Bill Simmons' article : Why Shaq signed with the Celtics

[RebusRankin]

Wait you guys don't care about Jennifer Aniston?

[Thruthelookingglass]

Wait you guys don't care about Jennifer Aniston?

Why do you bring her up, is Shaq single?   

[pearljammer10]

Used to be a huge Simmons fan... Feel like he has "jumped the shark" a bit so to speak. Still a fan, but I dont read much of his stuff anymore.

However, if you havent read "The Book of Basketball" you should. Greatly entertaining and filled with lots of great basketball information. Even though he has overdone his shtick a bit he is still one of the better sports journalists out there.

[Witch-King]

Wait you guys don't care about Jennifer Aniston?

Why do you bring her up, is Shaq single?   

Wow, don't you think we're getting a little off topic here, guys? Lol.

While we're talking about Jennifer Aniston, I read a news-clipping the other day where she suggested that she is still open to the option of mothering a child.

This occurred while she was making a public appearance promoting her new movie "The Switch" where she stars as a woman who seeks to become a single-mother through artificial insemination.

Geez, I wonder how it feels to win the '6th man award' while on the cast of 'Friends'. 

Just joking, of course...

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/12/business/friends-deal-will-pay-each-of-its-6-stars-22-million.html

[Truth Hurts]

All we need from Shaq is 15-20 tough minutes in relief for Perk once the playoffs roll around again, and that will be enough to put us over the top, especially against LA and ORL.

I think most people on Celticsblog are overstating the amount of minutes Shaq is going to play. The Bill Walton analogy is perfect. Walton came to Boston for the final two years of his career, going to the Finals both years and winning one. He averaged 19 minutes in '86 and 11 minutes in '87. I think this is very close to the amount of minutes that Shaq will play.....

EXCEPT, Shaq will dip from 19 to 11 as soon as Perk is back and playing at least 20 minutes a game. In fact, I don't know that Shaq will even play 11 minutes a game once Perk is back (assuming Jermaine and KG are healthy, of course). If this team is healthy in the playoffs, Shaq will be lucky to be PJ Brown. Nothing wrong with that, he should fill an important role this season. But you're crazy to think that his role will not be diminished down the stretch if all our bigs are healthy. Are you just going to bury Davis on the bench? Shaq is our 3rd string center. He IS replacing Sheldon Williams. We need him for 20 minutes a game only because of Perk's injury. Period. Let's keep this in perspective.

[Celtics17]

I will preface this comment by saying I think Shaq will play a very important role on this team this year. That being said, I dont think he will be Waltonesque either. Walton was a very integral part of the 86 title team. He was still a very good player and in fact won 6th man of the year that season. Shaq probably wont be that good but at the same time, he probably wont have to be either.

[GreenFaith1819]

For TruthHurts -

I actually believe that Shaq's role could in fact increase, as we progress deeper into the playoffs. In the playoff series VS ORL, Perk experienced foul trouble a few times, and did the same against LA.

I think bringing Shaq in gives Perk even more freedom to do his thing. At times, he just looked tentative in the LA and ORL series, because with the way the refs tried to control our agressiveness, that just took Perk out of his game.

Plus, can anyone here imagine the amount of control that Perk had to exert to not get that 7th tech? He had to play with a lot more control and tentativeness because of that. I think that diminished his game some.

Plus, in the ORL series, it was evident to me that Dwight is starting to find his groove, even against Perk. And for those who may not know - Dwight is being tutored by no other than Hakeem Olajuwon now. He will get better.

Shaq is yet another big body to throw at Dwight.

Fast-forward to 2010-11? We have more Bigs now. Perk and KG will have the opportunity, I think, to be a little more agressive than before. And I don't see Glen losing time, either.

To me, Shaq is that extra insurance against ORL (Dwight, Gortat), and LA (Bynum, Ratliff).

[j804]

I just hope he is right.

A highly motivated Shaq plus us paying him short dollars is nothing but a WIN/WIN situation for us.  

I am more excited for this season then I was for last year.  That loss to the Fakers should be enough motivation for EVERYONE in the entire Celtics organization.  But add in the Heat factor and our boys will be hungry.  I predict no lower then the 2 seed.

If we can stay healthy the NBA will be on notice!

I agree crap I cant wait for preseason to start up....heres to EVERYBODY staying healthy (shaq and kg worry me)!!!

Banner 18 lets take back what was rightfully ours hopefully with Perk and/or for Perk!! Go Celtics

[Truth Hurts]

GreenFaith,

You make a lot of good points. I think in a perfect world, where all of our bigs are healthy in the playoffs, it will probably change game to game based on our situation. In games where our bigs get in foul trouble, we need a low post presence for a specific matchup......you're probably right. Shaq can give us an element that we needed last year.

I do think a lot of people are underestimating however, how much better Jermaine will be than Sheed. I believe Jermaine will give us a good 28-30 minutes a game. I would still put Shaq as our fifth 'big' behind KG, Jermaine, Perk and Baby. Now what we'll have that we didn't have in the past, is the ability to use Shaq instead of Baby when we need a legit 5. I could see playoff games though, where we are not in foul trouble and Shaq does not play much.

