Shaq at 37

[Keith Ellis]

In the CleveLand preseason it was said that Shaquille O'Neal's best move would be to play the Russell role as Chamberlain did when leading the Lakers to 33 straight wins & a 69-13 season. To do so effectively O'Neal's scoring would drop to about 9 ppg (pro-rated against Wilt's 13-15 ppg of the Sharman years).

So far so good re Shaq's ppg. Yet in this young season Shaq's shooting, however is at .472 -- a far cry from the 73% Dipper dunked in '73. He also looks very unlikely to lead the league in Rebounding & defensive play (e.g. Blocked Shots) as Dipper did in '72 & '73. Perhaps perceptions of Shaq as the New Wilt were premature.

[Robert Bradley]

Shaq doesn't have nearly enough mobility defensively to make this practical.

The phases of the game where he still excels are post offense and defense and rebounding.

He can still overpower people offensively, and can still pass the bass, but other than right around the basket you can't expect to much from him on either end of the court.