| Will J.O. Be Reborn In Miami? Authored by Andrew Perna - February 28, 2009 - 6:05 pm
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The Raptors, coming off a 41-41 season, and just a year removed from a 47-35 effort, had three All-Star caliber players in point guard Jose Calderon, O'Neal and Bosh, with a solid supporting cast comprised of sharpshooter Jason Kapono, former No. 1 overall pick Andrea Bargnani and the emerging Jamario Moon.
It didn't take long, however, to realize that the Jermaine O'Neal experiment would be an unsuccessful one.
Toronto was 21-34 after Feb. 11's victory over the Spurs, which would be O'Neal's final game as a Raptor. Fittingly, he scored 7 points on 2-for-11 shooting, while grabbing 10 rebounds and swatting 6 shots. If you take away the poor shooting, it was one of his better efforts this season.
As could have been expected, Jermaine missed thirteen games with a variety of injuries -- most significantly a bum knee.
That has been the knock on O'Neal, who hasn't been fully healthy in quite some time. Everyone is aware of how talented he is, but he is just as likely to miss a month of time as he is to post a string of double-doubles.
In this thirteen-year career, J.O. has never appeared in all 82 games, topping 75 just three times.
After spending four seasons on the bench in Portland, essentially the equivalent of a four-year stay in college, O'Neal was sent to Indiana, where he blossomed.
His first season with the Pacers, the 2000-01 campaign, was also his most complete and efficient. He appeared in 81 games, starting 80, while putting up 12.9 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game on just ten shots.
In 2001-02, he would take home the NBA's Most Improved Player award after averaging 19.0 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks. He would also make the first of six straight All-Star appearances that February, and had officially entered his name into the conversation as one of the best big men in the game.
However, after hitting his peak in 2003-04, when he finished third in the MVP voting, things began to unravel.
His played in just 44 games in 2004-05 (due to suspension and injury), but kept his name among the NBA's elite with 24.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in those contests.
That season, though, would turn out to be a sign of things to come. He would go on to miss a total of 84 games over his final three seasons in Indiana, as both his minutes and production would decrease substantially. Last season, his final with the Pacers, he contributed just 13.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks on a bum knee.
His numbers with the Raptors were almost identical, as were his injury woes. But after taking some time off to rest his troublesome knee, he claims he's feeling good. Of course, that could be the warm weather in South Beach.
Many feel as though the Heat are the perfect fit for O'Neal, who is looking to prove his critics wrong by returning to the 20/10 form that people had come to expect from the former prep-to-pro success story.
The Pacers may not have been a good fit for him in recent seasons, but they were not too long ago. When he nearly took home the MVP award back in 2004, Indiana featured him prominently, while mixing in sizable doses of Ron Artest, Al Harrington, Reggie Miller and Jamaal Tinsley.
That team was the ideal fit for O'Neal, who it has been proven isn't an effective leader on his own. He couldn't handle the brunt of scrutiny that came along with replacing Miller as the face of the franchise, and wasn't able to consistently beat double-teams with Indiana's roster watered down soon after they won an NBA-best 61 wins five years ago.
Artest, Harrington and Miller helped make the game much easier for O'Neal in a variety of ways.
Both Harrington and Artest liked to venture out to the three-point line, but both also had the bodies needed to bang in the paint. If they moved out to the perimeter, their defenders were forced to decide whether to double O'Neal, or leave him with man-to-man coverage inside. At that point in time, there weren't many players that Jermaine couldn't take one-on-one, whether he was sliding out for a mid-range jumper or using either hand around the rim.
Before long, though, injuries set in and the Pacers became a shell of their former selves.
Gone was Harrington (traded to Atlanta for Stephen Jackson), Miller (retirement after the 2004-05 season), and Artest (dealt for Peja Stojakovic midway through the 2005-06 campaign).
Stojakovic, who teamed with O'Neal to make a decent inside-outside combination while bringing a helping hand on the boards, lasted just a half season before bolting to New Orleans for more money than he was worth.
Looking to rekindle their success, the Pacers re-acquired Harrington to pair alongside his old buddy O'Neal. When that failed, they packaged Harrington with Jackson, who became a malcontent, and landed Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy.
Murphy, at the time, appeared like a great talent to play alongside O'Neal. He was a double-double machine, with an outside shot that could create more space for Jermaine when the offense called for it.
However, O'Neal and Murphy would only play 77 games together.
That brings us back to the Heat, J.O.'s fourth NBA team. Are they built to resurrect his career?
Miami is a lot different than Toronto, which bodes well for O'Neal.
Calderon is a great playmaker, but Dwyane Wade is obviously in another class. He's unlike anyone O'Neal has played with, and has the type of game that will take pressure off him (both on the court and in the locker room), while helping make the game easier.
O'Neal got himself into trouble at times in Indiana when trying to create his own offense. He has no trouble stepping out eighteen feet to drain a jumper, but asking him to dribble from that point to the rim, or vice versa, can at times be an issue. Passers like Artest and Tinsley knew where to get him the ball, down-low with a favorable matchup, or outside when guarded by an immobile big man unaccustomed to defending a jump shot.
Wade has the type of court vision that will recognize where O'Neal is comfortable, and some of his other teammates are good fits as well.
Michael Beasley can step out of the paint comfortably when the play calls for it, while forcing his man to step far away from hoop. He's also growing in just his rookie season, and will be prepared to help O'Neal even more next year.
Udonis Haslem can take the tougher defensive assignment in the paint and bang on the offensive glass, which isn't something Bosh was able to do consistently in Toronto. Haslem is a more athletic, but perhaps not as scrappy, version of Jeff Foster, a teammate of O'Neal in Indiana for eight years.
On the perimeter, the Heat have the shooters to spread the floor.
The 2004 edition of the Pacers had a handful of guys that could get hot from outside -- Miller, Tinsley, Artest, Austin Croshere and Jonathan Bender.
Miami has a comparable cast of shooters with Daequan Cook, Chris Quinn, Mario Chalmers and even Moon and Wade.
The pieces are in place for a rebirth as the Heat are a much better fit for O'Neal's skill set than the Raptors. Unfortunately for both Jermaine and Miami, the uncontrollable possibility of injury will loom over his head until he's able to string together a healthy season.
He's averaging just 11.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.4 blocks through his first five games with the Heat, but he's got twenty games and a playoff run to prove he can still hang with the league's best.
If he doesn't return to elite status, he'll earn far less than the $20M+ he will next season when he hits the free agent market in the summer of 2010.
With that said, he's only 30, and has considerably less tread on his tires than your typical thirteen-year veteran.
A rebirth certainly isn't a definite for Jermaine O'Neal, but Miami is a perfect place to oversee such a metamorphosis.
Andrew Perna is Deputy Editor of RealGM.com and co-host of RealGM's Radio Show. Please feel free to contact him with comments or questions via e-mail: Andrew.Perna@RealGM.com |
