked off Shaq’s hall of fame cast in 2004. It’s called chemistry. If you could just grab the best talent and spew it on the court, why would we pay coaches and general managers so much?
Let me explain why the Shaq experiment was doomed to fail.
What makes LeBron James great? It sure isn’t his jump shot (he’s not Kobe), it’s not his amazing ball skills and quickness (he’s not D-Wade), it is LeBron’s ability to drive the basketball at 6’8’’ 250lbs. He very well may be better at driving than anyone in NBA history. He is a freight train in perfect control, able to glide through the air and deliver with such force, shot blockers need not apply. When he begins his drive, you are at his mercy.
This isn’t to say LeBron James doesn’t have a good jump shot, or that he doesn’t have exceptional ball handling skills and quickness. But when you take away his drive you take away who he is. The funny thing is, the only person that has proven, and will continue to prove, to be able to take away his drive is his own center Shaquille O’Neal.
10 years ago, this may have been a fantastic duo. But an aging Shaq that just clogs the lane is not what the Cavaliers need to get by Orlando and Boston in the east. When Shaq clogs the paint, it forces LeBron to switch to his secondary weapon of a jump shot. It’s like when Ohio State asks Terrell Pryor to step back and pass too much, you just gotta let the kid play.
What’s ironic about the whole thing is that the Cavs were right in grabbing a Phoenix center; they just grabbed the wrong one. Could you imagine a mobile, agile Amare Stoudemire running the pick and roll with the King?
All this only builds up to the NBA’s shuffle-up and deal off-season of 2010, where James will reportedly test the free agent market if Cleveland can’t surround him with a cast capable of winning a championship.
Without going into too much detail here, one of the teams that in fact can afford him, is the Miami Heat. There has been lots of speculation that LeBron would love to join his friend and Olympic teammate Dwayne Wade down in Miami and we can only imagine the possibilities. Would the chemistry be there? It sure looked like it was there in Beijing.
(If the right GM steps in I’ve even heard rumors that they could find a way to fit Chris Bosh on the payroll as well, I’m not even gunna tread those water yet though.)
I understand that we’ve only had 20 or so games this season, and much is still to be hashed out. But when it all goes to hell in Cleveland (a.k.a. they don’t advance past the 2nd round of the playoffs), you heard it here first.
-JT Dec. 4, 2009
The Sunny and C Show
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