"It's not with just his scoring or his passing ability or his rebounding or anything like that," Allen Iverson said after playing with O'Neal in the 2005 All-Star Game. "It's his presence. You know, when you've got a guy on the floor and so many people give him that much attention, it just makes the game easier for you."
Nearly every member of the Heat increased his field goal percentage last season, and even a journeyman like Damon Jones — who had been with eight different teams in the six previous campaigns — set a franchise record for most three-point field goals in a season (225) , good for eighth on the NBA's all time single-season list.
It's well known that Shaq emulates Superman, and with feats like that, he sometimes has the effect of The Man of Steel. But is asking him to rescue Heat newcomers Jason Williams (.413 from the field, .324 from behind the arc in '04-05), Antoine Walker (.422 from the field, .323 from behind the arc) and James Posey (.357 from the field, .309 from behind the arc) from the zone they tend to get into — the Twilight Zone — asking too much?
Williams and Walker are notorious for never having met a shot they didn't like, and even though the shot selection of Posey isn't as poor, his .413 career field goal percentage for a guy his size (6-8) is nearly unheard of.
It's clear the Heat need these three players to be both productive and efficient to win a title. Last season, the No. 1 seed couldn't survive the Eastern Conference Finals because of its lack of support for O'Neal and Wade. Once injuries curtailed their ability to play like super heroes, the deeper Pistons exposed the Heat as a two-man show.
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