Zydrunas Ilgauskas to sign one year deal with the Cavaliers

zydrunas_ilgauskasZydrunas Ilgauskas is expected to sign a one year deal to play with the Cleveland Cavaliers the rest of the season The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported this morning. Zydrunas wanted to get a deal done as soon as possible so he can travel with the team in their upcoming road trip to New Orleans and San Antonio according to his agent Herb Rudoy.

The Cavaliers will pay him the pro-rated rate for the veterans minimum of $150,000 for the remainder of the season.

The Cavaliers dealt Ilgauskas to Washington at the trade deadline in a three-team deal that brought Antawn Jamison and Sebastian Telfair to the Cavaliers. Per league rules, Monday was the first day he was eligible to re-sign with the Cavaliers.

 

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Cavs Clobber Celtics, Move Closer to Clinching Top Seed in East

LeBron James had 30 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, three blocked shots and two steals as the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Boston Celtics 104-93. Although James was highly productive, he had plenty of help, too: Anderson Varejao contributed 17 points and 10 rebounds off of the bench, Antawn Jamison added 15 points and 12 rebounds and Mo Williams scored 14 points with six assists. Ray Allen overcame a slow start to lead the Celtics with 20 points plus six rebounds and five assists, while Paul Pierce also struggled early in the game before finishing with 18 points, four assists and three rebounds. Kevin Garnett, seems to be playing on about one and a half legs in the wake of last year’s knee injury, added 18 points and seven rebounds but this season his trash talking bark has definitely been much worse than his productivity bite, which is a major reason that the Celtics are not as good as they were when they won the 2008 NBA Championship.

Although the final victory margin was not huge, this was a very impressive win for the Cavs considering the fact that they outscored the Celtics 44-34 in the paint and won the rebounding battle 51-43 despite being without Zydrunas Ilgauskas–who the Cavs can re-sign in a week–and the injured Shaquille O’Neal. I have touted the Cavs as the best team in the East throughout the season but I thought that with both O’Neal and Ilgauskas out of action the Cavs might be vulnerable inside against certain teams but that has not proven to be the case: the Cavs are now 9-4 since trading Ilgauskas for Antawn Jamison, including 7-1 since O’Neal got hurt. The Cavs lost three straight games right after the trade–ending a 13 game winning streak–but the coaching staff successfully made the appropriate adjustments, the new rotation meshed and the Cavs quickly resumed being a strong defensive team that is also quite potent offensively. NBA odds listed the Cavaliers as 6.5-point favorites at home against the Celtics.

The Cavs are still the only team that has clinched a playoff berth in either conference, they are 5.5 games ahead of the Orlando Magic in the race for the top seed in the East and they are 3.5 games ahead of the L.A. Lakers in the race for the best overall record (the Cavs own the tiebreaker over the Lakers by virtue of sweeping the season series 2-0 and they have a 2-1 edge over the Magic with one head to head game remaining). If the Cavs go just 10-5 the rest of the way they will own homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs no matter what–and each loss by the Magic and Lakers reduces the Cavs’ “magic number.”

This game included several interesting subplots:

1) James only scored six first half points yet the Cavs led 54-48 after 24 minutes (and they would have been up nine if Paul Pierce had not stumbled his way into convincing the referees that he had been fouled while attempting a buzzer beating three pointer); James did have an excellent floor game in the first half (six assists and four rebounds). When Kobe Bryant has a half like that and the L.A. Lakers are leading, the TV commentators tend to say two things: Bryant is not shooting to “prove a point” and the fact that the Lakers are winning anyway shows just how deep their team is. I know from personal experience that Bryant or James both have the same answer if you ask about their shooting/passing decisions: they read what the defense is giving and make the appropriate decision to shoot, drive or pass. For the most part, I believe both of them, though it is obvious in certain situations that Bryant and James can also force the defense to “give” them something as opposed to just reading and reacting. It just seems strange that Bryant is both criticized for supposedly shooting too much and for sometimes supposedly deliberately not shooting, while the default media position is generally to not question James’ shot selection (with a few exceptions, most notably the 2007 playoff game versus Detroit when James passed to Donyell Marshall in the final seconds instead of shooting the ball himself). The truth is that both Bryant and James are exceptional decision makers and they generally do whatever is in the best interests of their respective teams; they both force shots at times–a statement which is true of just about every player in league history who ever averaged 28-30 or more ppg in a season–but their positive contributions more than offset their occasional bad shots, particularly considering that some of their bad shots connect anyway!

