Would Shaq be exposed defensively in today's NBA?

[alebaba]

Yhea buddy, tell me more about how I've never played basketball in my life. I'd love for you to show me that on court sometime. You're more than welcome to explain to me how Shaq is going to guard the spacing of a modern NBA offense out of 28 feet. I'm all ears big guy.

No wonder Joel Embiid is a bum, its not like hes a top 10 player in the nba.

Did I say that Shaq wouldn't be a top 10 player in the NBA today? I must've blacked out when I said that 'cause I don't remember.

Bruh, you said Kevin Druant would be able to guard Shaq and team would be able to run his ass out. Cmon dude. Ppl act like Shaq was a bad defender or something, obviously never seen a prime Shaq before.

[druggas]

A lot of small centers, would be suffering from Shaqitis.

[clyde21]

No wonder Joel Embiid is a bum, its not like hes a top 10 player in the nba.

Did I say that Shaq wouldn't be a top 10 player in the NBA today? I must've blacked out when I said that 'cause I don't remember.

Bruh, you said Kevin Druant would be able to guard Shaq and team would be able to run his ass out. Cmon dude. Ppl act like Shaq was a bad defender or something, obviously never seen a prime Shaq before.

No I didn't. I said Shaq wouldn't be able to guard Kevin Durant if I put Durant at at Center. Stop making **** up. The least you can do is read the posts you're responding to.

[iggymcfrack]

Shaq only became a weak-ish defender because he’d dominated the league so throughly that he got bored and he let himself get out of shape. That and a feeling that gaining weight was good for the banging post game of the time. If he played in this era, and needed to be an elite PnR defender to compete for championships, that’s exactly what he’d become. You’d see a physical version of Shaq that much more resembled 90s Shaq than 2000s Shaq.

[McKenna]

He might have to move those tree trunk legs on D, but he'd still be an automatic 2pts down the other end.

[Jkam31]

Prime Shaq wouldn’t make a roster in this era


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[rapstarter]

I love how someone's idea of exposing Shaq is putting Durant on him. LOL.

If you think Nikola Jokic is a good player in this league, Shaq was twice the athlete and player.

[og15]

Shaq was exposed defensively via pick and roll after he got big even when he played, an example was by Mike Bibby with the Kings, so yea, of course he would, and there would be some teams that are especially bad matchups, but he would also make it up on the other end. He would also force some teams who go small to add some lumbering guys to their bench/roster.

[-TheDocOfDenial]

Prime Shaq wouldn’t make a roster in this era


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Yea I mean putting kevin durant on him would make him pack his bags and go to china. Only if the kings played peja at C and ran him off the court they wouldnt have had to play that game 6. I heard that no one knew what a pick and roll was untill 2015 when curry started the largest revolution since 1917.

[ckman]

Did I say that Shaq wouldn't be a top 10 player in the NBA today? I must've blacked out when I said that 'cause I don't remember.

Bruh, you said Kevin Druant would be able to guard Shaq and team would be able to run his ass out. Cmon dude. Ppl act like Shaq was a bad defender or something, obviously never seen a prime Shaq before.

No I didn't. I said Shaq wouldn't be able to guard Kevin Durant if I put Durant at at Center. Stop making **** up. The least you can do is read the posts you're responding to.

This is just silly, you put Curry ,Harden or any perimeter player at center , Shaq won’t be able to guard them too.
The things is , that would also mean you need to guard him , Shaq would break them into pieces at the other end before the 1st quarter end.

[thamadkant]

He may give up some perimeter shots but he would average 30ppg on 60% FG and grab 15 rebounds a game with a couple of blocks.

So he may not protect the perimeter... but centers today are too "lean" to stop a 300 pound explosive 7'1 player who WANTS to dunk it all the time.

[DaPessimist]

Shaq’s biggest issue would be staying out of foul trouble. The way refs call flops on the post these days, he might not be able to stay on the court.

