jaypo wrote:No, Tsherkin. It's not. He's always said that he's a "back to the basket" center. I see people on here saying that he should have developed a mid range game and a pretty jump shot, but when you are able to shoot 60% from inside, why go outside?
That has absolutely nothing to do with my comments. I was very clearly speaking only about his pick-and-roll defense. It is Shaq's defensive responsibility to show hard on a high screen-and-roll, he's just always been lazy about it.
As far as pick and roll defense, he just doesn't feel comfortable going out on the wing to chase the smaller, quicker players. The other teams that attacked the Lakers and Heat on pick and rolls knew this. It was no big secret. The reason he doesn't excel at defending the pick and roll is because of his size. Early on in his career, there wasn't much talk at all about it because he was quicker and better at it. Later on, he slowed down, and it got worse.
No, that's definitely incorrect; Shaq has been weak on the pick-and-roll since he was drafted. It got worse as he got lazier but then, so did his rebounding.
Several factors converge here:
CRAPPY conditioning leaning to annual injuries and weaker stamina than he'd have otherwise have had, and lack of effort. It has nothing to do with quickness.
During his first year in Miami wasn't a great deal of discussion about Shaq's pick-and-roll D because he was doing it just fine. He got torched a lot by Billups in the '04 Finals but he was playing without as much effort because he was hugely angered by Kobe and frustrated by the roleplayers failing to contribute.
Someone also mentioned his dedication. It's a shame that someone that spends his offseason graduating from college, getting his masters degree, studying for his PHD, raising 6 children, and becoming a police officer is penalized for being lazy and not dedicated. Maybe he wasn't as dedicated to the NBA as you people would have liked him to be, but it seems to me that he is the one with his priorities in order, and you people are the ones with the skewed view of reality!!
No, there's a difference between balancing work and personal life but Shaq's insistence on ignoring the physical conditioning necessary to play at a level that justifies the contracts he demands is definitely a concern.
The fact that he ever let himself get to 380 pounds is a disgrace, for example, and his history of injuries has a lot to do with his poor conditioning habits. Shaq has done strength training but has plainly neglected to monitor and control his weight, to work sufficiently on flexibility training and what-not.
This is not something you can justify by commenting on it as a "balanced" life; this is someone who isn't displaying the dedication required of a $20+ million dollar player.
That you chose to use those players as an example is a ploy, nothing more. What of Dwight Howard? The worst news anyone has ever heard of him is that he's had a child out of wedlock with a woman with whom he's been in a relationship for three years and that only because he's an outspoken Christian.
What of Alonzo Mourning, or Karl Malone? Karl Malone brought his trucking company down to New Orleans after Katrina to help out. Alonzo Mourning has been a MASSIVE charity force over the years.
I could go on but it would be redundant.
Work ethic is not something associated with thugs. Iverson is the kind of guy who got in trouble for skipping practices, not just in Philly but being late for the Team USA practice one time. He's got heart and desire and what-not but he's hardly a guy you're looking at for the full measure of the word 'dedication.'
And again, you've managed to ignore the equally sizeable group of good citizens who work hard, and doing so only to advance your point. This is a fallacious argument.
EDIT:
As far as the comments being made about diversity of offense...
The problem is Shaq's FT shooting; it has always been abysmal, except for 02-03, when it was merely mediocre to bad. This has been a gross deficiency in his game his entire career.
And he has been resistant to efforts to improve upon it on account of image. Witness him insulting Rick Barry because he has no interest in shooting free throws underhanded, even though Barry could have gotten Shaq to at least 75%, maybe 80%+ from the line.
That'd be a start.
Now, if Shaq were to have developed a 15-foot jumper, that would be all he needed to RADICALLY open up his game.
Remember, Shaq is almost exclusively limited to the low left block; he's much less effective on the right side and his efficiency takes a noticeable hit once he gets past 10 feet from the rim. When he was younger, it was a lot less worrisome but now that his athleticism has diminished, his physical dominance has taken with it a lot of his ability to impact a game offensively. He was much less of an impact player on Miami than he had been at any other time in his career and it was because he couldn't do the same sorts of things he'd done when he was younger.
If he had a 15-footer, he could play high post offense in the style of Vlade and Chris Webber. Or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton.
He wouldn't have to be PREDOMINANTLY a high post player but it would have opened his game up, changed the way defenses had to guard him, etc.
If he'd not turned himself into an overweight lead balloon, he might have taken advantage of a face-up post game to COMPLEMENT his primary back-to-the-basket style, something a 15-footer would've helped. It would have been another way to draw fouls, another way to score when the defenses were loading up on him too heavily in the low post, etc.
Really, it's about maximizing your effectiveness as a player and Shaq has never really made the effort to open up his game, something that would have dramatically altered how dangerous he really could have been.
The common criticism of Shaq has been that his game is limited, and it's true. He was a great player but a lot of the games where he had a crapload of fouls, his ability to impact the game when he wasn't sitting was changed because he had to be a lot more tentative offensively and that ruined his offense. If he could've stepped back and hit some foul-line and baseline jumpers, worked as a high post passing hub and scored off the face-up, he'd have been able to be more aggressive even deeper into foul trouble.
EVERY player should be able to shoot out to 15 feet, no exceptions. To not develop that shot is to prove your lack of dedication to the game and Shaq has long been lambasted for his weak conditioning and game development practices, and rightfully so.
