Shaq Mav?

Mark Cuban's not afraid to wheel and deal, that's for sure. He's pulled one trade off already, getting Jerry Stackhouse, Christian Laettner and Washington's #5 pick for Antawn Jamison. Rumors have him making a run at Shaq, offering Steve Nash, Antoine Walker and that #5 pick.

What would the Shaq Mavs look like? You'd have four all-star caliber starters, with Michael Finley at the small forward, Dirk at the four and Shaq in the middle. If Stack's healthy, he provides penitration capability at the two that will allow the Mavs to have a less-than-dynamic point guard to round out the starting five. That's one tough combination to beat.

Walker is not a good fit with Dallas. Walker and Nowitzki have similar games and are both natural power forwards. He'd be a better fit with the Lakers, especially if Karl Malone decides to retire.

For the Lakers, this might be a case of making a trade a year too soon rather than a year too late. Shaq has a lot of miles on the odometer and might start to wear down in the near future. As Ben puts it, it will leave the Lakers with "junk in the middle" but some good prospects elsewhere. If you get a lineup of Nash, Payton at the guards and Kobe sliding to the three with Fisher and George coming off the bench in a five-man 1-2-3 rotation, that will be hard to beat for most teams; however, with Luke Walton's emergence, one of those last two might be trade bait.

Walker is a hard match-up for most fours. They'd have to go with Medvedenko or a big guy they chose with the #5 pick in the middle, but the Magic Lakers won with a well-past-his-prime Kareem in the middle.

That might be a trade that will help both teams. The Pistons are thankful that they'll only have to play those two twice a year pre-finals.

Comments

[oceanguy]

if you havent' ever read Mark Cuban's Blog, you imight want to as the story matures...

[Alan K. Henderson]

If I owned the Lakers, I'd wait for Kobe's trial to end before doing any trades.