Not sure why you would


High P&R all game with ticky tack perimeter fouls. Undersized forwards and guards flopping all game in the post. Shaq trying to play a power post game in the modern league would certainly lead to constant foul trouble.

[alebaba]

Did I say that Shaq wouldn't be a top 10 player in the NBA today? I must've blacked out when I said that 'cause I don't remember.

Bruh, you said Kevin Druant would be able to guard Shaq and team would be able to run his ass out. Cmon dude. Ppl act like Shaq was a bad defender or something, obviously never seen a prime Shaq before.

No I didn't. I said Shaq wouldn't be able to guard Kevin Durant if I put Durant at at Center. Stop making **** up. The least you can do is read the posts you're responding to.

I didn't make anything up, stop lying to yourself and I already told you why putting Kevin Durant at center wouldn't work but you totally ignored it.

[Plutonashfan]

Did people here not see Shaq his first 3 years in the league. He was lean and mean. He works average 35 and 15 easily and if weak point guards that couldn't dunk Ala Curry Conley or Irving tried to lay up on him that ball would be the third row, no doubt.

[bigbreakfast]

We have a thread like this every month. Yea Shaq would have trouble, just like he did when he played. People act like running a dominant interior defender to the perimeter and involving them in perimeter action is a completely new concept when it's not.

Furthermore every poster act like Shaq wouldn't be feasting on players of this era like he did in his era... Very little thought put into these posts.

[azcatz11]

Shaq was exposed defensively via pick and roll after he got big even when he played, an example was by Mike Bibby with the Kings, so yea, of course he would, and there would be some teams that are especially bad matchups, but he would also make it up on the other end. He would also force some teams who go small to add some lumbering guys to their bench/roster.

The question is how much would he be able to make up...honestly this isn't a bad thread if we're talking the Warriors. If Shaq is shooting like 70% on 18 attempts a game it would get interesting.

[reborn123]

He’d be a more beastly version of Dwight Howard. I think Shaq has skills we weren’t able to see since he was relegated mostly to the post. He could put the ball on the floor and was a better passer than most realize. I remember a quote where he says we haven’t seen the other side of him (in basketball).

[clyde21]

Bruh, you said Kevin Druant would be able to guard Shaq and team would be able to run his ass out. Cmon dude. Ppl act like Shaq was a bad defender or something, obviously never seen a prime Shaq before.

No I didn't. I said Shaq wouldn't be able to guard Kevin Durant if I put Durant at at Center. Stop making **** up. The least you can do is read the posts you're responding to.

I didn't make anything up, stop lying to yourself and I already told you why putting Kevin Durant at center wouldn't work but you totally ignored it.

Yes, you did. I didn't say I'm putting Kevin Durant at Center so he can guard Shaq. I said I'm putting Durant at Center because Shaq won't be able to guard him. My goal is simple: I won't be able to stop him offensively anyways, so I will try to make him work as much as possible defensively. I'll push the pace, spread the floor, make him cover more dimensions of the court, make him have to switch as much as possible, and put him in the PNR consistently. It's indisputable that he'll have trouble with that.

I'm not sure why you're having such a hard time keeping up with this thread, but it's becoming more and more evident that you're the one who's never picked up a basketball.

[GrandTheftRondo]

Laker Shaq was still ten times more athletic than slow footed scrubs like Kanter and Okafor.

Put him in today's NBA with today's training regimes and knowing that he can't just rock up out of shape and expect to survive defensively, Shaq would be fine.

Young Shaq along with Wilt are probably the quickest and most explosive 7 footers in history.

[RakimAbdulJabar]

Shaq is one of the most dominant players to ever step on the court, I'm pretty sure no matter the opposing teams chose to do you're better off with him than without him. Also, do people think the 3 point shot was only recently introduced? Yes teams are jacking them up more often these days, but it's not like teams weren't putting up 3's in Shaq's career...weird