What he said ^.
But seriously, we already knew that Shaq would miss some games, right?
Here's the thing: You rest Shaq early on when the schedule is tight. You give him 4-6 games somewhere between now and January.
Then you hope that the rest will allow Shaq to be more prepared for the playoffs as a result. Also, you hope that he can manage to only miss 10-12 games as a result because there was less mileage coming from the 320 pound, 7 foot 1 center. In fact, that also keeps Z fresh but also able to have his own games of production to stay in rhythm. Z won't need to play 27 minutes a game this year (2000+ total minutes). Neither will Shaq, though he'll play closer to that. In fact, neither may even need to push 1600 total minutes during the regular season. Clearly look better in the playoffs, but help each other.
We should have already knew this. A win-win. Z's slump won't last if he looks anything like last year at all sooner or later.