This move is not what everyone thinks.
This was not Cleveland really wanting Shaq's skills. They wanted his salary. Or rather, they wanted it off the books. O'Neal's 20 million dollar a year contract is due to run out after this season, which basically frees up enough money for Cleveland to not just re-sign LeBron James, but gives them enough space to go after one, possibly even two other free agents. Say, Joe Johnson and Chris Bosh. Or Steve Nash and A'Mare. Or any other of the plethora of free agents available next summer.
As for this up-coming season, Shaq'll be a big body in the middle. I doubt he'll average more than 17 and 9. That's best case. I say he averages around 15.5 and 7.5. In that area.
On the Suns end, they just wanted to start over. They got back a 2nd rounder, a 2-guard who won't average more than 15 minutes a game and the corpse of Ben Wallace plus 500,000 dollars or roughly what it cost to feed Shaq this past season.
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