2) It is just bizarre that throughout the telecast very little mention was made of the absence of O’Neal and Ilgauskas, particularly in light of that first half when James hardly scored and yet the Cavs controlled the paint. Very few–if any–NBA teams could withstand the loss of two quality seven footers who collectively average 19.5 ppg and 12.0 rpg; that is a lot of size and production, yet the Cavs have not missed a beat, simply plugging other players into those roles while giving minutes to some players who previously were not even in the rotation at all. This vividly validates what I have been saying all along about Cleveland’s incredible depth and that depth has been further augmented by the Jamison acquisition. Cleveland’s depth was the main story of this game and yet it was treated as a side story at best.

3) Check out the 2009-10 statistics of two players:

Player A is averaging 30.8 mpg, 10.2 ppg, 9.6 rpg, 3.4 apg, .7 bpg, .9 spg and 1.8 to/g while shooting .458 from the field, .306 from three point range and .696 from the free throw line.

Player B is averaging 29.1 mpg, 8.8 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 1.1 apg, .9 bpg, .9 spg and 1.0 to/g while shooting .565 from the field, .200 from three point range and .669 from the free throw line.

Players cannot be correctly evaluated just by looking at their numbers without considering their skill sets and roles but it seems evident that the two players in question are roughly equal: Player A’s advantages in some categories are offset by the huge difference in field goal percentage. Player A is often described as an All-Star caliber performer who is perhaps the best sixth man in the league, while Player B is often dismissed as someone who is a limited role player. In case you have not figured it out by now, Player A is Lamar Odom, while Player B is Anderson Varejao. Odom may be the Lakers’ second best playmaker but that is more of an indictment of their point guard situation than anything else: starting point guard Derek Fisher is an aging spot up shooter, not a penetrating creator, while backups Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown are not true point guards and have displayed little ability to create shots for others (not to mention questionable shot selection). While the Lakers depend heavily on Bryant (and the Triangle Offense) to create shots for his teammates, the Cavs have at least four players who can create shots for others (LeBron James, Mo Williams, Delonte West and Anthony Parker, who played some point guard for Toronto), so they don’t need or want Varejao to be handling the ball out front. The reality is that despite the hype, Varejao is currently at least as good as Odom and I would actually take Varejao over Odom because Varejao more consistently plays with energy/effort and he is an excellent defender at both the center and power forward positions, while Odom’s energy/effort are much less consistent and his defense can be very good at times but is often lethargic.

Varejao is a major reason why the Cavs have been able to survive without O’Neal and Ilgauskas; he is rebounding, defending and even showing that he can handle an expanded scoring role without a corresponding reduction in his field goal percentage–and that should not be taken for granted, as Houston is finding out this year with Trevor Ariza.

