July 5th, 9:32 PM, Update: Yahoo! Sport’s Marc Spears says that the Hawks cannot offer a contract to anybody until the league salary cap, mid-level exception and luxury tax threshold is because they committed so much money to Joe Johnson. This likely means that the Hawks cannot make an official offer but that doesn’t take away the possibility that the Hawks offered Shaq a deal without knowing the official numbers as there is no rule against doing so. It just means the terms of the deal may be a bit different depending on the figures announced on July 7th.

July 5th, 9:12 PM, Update: TNT NBA analyst David Aldridge said during an interview on NBATV that two sources close to the Hawks have told him Atlanta will not be moving Al Horford to power forward for any reason. This means if Shaq were to sign with the Hawks he would be coming off the bench for the first time in his career.

Shaquille O’Neal has been offered a two-year deal starting at the mid-level exception ($5.8 million), according to Tim Povtak of FanHouse.

O’Neal, now 38 years of age, just completed his 18th season in the NBA with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Shaq was serious about bringing LeBron James a championship but his campaign ended up being a failure in the end. In 53 games, Shaq only managed to play 23.4 minutes a game, scoring 12 points and grabbing seven rebounds per. J.J. Hickson and Anderson Varejao playing better basketball than expected led to a minutes conondrum in Cleveland that Mike Brown was never able to solve.

The Hawks started Al Horford at center last season even though he is undersized at six-foot-10. Horford has the game of a power forward, getting most of his offense on mid-range jumpshots although he has some back-to-the basket moves as well, and he would be much better off defending power forwards. One would assume signing Shaq would be for him to start at center, but Horford is an all-star so he isn’t going to the bench. That means Horford would slide over to power forward, pushing Josh Smith back to small forward after he put up an all-star campaign in his first year as a four.

I don’t think Shaq would want to take a back-up role but its possible that at 38 years of age he feels a spot on the bench is better for his body.