Thursday, June 25th, 2009 | NBA | No Comments
The Cavaliers and the Suns have come to an agreement to trade Shaquielle O’Neal to the Cavailers to play with super star LeBron James. The deal should be finalized Thursday, according to ESPN sources. Cleveland will give up Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic and 46th pick in Thursday’s NBA draft. Shaq could be a dominant force since center Zydrunas Ilguskas has been breaking down since February. The Cacaliers struggled to defend Dwight Howard in the playoffs when they played the Magic and with the addition of the big man this should help. Shaquille averaged 17.8 points and 8.4 reboudns per game and made is 15th All-Star game. O’Neal who had only one year left on his contract will not take up any salary cap for the Cavs which made him a much better option, rumor had it that Cleveland was also looking at Tyson Chandler. The Cavaliers are not done with Shaq they are still looking to re-sign their power forward Anderson Varejao. With this trade the Suns look to save about $10 million next year in luxury tax and if Wallace decides to retire and they can buy him out of his $14 million contract they could save even more. The Suns are looking to rebuild and have the 14th pick in the draft.
Tags: Cleveland Cavaliers, Shawuille O'Neal