4) The halftime show included a segment about how Garnett consistently goaltends shots during play stoppages so that opposing players do not have the satisfaction of seeing the ball go through the hoop. This is supposedly a great contribution that Garnett makes toward winning even though it obviously does not count in the boxscore. Another way to refer to this is “wasted energy”; when I see Garnett skying to block shots that would not have counted anyway the first thing that I think of is a young Dominique Wilkins working up a game sweat during warmups by doing all kinds of fancy dunks, thus expending energy that could have been more profitably used during the 35-40 minutes he played that actually mattered. Then I think of Jim Brown, arguably the greatest pro football player ever, and the way that he conserved energy by getting up slowly after each pileup only to go at full speed once play resumed. I find it hard to believe that any quality player would truly be psyched out by Garnett’s antics; this would be irritating at first, perhaps, as Reggie Miller and Vince Carter stated during the halftime piece, but then it would just be humorous. Garnett deserves full credit for being the defensive anchor for the 2008 championship team but let’s not forget that he did not have to do much offensively for that Boston squad because he had two Hall of Famers in Paul Pierce and Ray Allen to handle the crunch time scoring duties; Garnett’s extracurricular blocks produced very little postseason glory when he was his team’s primary scoring option in Minnesota, so why act like they are the secret behind Boston’s success? When Garnett was fully healthy, he contributed rebounding, defensive range/length, solid screens (including some of the “best” moving screens that were not called as such), decent ball reversals from the high post and just enough midrange jumpers/turnaround fadeaway jumpers to keep defenses honest; those things meant much more than fake blocked shots. Furthermore, let’s not forget that despite his prodigious length and athleticism Garnett was never a great shotblocker: he has only ranked in the top ten in that category once in 15 seasons and he has only averaged more than 2 bpg twice, topping out at 2.2 bpg in 2003-04. In contrast, Tim Duncan–who has always been a far less explosive leaper than Garnett–averaged at least 2 bpg in each of his first 10 seasons and he has ranked in the top ten in that category 10 times.

Instead of rhapsodizing about Garnett swatting shots that would not have counted anyway it would have been much more informative–and relevant–to discuss Cleveland’s frontcourt depth and to explain why an active, energetic and efficient player like Varejao is in fact more valuable than the highly touted Odom. Sadly, though, that kind of intelligent NBA analysis is well beyond the capabilities of many of the people who talk and write about the game, so what we are left with is talking heads spewing hot air and “highlights” of blocked shots that were about as meaningful as a mascot dunking after jumping off of a trampoline.

Lebron James officially wants No.6 next season

Lebron USA JerseyLebron James filed paper work yesterday to officially change his jersey number to No. 6 from his current No.23, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on Monday.

“I’ve done it,” James told the Plain Dealer. “I already sent it in. I’m going to be No. 6.”

Six is James’ jersey number on the Olympic team and Cavaliers fans can take this request as a sign he might be staying in Cleveland. He doesn’t need to file for such a request if he switches teams, he can choose any number he wishes. The League only require this request if a player is staying with the same team.

Lebron wanted to give up No.23 to his hero and out of respect, Michael Jordan. He first brought up the idea in November. At that time he said he was “50/50” on switching to No. 6, his Olympic number and the day of the month his first son was born.

The change could also be a business move by Lebron. In 2006, Kobe Bryant requested his number to be changed from No. 8 to No. 24. Bryant’s jerseys quickly shot to No. 1 in sales across the world. James is currently in the top three in U.S, China and Europe.

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O’Neal Injury Could Imperil Cavs’ Championship Hopes

Don’t be fooled by Cleveland’s 124-93 rout of the hapless New York Knicks—the Cavs will miss Shaquille O’Neal during his six to eight week absence as he recovers from thumb surgery and the Cavs very much need to sign Zydrunas Ilgauskas as soon as they are permitted to do so by league rules.

“Small ball” with J.J. Hickson starting at center looks good against the Knicks and for short stretches versus certain teams but a month of “small ball”—even for a team anchored by LeBron James—is not a championship recipe. While it is true that the upcoming schedule is not particularly daunting—in the next 10 games before Ilgauskas’ likely return to Cleveland, the Cavs play Detroit three times, Indiana once and New Jersey once—I am not sure that sans O’Neal and Ilgauskas the Cavs will continue to win at their current league-best .767 pace; an “extra” loss or two will probably not matter in the race for the top seed in the East but it could enable the L.A. Lakers to reclaim the best record in the NBA: thus, even if the Cavs are at full strength come June they may not have homecourt advantage in a possible NBA Finals matchup with the Lakers.

