I was thinking, obviously he was more mobile and handled the ball in Orlando, and he’d do that a lot more in a modern offense, but MVP Shaq who was bigger and handled less, would he be better or worse?
It’s common to just say any legend from the past would dominate now, and Shaq would definitely draw even more fouls now than he did even back then. But also, so much of Shaq’s game would be an offensive foul now, I think hack-a-Shaq would be even worse, and he’d be drawn away from the basket and into pick and rolls CONSTANTLY so his weaknesses would be exploited a lot more.
Personally, I can see Shaq averaging a lot more points, but fouling out a lot and being nowhere near the defensive presence because he’d be hunted on switches constantly and drawn out to the perimeter, and his rim protection would be less useful when you’ve got bigs who stretch the floor and can pass (Jokic being the prime example but even Embiid is passing really well this year).
Or do you just surround Shaq with shooters like Dwight in Orlando except he’s twice the offensive player, and you live with him being exploited on defence because your offence would be unstoppable (aside from hacking him)?
There’s already plenty of big men that aren’t fantastic perimeter defenders, he wouldn’t be any worse there. I think fans these days really underestimate how quick he was in LA, even if he was bigger. His last season or two, he definitely was slower, but 96-01 he was pretty damned quick.
Anyways, on defense, he’d be doing similar to other bigs in the NBA, mostly ‘hiding’ near the rim, and helping on inside shots/grabbing boards. Would be targeted on PnRs, and depending on the players involved that could go whatever way.
On offense, he’d be unstoppable, unless they call a bunch of offensive fouls on him. But, Giannis, Zion, etc get away with a fair bit of physicality, so I think he’d be ok.
You offensively scheme against Shaq the same way you would vs. Embiid, Jokic, etc.