Offense Seems Soooooo Much Better With Shaq

[ballin]

You  mean, Shaq is good??

Surprise surprise.

Everybody that had been knocking Shaq until he got with the Celtics (and everybody that's now "surprised" he's doing well) really wasn't watching enough Cavaliers games last season.

Likewise, everybody who's somehow shocked Jermaine O'Neal is injured and BAD didn't see enough Miami heat games last year. The play of both these players has been predictable as pie.


The only way shaq wouldn't have fit in is if we decided to be a run and gun team. Which clearly wasn't going to happen.

[Rondo9dunx]

I gotta say I am kinda surprised at how surprised some of you are lol.

Do you remember the cleveland series last year? Shaq and Delonte were the only two guys on that team that gave the cavaliers any chance at winning. Shaq averaged like 18/9 or something like that for the series against us. He gave 100% effort and really really made perk work his butt off. Delonte, all things considered, was more valueable to that team than lebron was. I remember watching those games thinking "[dang] delonte is gonna be the reason we lose these games" luckily we ended up winning because no one on the cavs wanted to help shaq and delonte beat the celtics.

Ya, it goes without saying that shaq is not the MDE anymoree. But there is not a single dominant center in this league except MAYBE D12 but its hard to call him dominant when we do such a good job of shutting him down. Shaq is still one of the best 7+ footers in the league, despite the fact that he's not as good as he once was.

And Delonte is a quick lil bugger that can hit an open 3, slash to the basket and he plays celtics-style defense.

I'd say we made out pretty good gettin those two, based off of thier performances in the playoffs last year and i'm not surprised at how well they are fitting into our system.

Instead of dealing with some pre-pubescant wanna-be michael jordan superstar that cant handle being "the guy" they are on a team where literally every single starter is willing to step up and be "the guy" Our bench doesnt make excuses, they play like a starting 5. If we stay healthy nothing is going to stop us.

We got 4 guys that can play defense on Kobe, KG will bang all over Gasol this year i promise you. And hopefully by the time the playoffs come around we got perk and shaq rendering bynum useless.

Rondo/Nate/West
Ray/West/Nate
Paul/Quis
KG/JO/BBD
Shaq/Perk/Semi-pro

Sounds like a winning lineup to mee!

[BballTim]

You  mean, Shaq is good??

Surprise surprise.

Everybody that had been knocking Shaq until he got with the Celtics (and everybody that's now "surprised" he's doing well) really wasn't watching enough Cavaliers games last season.

Likewise, everybody who's somehow shocked Jermaine O'Neal is injured and BAD didn't see enough Miami heat games last year. The play of both these players has been predictable as pie.


The only way shaq wouldn't have fit in is if we decided to be a run and gun team. Which clearly wasn't going to happen.

  People who knocked Shaq didn't do it because of his offense but because of his defense.

[Fafnir]

  People who knocked Shaq didn't do it because of his offense but because of his defense.

To be fair in the Cavs match up against the C's he hurt both their offense and defense.

Perkins and BBD allowed the C's to guard Shaq with ease, the Cavs were much more dangerous as a transition team with shooters to let LeBron drive and create.

[BballTim]

  People who knocked Shaq didn't do it because of his offense but because of his defense.

To be fair in the Cavs match up against the C's he hurt both their offense and defense.

Perkins and BBD allowed the C's to guard Shaq with ease, the Cavs were much more dangerous as a transition team with shooters to let LeBron drive and create.

  He got 14 a game in about 24 minutes in the playoffs. That's not too bad, and it's not that far from what he's giving us.

[Fafnir]

  People who knocked Shaq didn't do it because of his offense but because of his defense.

To be fair in the Cavs match up against the C's he hurt both their offense and defense.

Perkins and BBD allowed the C's to guard Shaq with ease, the Cavs were much more dangerous as a transition team with shooters to let LeBron drive and create.

  He got 14 a game in about 24 minutes in the playoffs. That's not too bad, and it's not that far from what he's giving us.

The Cavs as a team scored less points with him on the floor and gave up more points to the C's with him on the floor.

His personal scoring was acceptable, but the Cav's offense as a total slowed.

With the C's with our more balanced offense I don't believe that's been the case. (I haven't looked at the on/off and adjusted +/-)

[BballTim]

  People who knocked Shaq didn't do it because of his offense but because of his defense.

To be fair in the Cavs match up against the C's he hurt both their offense and defense.

Perkins and BBD allowed the C's to guard Shaq with ease, the Cavs were much more dangerous as a transition team with shooters to let LeBron drive and create.

  He got 14 a game in about 24 minutes in the playoffs. That's not too bad, and it's not that far from what he's giving us.

The Cavs as a team scored less points with him on the floor and gave up more points to the C's with him on the floor.

His personal scoring was acceptable, but the Cav's offense as a total slowed.

With the C's with our more balanced offense I don't believe that's been the case. (I haven't looked at the on/off and adjusted +/-)

  That may be true, but the discussion is about people's concerns about having Shaq join the Celts last summer. Most of the opposing posts that I can recall were about Shaq's defense, especially his pick and roll defense.

