Shaq to Cleveland

Damn. This shakes up things in the East a little bit, huh!

Cleveland gets: C Shaquille O'Neal
Phoenix gets: SG Sasha Pavlovic, C Ben Wallace, 46th Overall Pick in tonights draft, $500,000

This is all assuming the deal gets approved by the way. (I'll be shocked if it doesn't)

Initial thoughts are just that this is a shocking deal. LeBron finally gets the big man that he has needed. But unfortunately for him, Shaq is about 8 years past his prime. He is still a force to be reckoned with in the paint due to the pure size of the man, but he definitely did not fit in the Suns fast break offensive scheme which makes them happy to part with him, that on top of dumping his salary and opening up space for free agents and rookies. Phoenix getting Ben Wallace would have been big news 6 years ago, but ever since that championship Detroit team Wallace has been nothing more than a fart in the wind. He plays so piss poor offensively and his devense is getting worse and worse each year that he is just a liability to have on the court for your team. After reading up about Sasha Pavlovic, it appears that the Suns will likely cut him immediately and make more cap space. His 4.6 PPG and 1.1 APG arn't exactly striking numbers. You can never go wrong with draft picks. They could potentially take the 46th, and their first rounder (14th) and trade up, or even take the 46th, and their 2nd rounder (48th) and trade up with that.

If there is one thing you will learn about me, is that I love draft picks, there is so much you can do with them.

But what does this ultimately do to the layout of the East? Well assuming Boston does not deal any of the big three or Rondo, and assuming the Magic only lose Turk, these three teams will be the teams to beat, still. Boston has two solid seasons left in them with their current players, unfortunately, which puts a LOT of pressure on them this season. I think you will see different coaching philosophies this year by Doc Rivers and he will rest a lot of the big three throughout the season to ensure their health come the playoffs. Home court advantage is a huge deal, however if the Celtics can be a four seed next year, but be healthy and have no injuries to major players, I would like our chances.

The Magic will likely fade out over time, unless Dwight Howard picks up his offense. I had never really had a good opportunity to watch Howard play except during All-Star games, Dunk Contests and the Beijing Olympics (which the show was stolen by the best player on the planet, Kobe Bryant), but I remember walking into the Magic vs. Celtics series being scared of Howard, thinking he was going to drop 25 points per game. Then after watching him only dunk and layup, I actually was extremely disapointed in the kid. You hear so much about him and see all these highlights on Sportscenter, but the guy can't hit a shot 7 feet away from the rim. It's sad. Defensively he is a stud, but hes embarrassing on offense. Either way, without Turk drainining shots next to Lewis next year, the Magic will falter, even though they'll still be a top team.

Which brings us to the Cavs. LeBron and company will be an absoulte force to be reckoned with, as always, however adding Shaq to the mix doesn't automatically propel them to the Finals just yet. Shaq has always needed that big point scorer asside him for him to be dominant (Kobe and Wade). LeBron fits perfectly into that role, but it was the 2005-2006 season in which Shaq last had a dominant Wade. Next year will be 5 seasons after that, and at age 37, Shaq is by no means in the best shape of his life. His knees have to give out on him eventually, for a man that size to not have knee problems would be incredible. Fortunately for the Cav's, they essentially lost nothing in this trade. Adding Shaq is a risk because of his age, but for what they gave up it would be foolish for any team to not do what they did. If Shaq can somehow find the fountain of youth, and share enough time on and off of the court with Z so that they're both healthy for the playoffs, then watch out for the Cavs. But if Shaq just becomes another liability that LeBron needs to pick up the slack of, then watch for him to be traded at the deadline.

Either way, this shakeup in the East definitely makes things interesting.

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X-Box's answer to the Wii (and more!)

It looks like XBox is getting in competition with the Wii for active video games, with this video(click on the "Featured Video" towards the bottom right). And if it works the way it is portrayed in this video, then it will be taking a hot steamy dump on the Wii. That skateboarding game could be amazing.

Speaking of Video Games, I've been playing UFC Undisputed 2009 for my PS3 pretty frequently over the past two weeks, and I'm finally ready to tell the world my two cents: Like most fighting games, its always better when you're playing another human, but in this game it is a million times better. The career mode is pretty cool, it takes about halfway through the career mode until you really can figure out how you're supposed to be playing the game, and then from there on out the game is awesome. Whats cool is that the UFC forces you to retired 'when your contract is up' but what really that means is that you have about 30 fights in your carrer, which is kind of cool because you cant just string out your career because most guys don't really fight past the 30 fight mark. It is fun to take the game online and fight other people, because this game allows people to have so many different styles of fighting, however there are some downsides to the online aspect of the game. Unlike EA Sports games, the online menus are terrible. You pretty much have to play a quick match and play a random opponent. If you're struggling at the game and looking to get better you can't seek out people with bad records and fight them and if you're really good and looking for good competition you can't seek out highly ranked players. The quick match tends to do a decent job in hooking you up with similar competition, but about every fourth fight is against someone who is either terrible or incredible. If the menus were better, then the whole online experience would be a hell of a lot better. Overall, I am enjoying this game, and am having a whole lot of fun knocking the snot out of people and then taking them to the ground to tap them out. Get this game if you're into fighting games.

And while I'm here... people are pissed at LeBron for not shaking the hands of the Orlando Magic after they lost. My initial thought? Whatever, he's pissed. They were the one seed, lost only a few games at home in the regular season, and lost in the playoffs to an overrated Magic team. I'd be mad if I was LeBron too... guy dropped over 30 points consistantly in the playoffs only to have his team fall apart around him, or as I like to say it, depend too much on him. Up until this afternoon I didn't really care too much, until SportsCenter did a mini segment on it and Barry Melrose made the following point: He shook hands with teams after his team won, he talked to the media after his team one, but he can't do these things after they lose? Be consistant. Sure the NBA isn't like the NHL where the end of playoff series handshake is a tradition, and it isn't like MLB where the winning team celebrates on the field while the losing team stays in their dugout and walks down to the locker room. One way or another, stay consistant with what you do, and LeBron did not do that. A player of his calaber and level is going to be judged upon these things, and he needs know that and get his act together. I'm not saying he should be shaking hands, or shouldn't be, but he needs to make up his mind and stick to it. One way or another, I'm happy the Cav's are not in the finals... I was rooting for the Nuggets and the Magic pretty much based on the fact that those Most Valuable Puppet commercials were made before the Finals even started, and because the NBA would be so upset based on the fact that the Finals ratings would drop as low as the NHL Finals. As far as who I'm rooting for in the NBA Finals... I wouldn't say I'm rooting for the Magic to win, I'm just rooting for the Lakers to not win... so I guess go Magic?

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