By Ming Wong #2

Shaq gets heaped bushels of credit—a lot of it from himself—for taking his teams to the Finals. No doubt he deserves all the praise—he did, after all cop three Finals MVPs and win four titles—but is there anyone in the history of the NBA who's been as blessed as he has to be paired with young and dynamic wingmen? Penny. Kobe. Dwyane. And now LeBron. All All-NBA First Teamers. All guys who are recognized by their first names. Now LBJ doesn't need Shaq to show him to the promised land; he's been there once. But Bron does need help winning the big game. Does Shaq still have enough to help LeBron win his first (or should it be can LBJ help Shaq win his fifth?)?

The biggest benefit to bringing in Shaq is on defense. Sure, he's no longer the nimble young man he once was, but he's still Shaq. At over seven feet and 350 or so pounds, the man still takes up plenty of air and ground space around the basket. He also gives Cleveland a counter to Dwight Howard, a matchup that exposed the Cavs during the playoffs. While the 37-year-old original Superman won't be able to keep up with the nouveau Superman, you can bet you won't see him get overpowered on the blocks. It will also force Howard into defending the one guy in the League that is stronger than himself. Shaq's bulk will also make it harder for Howard to outmuscle the Cavs on the boards. Essentially this trade boils down to Cleveland looking for an answer to Dwight Howard. The addition of Shaq looks to shore up their Cleveland's deficiencies in the middle and enhance their already fine defense.

The biggest question mark will be on offense. With Shaq's arrival to Phoenix, the Suns went from go-go to slow-mo. Not that Cleveland is a fast-paced team. They usually run predictable halfcourt sets that take advantage of their two weapons: LeBron James and perimeter shooting. With Shaq, the Cavs will now have the option of throwing the ball into the paint (Zydrunas Ilgauskas is a fine scoring center who makes his living on the perimeter). Even while Shaq's low post game is not as efficient as his younger days when he would either: catch, spin and dunk or catch, dribble, drop-step and dunk, he possesses a dependable turnaround jump hook and is still one of the finest passing big men in the game, able to make mediocre shooters into marksmen with the amount of attention he commands. The problem is, he might also clog the middle for LeBron, who gets to the basket better than anyone else in the game right now. In order to succeed, Shaq will have to break character into a more mobile center who can play the two-man game with LeBron. Shaq has never been a pick-and-roll kind of center, but if they can play it to perfection, you're talking about defenses having to react to two of the game's biggest players. A scary proposition.

Ultimately, will it work? We seem to think so. It's a gamble by Cleveland for sure (much like it was a crapshoot for Phoenix), but with the possibility of LeBron leaving after the coming season, Cavs GM Danny Ferry had no choice but to roll the dice. Shaq is due $20 million in '09-10, but will undoubtedly attract fans, sponsorships and most importantly, generate a great deal of hope for a city that has seen plenty of sports heartaches. And at this point in his career, that is all Shaq represents: hope.