That is an important factor to consider because the Finals—unlike the preceding playoff rounds—use a 2-3-2 format that puts a lot of pressure on the team with the lesser record to sweep the middle three games, which historically has proven to be a quite daunting task. Admittedly, that is looking very far ahead into a hypothetical scenario that makes many assumptions about how both the Eastern and Western Conference playoffs will unfold but it could turn out that the most significant result of Glen Davis’s bludgeon/tug job on O’Neal’s thumb is the determination of the location of game one of the 2010 NBA Finals.

Assuming that O’Neal returns in time for the second or third round of the Eastern Conference playoffs and Ilgauskas rejoins the team in three weeks, the Cavs will have an incredibly deep and balanced team for the stretch run, including four players who have earned multiple All-Star selections (Zydrunas Ilgauskas, LeBron James, Antawn Jamison and Shaquille O’Neal) plus 2009 All-Star Mo Williams, Sixth Man of the Year candidate Anderson Varejao, versatile guard Delonte West and a host of players who have previously started and/or played significant minutes for playoff teams (Anthony Parker, Daniel Gibson, Jamario Moon and even Leon Powe, who has looked solid in limited minutes since his recent return from knee surgery). That is the good news; the bad news is that the NBA playoffs are not fantasy league basketball: you cannot simply throw the players’ numbers out there and win.

Newly acquired power forward Antawn Jamison has fit in very well with Cleveland after a rough first game with his new team. However, Jamison has had very limited court time with O’Neal—and no court time at all with Ilgauskas, obviously—and the next time Jamison and O’Neal are on the court together will be during the playoffs, hardly the optimum situation for developing chemistry.

Chemistry in this instance has nothing to do with how the players get along off of the court but rather how they function together offensively and defensively in crucial moments: when/where to cut offensively, when/where to rotate defensively. It is one thing to discuss such matters or even to walk through certain scenarios in a non-contact practice but it is quite different to perform at optimum efficiency against a good team with a playoff game on the line.

The Cavs lost a few games early in the season before fully integrating their offseason acquisitions into Coach Mike Brown’s offensive and defensive systems and they lost two games in a row after Jamison’s arrival; fans are quick to senselessly blame Coach Brown for supposedly not making the right adjustments but the reality is that it is not easy for any team to incorporate new players into the rotation on the fly, particularly when the new players are expected to log heavy minutes.

It is a great tribute to Coach Brown that the Cavs still have the best record in the NBA despite dealing with injuries to various key players, Delonte West’s off court problems, the departure of Ilgauskas and the arrival of Jamison but Coach Brown will face the greatest challenge of his head coaching career when O’Neal returns in the middle of the playoffs; not only will the starting lineup change but it is likely that someone who played significant minutes during O’Neal’s absence could end up out of the rotation completely, a switch that will not only affect that player but also the other players who got used to playing with him.

The biggest X factor of all—literally and figuratively—is O’Neal. Let’s assume the best case scenario, namely that O’Neal’s thumb surgery and the ensuing rehabilitation process go off without a hitch—there is still the not insignificant issue of a soon to be 38 year old player who has not always been known for being in tip top shape maintaining the necessary fitness level to play big time playoff minutes versus (in all likelihood) Dwight Howard and/or Kendrick Perkins/Kevin Garnett/Rasheed Wallace. When O’Neal was a Laker he once infamously declared that he had suffered an injury on company time so he would heal on company time; it seems unlikely that at this late stage of his career he will take such a petulant and immature attitude but even assuming that O’Neal has the proper mentality it will not be easy for him to stay in game shape without playing in an NBA game for six to eight weeks.