There are 96 minutes available per game at the 4 and 5, and unless Doc plays around with some really big frontcourts, where KG actually plays the 3......in a perfect world, I would see a playoff game turn out like this:

KG 32 minutes
Jermaine 28
Perk 20 (being conservative)

That leaves 16 minutes a game left for Baby and Shaq. I would rather see Baby out there. But again....you do make good points and there are matchups where Shaq would be more appropriate than Baby....and maybe doc does experiment with KG at the 3? KG did it earlier in his career, and maybe you could get away with it when the LAL go big, with Odom at the 3. But it's probably not going to happen to often. The Truth is probably somewhere in the middle. There will be game like you described, where Shaq plays 20+ minutes. And I truly hope there are games where we don't need him to play more than 5-10 minutes because the four bigs ahead of him are getting the job done. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out if we are all healthy. I hope that after the all-star break, we get to see.

[billysan]

GreenFaith,

You make a lot of good points. I think in a perfect world, where all of our bigs are healthy in the playoffs, it will probably change game to game based on our situation. In games where our bigs get in foul trouble, we need a low post presence for a specific matchup......you're probably right. Shaq can give us an element that we needed last year.

I do think a lot of people are underestimating however, how much better Jermaine will be than Sheed. I believe Jermaine will give us a good 28-30 minutes a game. I would still put Shaq as our fifth 'big' behind KG, Jermaine, Perk and Baby. Now what we'll have that we didn't have in the past, is the ability to use Shaq instead of Baby when we need a legit 5. I could see playoff games though, where we are not in foul trouble and Shaq does not play much.

There are 96 minutes available per game at the 4 and 5, and unless Doc plays around with some really big frontcourts, where KG actually plays the 3......in a perfect world, I would see a playoff game turn out like this:

KG 32 minutes
Jermaine 28
Perk 20 (being conservative)

That leaves 16 minutes a game left for Baby and Shaq. I would rather see Baby out there. But again....you do make good points and there are matchups where Shaq would be more appropriate than Baby....and maybe doc does experiment with KG at the 3? KG did it earlier in his career, and maybe you could get away with it when the LAL go big, with Odom at the 3. But it's probably not going to happen to often. The Truth is probably somewhere in the middle. There will be game like you described, where Shaq plays 20+ minutes. And I truly hope there are games where we don't need him to play more than 5-10 minutes because the four bigs ahead of him are getting the job done. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out if we are all healthy. I hope that after the all-star break, we get to see.

I think there is a better chance of Big Baby getting minutes at the three against ceratin matchups than KG. He is probably a little quicker on his feet than KG at this stage. Even if KG has the big reach advantage, I just dont see him being mobile enough to cover a SF.

I do agree with the rest of your position on our other bigs.

[GreenEnvy]

GreenFaith,

You make a lot of good points. I think in a perfect world, where all of our bigs are healthy in the playoffs, it will probably change game to game based on our situation. In games where our bigs get in foul trouble, we need a low post presence for a specific matchup......you're probably right. Shaq can give us an element that we needed last year.

I do think a lot of people are underestimating however, how much better Jermaine will be than Sheed. I believe Jermaine will give us a good 28-30 minutes a game. I would still put Shaq as our fifth 'big' behind KG, Jermaine, Perk and Baby. Now what we'll have that we didn't have in the past, is the ability to use Shaq instead of Baby when we need a legit 5. I could see playoff games though, where we are not in foul trouble and Shaq does not play much.

There are 96 minutes available per game at the 4 and 5, and unless Doc plays around with some really big frontcourts, where KG actually plays the 3......in a perfect world, I would see a playoff game turn out like this:

KG 32 minutes
Jermaine 28
Perk 20 (being conservative)

That leaves 16 minutes a game left for Baby and Shaq. I would rather see Baby out there. But again....you do make good points and there are matchups where Shaq would be more appropriate than Baby....and maybe doc does experiment with KG at the 3? KG did it earlier in his career, and maybe you could get away with it when the LAL go big, with Odom at the 3. But it's probably not going to happen to often. The Truth is probably somewhere in the middle. There will be game like you described, where Shaq plays 20+ minutes. And I truly hope there are games where we don't need him to play more than 5-10 minutes because the four bigs ahead of him are getting the job done. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out if we are all healthy. I hope that after the all-star break, we get to see.

I think there is a better chance of Big Baby getting minutes at the three against ceratin matchups than KG. He is probably a little quicker on his feet than KG at this stage. Even if KG has the big reach advantage, I just dont see him being mobile enough to cover a SF.

I do agree with the rest of your position on our other bigs.

People said that KG wasn't mobile enough to guard Lewis, Jamison, and Gasol.

This season, he should be even more mobile. I think he can handle a lot of SF's, and most backup 3's.

My problem with Baby at SF is that he would clog things up, especially if he is out there with Shaq and JO.

[DinTN]

Wait you guys don't care about Jennifer Aniston?

Why do you bring her up, is Shaq single?   

Wow, don't you think we're getting a little off topic here, guys? Lol.

While we're talking about Jennifer Aniston, I read a news-clipping the other day where she suggested that she is still open to the option of mothering a child.

This occurred while she was making a public appearance promoting her new movie "The Switch" where she stars as a woman who seeks to become a single-mother through artificial insemination.

Geez, I wonder how it feels to win the '6th man award' while on the cast of 'Friends'. 

Just joking, of course...

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/12/business/friends-deal-will-pay-each-of-its-6-stars-22-million.html

Going even farther off-topic, but thought someone might find this of interest:

http://www.knoxville.com/news/2010/aug/24/082510morrow/

[Overrated]

Shaq came back to:

1) Win #5
2) Get 5 to tie Kobe
3) Money... gotta pay his ex and the kids (all he made so far is about spent, that's the life of an athlete). Yea it's not much money but add that money to 1 and 2, there you go!
4) He wants #5 so he wont be too far behind the other greats.