What team Shaquille O'Neal is likely to end up in?
Shaquille O’Neal the aging legend says he wants to come back to the NBA and win a few more championship titles. The retired big man out of the blue decided to return back to the league, and has left everyone wondering why? Is it because Kobe Bryant his rival recently exclaimed, "I just got one more than Shaq,”? After winning this year’s NBA championship title or is it because he still actually believes he has what it takes?
Shaquille who is in his late 30’s claims he has a few good two to three years more left in him and wants to try his luck for another championship title, with having four in his pocket already. Although the player averaged a low score of 11.5 points in his last playoffs, he still has managed to make a lot of franchises excited, after stating in an interview that he wants to continue his reign.
With all the top free-agents being signed on by their respective teams, O’Neal is now the Number 1 free-agent in NBA. Despite his poor performance in last year’s playoffs, the big man has had a stellar career with averaging a high 30.4 PPG in previous years. With him making it to the top in the free-agency, here are a few possible teams he might want to land in.
This might sound ludicrous, but there are rumours surfacing that Shaquille might just strike a deal with the Los Angeles Lakers. Really! Shaq to the Lakers with his long term dispute with Kobe Bryant, which seems to steam up once in a while, has been thrown water on? Has Kobe forgotten about the time when Shaq sang a song about him tasting his a*s? It does sound crazy but it could be that the two players have settled their differences privately which the media has yet to know about. On the other hand there are also rumours speculating that Carmelo Anthony might be traded to the Lakers in a sign-off deal.
O’Neal could quite possibly end up in Boston Celtics roster substituting Kendrick Perkins. Perkins plays as a centre for the Celtics but due to a recent knee injury he is taking time off. Shaquille is known for his ability to form duos with teammates, and could definitely form a strong one with Kevin Garnett who is the power forward for the team. With the two playing side to side their sheer power and size would rip right through the other teams.
Although the fact that the Celtics have already signed another O’Neal could possible weaken his possibilities of being welcomed on the team. Jeramine O’Neal is now the centre for the Celtics and recently signed a two-year deal with them, after departing from Miami Heat.
Billionaire Mark Cuban who also owns the Dallas Mavericks has reportedly shown a lot of interest in Shaquille after he found what his plans are. Although Dallas recently signed onto Tyson Chandler who previously played for the Charlotte Bobcats adding another strong centre like Shaquille would just add to the solid core of forward/centres like Dirk Nowitzki, Brendan Haywood, which might not work very well for the team.
Reports say that the Atlanta Hawks are planning on throwing a deal at Shaquille as they believe he still has potential and could be a great mentor to Al Horford, their current centre. Horford is Hawks key centre at the moment and has great potential; the young player averaged 14.0 points per game with 9.0 rebounds in last year’s playoffs.
Recently the experts concluded that the Miami Heat could be a great option for Shaquille’ as he has previously taken the team to win their first NBA title along with Dwyane Wade, they also insist the fact that he knows the team well and would also work well with the newly formed trio which consists of, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh. Although Miami Recently recruited Zydrunas Ilgauskas as their new centre but if compared to Shaq he does not come up to the mark.
Miami Heat could indeed use Shaq right now, and vice versa, as his and the team’s main objective is common - to win another NBA Championship title.
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