Also, though it seems like a foregone conclusion that Ilgauskas will return to Cleveland he, like O’Neal, will be battling some conditioning issues initially because he will not have played in an NBA game for a month. This is the time of year when NBA coaches of contending teams like to have their seven or eight man rotations set, with all of those players hopefully being healthy—or as healthy as they can be after an 82 game regular season grind—and fully used to their roles in terms of minutes, shot attempts, defensive rotations and so forth. The Cavs will presumably spend the next three weeks playing “small ball,” then they will likely close out the season and begin the playoffs with Ilgauskas starting at center and at some point O’Neal will return, moving Ilgauskas back to the bench and knocking one big man out of the rotation completely; that is a lot of change for a championship contender to deal with as the regular season closes and the postseason begins.

No one should—or will—feel sorry for the Cavs. The Ilgauskas-James-Varejao starting frontcourt propelled the Cavs to the best record in the NBA last season and will likely perform quite well from late March until O’Neal comes back. With O’Neal and Ilgauskas in the fold the Cavs will have the deepest roster in the NBA and I still expect them to—at the very least—represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals but during the playoffs the Cavs will have to do an outstanding job of adjusting on the fly versus tough competition.

The Washington Wizards and Zydrunas Ilgauskas Reach agreement

The Washington Wizards and Zydrunas Ilgauskas have reached an agreement on a contract buyout according to the The Washington Post.

The agreement would make Zydrunas a free agent and can sign with any team for a pro-rated share of the veteran’s minimum. Many teams are interested in signing Zydrunas including Dallas, Atlanta, Utah, and Denver.

However, Ilgauskas who was part of a three-team trade that sent Antawn Jamison to the Cavs from Washington is believed to be headed back to the Cavaliers. After-all, he has been a Cavaliers since he was drafted into the NBA and has a strong relationship with Lebron and Shaq. Also, he would like to get a ring before retiring.

According to ESPN’s Ric Bucher,  Ilgauskas has already flown back to Cleveland. Under NBA rules, Ilgauskas would have to wait 30 days to rejoin the Cavaliers. To be eligible for the playoffs, he will have to sign before March 1st.

“I expect him to decide by the end of the weekend,” Ilgauskas’ agent Rudoy said in a text message.

Jamison Could be Final Championship Piece–If Big Z Rejoins Cavs

The Cleveland Cavaliers have acquired the proverbial “stretch 4”—i.e., power forward who can shoot jumpers and/or create his own scoring opportunities—that they have been seeking (and their fans have been dreaming about) for quite some time: as part of a three team deal involving the Washington Wizards and L.A. Clippers, Antawn Jamison will join the Cavaliers, while the Cavs will ship center Zydrunas Ilgauskas plus a first round draft pick to Washington.

We live in a society that craves instant reactions and immediate feedback but the truth is that this deal really cannot be completely evaluated until 30 days from now when Ilgauskas will have the option of returning to Cleveland if Washington buys out his contract. It is easy and obvious to say that the Cavs have tremendously upgraded their roster–Jamison (20.5 ppg, 8.8 rpg) is significantly outperforming Ilgauskas (7.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg) this season—but Ilgauskas’ impact on Cleveland’s roster should not be lightly dismissed. Even though Ilgauskas’ per game numbers are hardly impressive and on a per minute basis he is having the least productive season of his career in terms of scoring and blocked shots, he comprised one third of a three headed center monster with Shaquille O’Neal and Anderson Varejao. That gave the Cavs tremendous matchup flexibility as well as insurance against injuries and/or foul trouble: the Cavs could go super big with O’Neal and Ilgauskas on the court at the same time or they could go small with Vareajao at center and LeBron James at power forward. Each center could stay fresh because none of them averaged even 30 mpg.

Jamison is a highly skilled player but he is not a center, so it is very important now for O’Neal to stay healthy and out of foul trouble; O’Neal and Varejao will have to combine to fill Ilgauskas’ 20.5 mpg for at least the next month. After that time, according to NBA rules, the Wizards can buy out Ilgauskas, who would then be free to re-sign with the Cavs (if the Wizards buy out Ilgauskas before the 30 day period ends he could immediately sign with any NBA team except the Cavs).

