Shaq and His Circus Come to Cleveland

As soon as the Cavs' season came to an end at the hands of Dwight Howard and giant muscles it was simply a matter of time before a big man was traded to Cleveland. Turns out the big man is the Big Royal or Big Clev or whatever new nickname Shaq will come up with. There's tons of analysis out there (I think the best breakdown is here by Brian Windhorst but I'm obviously biased here There's lots of question marks here in terms of Shaq meshing with Lebron, Shaq meshing with the offense, Shaq having the foot speed for defense, etc, etc, etc. However the question I think needs to be asked is one of opportunity cost.

Its hard to argue the Cavs didn't need to improve in the low post on offense and most importantly finding someone that could go guard Howard one on one. With Shaq the Cavs are relatively better and all it cost was a retiring player (Wallace), an awful player (Pavlovic) and the 46th pick in an horrendous draft. That's nothing. Would Tyson Chandler have been better than Shaq? Offensively and contract wise (Chandler would've kept the Cavs away from the 2010 free agent market - no (not to mention Chandler's last trade was nixed over injury). So who would have been better at slowing down Howard that could be had? Names people. Names. The bottom line is there's not. Or at least no one that could be had by the Cavs.

In the end Danny Ferry is rolling the dice that Shaq is motivated enough for one last contract, one last shot at Kobe, one last something to keep his circus in check. Not say the trade gives the Cavs the NBA Championship or even in the front runner position but it probably improves the better than other alternatives and that's all one can ask for.