SHAQ!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, this one's a mind-blower. Two future Hall of Famers on the same team at the same time, right here in Cleveland. LeBron and Shaq. Shaq and LeBron. When this trade was rumored a couple of weeks ago, I'm sure we all thought it was too good to be true. But yet, here it is. Shaquille O'Neal is going to become a Cleveland Cavalier. Wow!

Yes, it's true that he's 37 years old, and is no longer the player he was in Los Angeles, or Orlando, or even Miami. But jeez, the guy still scored 17.8 points and hauled in 8.4 rebounds a game last year for the Suns, shot 60% from the floor and made his 15th All-Star team. Nobody's going to tell me you wouldn't take that kind of production next year. (And yes, I know he won't score like that when he's sharing the offense with LeBron. Still, though, he'll take a lot of that offensive pressure off the King.)

This will most likely mean Zydrunas Ilgauskas will come off the bench next year, and that's a good thing. Z is one of my all-time favorite Cleveland athletes, but his 34-year-old body is starting to break down. With Z and Shaq splitting the minutes at center, that's going to allow both of them to stay fresh down the stretch and into the playoffs, which is huge.

The best part about this deal is the Cavs gave up next to nothing. Ben Wallace is at the end of the line, and will probably retire. Sasha Pavlovic didn't contribute much last season, as the Mo Williams acquisition made him fairly redundant. The 46th pick in the draft doesn't usually amount to much.

Shaquille O'Neal is coming to Cleveland. This is a good day to be a Cavs fan.

Shaq in Cleveland?

You've probably all heard the rumors, and they're apparently true. The Cavaliers are talking to the Suns about a trade that would allegedly send the great Shaquille O'Neal to Cleveland in exchange for Sasha Pavlovic and Ben Wallace. Pavlovic was a starter on the team that went to the Finals in '07, but no longer plays much; and Wallace is a former All-Star who is no longer the player he was, and is now contemplating retirement.

So if that part of the rumor is true, the Cavs would be basically getting something for close to nothing. And according to this story at ESPN.com, that's not going to be enough to get Shaq. The report says the Suns are interested in Delonte West, but I'd sure hate to see him go in exchange for a 37-year-old, even if it is Shaquille O'Neal.

On the other hand, Shaq is coming off a fine season, in which he averaged 17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds a game for the also-ran Suns. Teamed up with LeBron James and Mo Williams, he wouldn't be a good bet to put up those scoring numbers, but I think it's pretty obvious he's still got most of what he had in his younger days in Orlando and Los Angeles.

The obvious question is, would Shaq have made the difference in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Magic? They beat us with a strong perimeter game, made possible in large part by Dwight Howard's dominance in the paint. I love Zydrunas Ilgauskas, but he wasn't able to do much to slow Howard down. Somebody like O'Neal, who's just three years older than Z, might have been able to do something about that. And wouldn't you love to see LeBron and Shaq together? Z would gladly come off the bench to make room for Shaq, and I wouldn't be surprised to see both of them on the floor at the same time sometimes, as their skill sets are very different.

These talks are reportedly in the very preliminary stages, so it sounds like it'll be a while before anything gets done, if it ever does. But I don't mind telling you I hope it happens.

It's raining 3s

It seems our Cavaliers set a new franchise record last night. And not in a good way.

The Phoenix Suns hit 17 three-pointers on their way to a 110-108 squeaker over the Cavs. They took 33 shots from beyond the arc, which works out to 51.5 percent 3-point shooting. Truth is, I didn't see the game; I went out last night and forgot to DVR it. But those numbers tell me our boys didn't get any hands in the Suns' faces. Steve Nash, the only 6-foot white Canadian ever to be named MVP of the NBA, hit seven of nine. That's just crazy.

This was the Cavs' first game since Sasha Pavlovic went down with a sprained foot. Sasha was mostly in the starting lineup for his defense (his offense has been pretty lame all season), so Mike Brown chose to replace him with alleged defensive wizard Ira Newble. Newble is by all accounts a fine human being, and he and I went to the same college, but the box score tells me he didn't do much. Defense can be hard to quantify, and he did get three steals in his 12 minutes, but he also scored zero points, got one rebound, and committed two turnovers and two fouls. You can't start a guy in an NBA game who's not going to give you more than that.

I don't know why Boobie Gibson hasn't been starting all season, frankly. Sasha's got some skills, but Boobie's got more, if you ask me. If Mike Brown calls me today, I'm going to tell him to start Boobie.