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Is The Shaq To Atlanta Rumor For Real?

From Michael Cunningham at the AJC, don't get your Shaq jerseys just yet:

I can confirm at least the Shaq half of this story: He’d be interesting in playing for the Hawks, according to a person with knowledge of his free-agent desires. But a person familiar with Atlanta’s plans said it’s doubtful the team has made such an offer this early in the free-agent process. The Hawks are seeking a bulky center, and ASG is said to be willing to use the mid-level exception and pay some luxury tax if necessary to do so, but so far it doesn’t appear the Hawks have decided whom else to target after re-signing J.J.

From Hoopinion, here is some more analysis:

Paying Shaquille O'Neal approximately $12 million for his age 38 and 39 seasons to be a marginal upgrade over Zaza Pachulia while taking minutes away from the three Hawks on the most reasonable contracts (not to mention potentially increasing the chances Josh Smith plays the 3 more often) doesn't strike me as a great allocation of resources but, hey, Shaq's really, really famous and nothing says a franchise is serious about winning like signing famous people, right?

It sounds like most people would be excited to have Shaq initially, but after a few months the cache might wear off.

Photographs by coka_koehler used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.