He couldn't play last year due to his body breaking down, no way he could get himself in shape to play even a third C role without having a similar issue.
He played fine in the first half of last season though. Shaq can't give anybody a full season or even half a season, but I think he could be effective for 30 games.
I'd say he gave us a solid 35 games last year (he played 36 of the first 48 for a 26-10 record, and 35 of those he gave us double digit minutes). He only missed time on 3 occasions in the first half, one stretch of 5 games in November, a stretch of 4 games in December, and a stretch of 3 games in January.
If we got the Shaq from the end of October to the beginning of February last year for this years playoffs, we'd be doing pretty good.
I think it's fair to assume we could get a solid 30 games from Shaq. At the max, the playoffs could only last for 28 games. Let Shaq play the last 4-5 games of the regular season (and probably give him the first round too) to shake off the rust, and then hope his body holds up during the playoffs. If he started getting in shape mid-to-late March at the latest it could work. I'd be down for this.
