Cavs Offense Brought Down By Weight Of Shaq. Get It? Weight? Cause He’s Fat, You See

Posted by on Saturday, November 28, 2009 2 Comments

Well, the numbers do say Shaq is doing something bad to Cleveland’s offense.

According to 82games.com, the Cleveland offense is more than eight points per 48 minutes worse when Shaq is on the floor. What in particular is the problem? Well, Cleveland’s shooting is worse with Shaq playing (even though Shaq tends to be a high-efficiency player) and the team’s offensive rebounding is worse. The biggest deal, though, might be in drawing fouls: the Cavs average four free throws per 48 minutes fewer with Shaq on the court. Of course, a huge part of LeBron’s game is drawing fouls — Shaq seems to hamper that part of the offense, according to the numbers.

via Is Shaq Killing the Cavs Offense? — NBA FanHouse.

Ziller confirms what we all essentially know, which is that Shaquille O’Neal, who killed Phoenix’s offense, is killing Cleveland’s offense. Amazing. After all, this was a guy who played “like an All-Star last season.” It leads to an examination of what role plus/minus should have on the All-Star voting. If you don’t dig metrics, that’s fine, but you should look at what a player does to his team in whole. After all, Steve Kerr right now is singing “THANK YOU, DANNY, THANK YOU SO MUCH!” while his team streaks back into top-three-seed contention by just going back to what they were doing before he showed up.

If you want a huge conundrum? What do you do with Z here? I mean, if this trend continues and Shaq keeps hurting the club, you need Z.  But if you want to acquire a player to compensate for Shaq’s damage, you need to move Z. So what do you do? Do you risk decimating your depth and a player that fits into your offense and has been around FOR-EV-ER? Or do you cash in your chip to try and compensate for the $20 million investment you made that’s struggling to integrate? Too early to pull the trigger, but the next two months are going to be interesting stuff to track.

Oster-Tags: , , , , , ,

About Matt Moore: Matt Moore is a Senior NBA Blogger for CBSSports.com's Eye on Basketball blog, weekend editor of Pro Basketball Talk on NBCSports.com, and co-editor of Voice on the Floor. He lives in Kansas City due to an unbelievably complex set of circumstances and enjoys mid-90's pop rock, long walks on the beach and the novels of Tim Sandlin.

All Posts by  |  Personal Blog  |  Twitter  |  Share By Email
Post comment as
twitter logo facebook logo
Sort: Newest | Oldest
Red

This is a case where stats don't tell the story. The Cavs have been on a learning curve all year. They started slowly and have been getting progressively better on offense. They were starting to get going just before Shaq got down, and it continued with him on the bench. Now, if you're not watching the games, you'd say that's because of Shaq. But if you've been following the Cavs, you'd know the team has been steadily adjusting since preseason.

With Shaq back, they had their best offensive game probably in LeBron's entire tenure in Cleveland, putting 111, and 68 in the 1st half. Also, Shaq is one of the reason the Cavs are killing from 3 this year due to the spacing he creates.

And in general, the Cavs are 12-5 and destroyed the Magic in Orlando, which is one of the main reasons they traded for Shaq. If he can not let Howard go crazy (which he won't) then he will have succeeded. Moreover, they are still adjusting but still winning. You're calls for panic are completely unfounded at this point. If there is a problem, its not their offense anyway - that has been fine. Its there defense (which has been poor without Shaq) is their main point of concern.

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like
Stormin Norman

Shaq is pulling them down. Check out this great photoshop of "The Big Shaqckle"--http://notqualifiedtocomment.com/2009/10/the-big-s...

It's hilarious.

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like