There are good reasons to assume that the Wizards will buy out Ilgauskas and that he will decide to return to Cleveland but none of the involved parties can publicly talk about that scenario. Assuming that Ilgauskas does indeed join the Cavs for the end of the regular season plus the playoffs, the Cavs will be stacked. Since before the season began I have been praising the Cavs’ depth but think about the options that Coach Mike Brown could have at his disposal a month from now: the aforementioned three headed monster at center, a power forward rotation consisting of James, Jamison, Varejao and J.J. Hickson, a small forward corps of James, Jamario Moon and Jawad Williams and a backcourt consisting of Mo Williams, Delonte West, Anthony Parker and Daniel Gibson. The Cavs have shooters, defenders, rebounders and playmakers, plus enough depth to withstand an injury to any one player (other than James, obviously). It could not honestly be said that any team in the NBA poses an unsolvable matchup problem for that roster.

Still, the cautionary note must be sounded that Ilgauskas’ return is not a foregone conclusion: the Wizards may not buy him out or they may buy him out past the deadline when a player who signs with a team is eligible for postseason play. Also, a team like the Dallas Mavericks may step up and offer Ilgauskas a far better contract than the Cavaliers can put forth, plus the potential opportunity to start. If Ilgauskas does not return to Cleveland then the Cavs will still have a very formidable team but their depth at center could become an issue.

Zydrunas is looking for a buyout

cavs_championship_2007.jpgCavaliers fans were ecstatic about the way the Cavaliers were able to trade for Antawn Jamison without giving up much for it. But at the same time, many are waiting to see what will happen with Zydrunas.

According to Zydrunas’s agent,  Herb Rudoy, he is going to ask the Wizards for a buyout:  ‘I’m going to try to get them to do a buy-out, but I’ve already heard from a few teams — good teams — that are really interested in wanting to talk about Z going to play for them,” Rudoy said.

The Wizards are trying to get under the tax limit and keeping Zydrunas will make no sense. So it is assumed that the Wizards will buy out the last year of Ilgauskas’ contract, which will pay him $11.5 million. That would leave Ilgauskas free to sign with any team.

Zydrunas is at the end of his career which he spent all of it with the Cavaliers. We all know he would like to win a championship. We all remember the moment in 2007 when the Cavaliers won the Eastern Conference and Lebron ran towards Z and tackled him before anyone else.

Zydrunas will have to wait 30 days to re-sign with Cleveland. He would not have to wait to sign with another team, but he must be bought out before March 1 in order to be eligible for the playoffs.

Three team trade brings Antawn Jamison to Cleveland

Antawn-JamisonCleveland, Washington and the Los Angeles Clippers have agreed to a three-team deal that will bring Antawn Jamison to the Cavalier.

The deal will send Zydrunas Ilgauskas’ $11.5 million expiring contract and a first-round draft pick from Cleveland to Washington. Cleveland will also get Clippers guard Sebastian Telfair.

The Cavaliers have been chasing Jamison for a long time and now it finally happened without giving up much assuming the Wizards buys Zydrunas’s contract and have him back with the team in 30 days.

“The team of Danny Ferry and Dan Gilbert have worked another piece of personnel magic with the acquisition of Antawn Jamison in a trade Wednesday. The veteran forward meets the team’s needs, at a low cost — as long as Zydrunas Ilgauskas returns in 30 days” says Terry Pluto with Cleveland Plain Dealer.

“It’s not just a deal, it’s a basketball Brinks truck of a steal.” says Terry.

The Cavs made the move after they were unable to complete a trade with the Phoenix Suns for Amare Stoudemire.

Proposed 3-team trade:

Cavaliers get:

  • Antawn Jamison from Washington
  • Sebastian Telfair from Los Angeles Clippers

Washington get:

  • Al Thornton from Clippers
  • Zydrunas Ilgauskas from Cleveland
  • 1st-round pick from Cleveland

Los Angeles Clippers get:

  • Drew Gooden