[kozlodoev]

That may be true, but the discussion is about people's concerns about having Shaq join the Celts last summer. Most of the opposing posts that I can recall were about Shaq's defense, especially his pick and roll defense.

Yes, and these concerns are still valid. Doc has acknowledged that one of the flaws of the team up to this point is how they've defended the pick-and-roll. And the early returns of defensive efficiency support this.

[Fafnir]

That may be true, but the discussion is about people's concerns about having Shaq join the Celts last summer. Most of the opposing posts that I can recall were about Shaq's defense, especially his pick and roll defense.

Yes, and these concerns are still valid. Doc has acknowledged that one of the flaws of the team up to this point is how they've defended the pick-and-roll. And the early returns of defensive efficiency support this.

Except for the fact that their defensive efficiency is better than last year (year end totals), better at eFG%, similar defense at the rim in attempts and FG%.

But lets not let facts get in the way.

[BballTim]

That may be true, but the discussion is about people's concerns about having Shaq join the Celts last summer. Most of the opposing posts that I can recall were about Shaq's defense, especially his pick and roll defense.

Yes, and these concerns are still valid. Doc has acknowledged that one of the flaws of the team up to this point is how they've defended the pick-and-roll. And the early returns of defensive efficiency support this.

Except for the fact that their defensive efficiency is better than last year (year end totals), better at eFG%, similar defense at the rim in attempts and FG%.

But lets not let facts get in the way.

  Should we ignore the difference in the health of KG and PP, Rondo's improvement on the defensive end or Sheed's indifferent defense during the season?

[Fafnir]

That may be true, but the discussion is about people's concerns about having Shaq join the Celts last summer. Most of the opposing posts that I can recall were about Shaq's defense, especially his pick and roll defense.

Yes, and these concerns are still valid. Doc has acknowledged that one of the flaws of the team up to this point is how they've defended the pick-and-roll. And the early returns of defensive efficiency support this.

Except for the fact that their defensive efficiency is better than last year (year end totals), better at eFG%, similar defense at the rim in attempts and FG%.

But lets not let facts get in the way.

  Should we ignore the difference in the health of KG and PP, Rondo's improvement on the defensive end or Sheed's indifferent defense during the season?

No, but just as those factors are very hard to quantify so is Shaq's impact on our defense. (especially with such a small sample size)

I mean just missing Perkins impacts our defense as well. Too many moving parts and contributing factors for judgments on causation.

The fact of the matter is our defense is not worse than it was last year.

[Rondo9dunx]

The cavs offense only suffered because they were playing against us.... That and they ran it the wrong way. They tried to make it all about feeding the bigman inside. The celtics double covered shaq a lot of the time so there was only so much he could do.

We dont use shaq as our offensive guy on the floor. We got Ray Allen Paul Pierce Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo lol... shaq is not going to hurt our offense the same way he hurt clevelands.


Dont forget they were playing us!!! lol

[guava_wrench]

Even when Perk gets fully healthy, i would still prefer Shaq to be the starter.

I think fully healthy Perk should still start because of his superior all-around defense and because Perk really needs to play with scorers to compensate for his offensive limitations.  I think Shaq along with Nate, DWest, Quis and Baby would just destroy other teams' benches.

Mike

Sorry cant agree with Mike. Shaq has become effective with the starters. You cant wait till Perkins comes back in possibly February and suddenly disrupt the chemistry this club is building 8 weeks before the playoffs.

Shaqs power game complimentes the starters better and Perk will have just come back from serious knee surgery. I would prefer they bring Perk back slowely as the backup Center. If we can avoid injuries till April a frontcourt of KG,Shaq,Baby and Perk will be devastating.

Agreed. Keep Shaq in the starting lineup. He's just so much better than Perk to have him come off the bench.  Sorry Perk, still love ya.

I'd rather have Shaq attack opposing teams backup centers on many nights.

I think this team can win this year with defense and rebounding. We're never going to be an offensive power house. Perkins will be our best defensive center if he comes back right, that's our formula.

I'd rather have the less talented Perk go against second stringers.  Shaq is doing fine against starting centers.

But to those who want to trade Perk. Why?  Shaq is only here for another year, then what do we do for a center?  Semih?

Perk's defense is wasted against scrub bigs.

[j804]

From the looks of it, Doc himself prefers Perk over Shaq with the starting unit via the Herald on Shaq:

“He’s been absolutely terrific with the first unit,” Rivers said. “He’s handled the minutes well. I look at all of them as second-unit guys because when (Kendrick Perkins [stats]) comes back, I think he fits our starting lineup better. But they’re all going to play and they’re all going to help us.”

[snowball]

From the looks of it, Doc himself prefers Perk over Shaq with the starting unit via the Herald on Shaq:

“He’s been absolutely terrific with the first unit,” Rivers said. “He’s handled the minutes well. I look at all of them as second-unit guys because when (Kendrick Perkins [stats]) comes back, I think he fits our starting lineup better. But they’re all going to play and they’re all going to help us.”

Yep, we'll have to wait until the time..
but i still think if Shaq continues to perform like
this or even improves on it, there will be some
lobbying for the Big Consultant to start.. time will tell..