“Zydrunas Ilgauskas, the Cavaliers’ beloved center, will sign a one-year deal to return to the team this morning, sources told The Plain Dealer, and presumably will be available to play when the team travels to New Orleans for a game Wednesday.” [Mary Schmitt Boyer]
“1-year/1 season, rest of this season @patrickorrDoes “one year” for Z mean he is signed for 2010-2011 season?” [Brian Windhorst Twitter]
“Doubt it, JJ likely to stay starter & Z comes off bench RT @simmsythekid15 Now JJ can go back to bench and make a dangerous combo w/ Andy” [Brian Windhorst Twitter]
“He is the guy who could have limped off with $60 million after several foot operations, but decided to have one more surgery — an experimental procedure where they rebreak and reshape the foot.” [Terry Pluto on Big Z]
Five of the Cavs’ top six lineups in terms of point differential per minute are with Big Z at center! Think about this for a second, once he gets back in rhythm, the Cavs can play a lineup (thanks to the Jamison trade) where every single player on the court is a legitimate 3-point threat.
I’m lucky enough to be going to the game this Sunday (I’m already working on my lung capacity for the 3 minute long “ZEEEEEEE” I’m going to be belting), and I might have to show up wearing this.
“James said that the fact he and his teammates have been able to take care of business against weaker opponents shows a lot about the team.” [George M. Thomas]
The Cavs have taken care of business against the best teams too. Against the other top 9 teams in the NBA(by record), the Cavs are 13-7, only Denver has a better record (14-6) against the top competition.
“You go through all the physical rehab, but so much of recovering from an injury like that is mental. You’re carrying that knee. That’s just the nature of a significant injury like that. It’s so important to have confidence in that knee, so you won’t drag it. In Leon’s mind, he’ll start to say: ‘It’s normal now.’ And now, instead of dragging that knee along, he’ll pick it up and bring it with him!” [Austin Carr on Leon Powe]
Fun Tweets:
“Cavs to sign Zydrunas Ilgauskas today, per multiple reports. In equally shocking news, when I close my eyes, it gets dark” [InsideHoops]
“Z might not start games but if JJ goes into his Drew Gooden mode Z will finish games.” [RealCavsFans]
“I think it would be cool of the Cavs wore throwback jerseys from the first year Z played for the team. I realize they are terrible.” [WayneEmbrysKids]
“Yo my moms on Twitter @Real_Shaqs_Momfollow her! & check out da new site 4 her book!www.lucilleoneal.com. Proud of u mom!” [Shaq]
I want to echo another line from Terry Pluto’s piece on Z. From someone named Kristen Carrick:
“Our children need more decent athletes and role models to look up to in this world, and we have been blessed to know him even just a little bit.”
Amen.
I wonder what the thinking was behind Z signing a one year deal, since it’s my understanding that the Cavs also gave him the option for another year? Might retirement be in the cards (especially if the Cavs win a title), or is he just keeping his options open?
He’s only 34, so I don’t know if he would retire this early, maybe he’s thinking that if he does well this playoff season – he can negotiate a better contract for next year.
I don’t want to put his return to the Q on a pedestal or anything, but when he receives the standing ovation that he absolutely deserves, I’m going to get extremely choked up — as will every other true Cavaliers fan.
I am blessed enough to be going to the game on sunday, and i honestly get a little choked up just thinking about what that moment is going to be like… im so excited i literally want to fastforward to sunday afternoon.. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!
Again…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBYHXmPZK7w
Welcome Back, Big Z!
As far as the Cavs being 13-7 against the other top 9 teams in the NBA, according to the link provided they are actually 13-6. Denver is 14-7, and if I did my math correctly, means we actually have the highest winning percentage against the top 10 teams in the NBA.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Pumped to have Z back.
and the z was happy…
Hi guys, longtime lurker, first-time poster. Here’s a blog post for discussion, I’d love to get some feedback from John and the all the respected regulars:
Z was this year’s coveted expiring contract. The Cavs clearly had a hypothetical plan in place to use his contract as an asset in a deal all season long, as evidenced by the fact that they a.) braced Z for a possible trade in the pre-season, and b.) smartly saved their bi-annual exception in order to eventually re-sign him after dealing him away.
The other significance to today is that the Cavs made the decision to hang on to Telfair, who they no plans of playing, over Jackson, simply because Telfair has a $2.7M guaranteed contract for next season. Thus, the team once has the thought of expiring contracts at least in the back of its mind.
Now that Z is back, and we can officially call the Jamison-Z trade an unabashed success for the Cavs, my thoughts turn to next year’s trade market, and another opportunity to use expiring contracts and leverage the Cavs’ willingness to spend despite a bad economy.
Here’s five current Cavs that have expiring contracts next year, the 2010-2011.
Delonte West $4,658,500
Anthony Parker $2,855,770
Sebastian Telfair $2,700,000
JJ Hickson+ $1,528,920
Leon Powe* $915,852
Other? ____________
*The Cavs hold an option for next season on Powe for this figure. Given his current play, and his upside, I’d say the team picks that option up at this point.
+Hickson also has a team option for 2011-2012, which at this point looks very likely to get exercised.
Other: I didn’t include Danny Green, who has a non-guaranteed contract for 2010-2011 and isn’t guaranteed a roster spot, IMO. It’s also possible that Shaq, Big Z, and/or Jawad Williams return on one-year deals, which would in effect make them expiring contracts next season, as well. The Cavs also could use the mid-level FA exception to acquire talent, although I would expect the player(s) they acquire with it to be multi-year deals.
Let’s focus on only those first 4-5 players: West, Parker, Telfair, Hickson, and Powe.
Total contract value of West, Parker, Telfair, and Hickson: $11,743,190.
Add in Powe to that total: $12,659,042
Here’s my point:
Andre Iguodala is set to make $12,345,250 next year. The salary cap money works. Would you trade a combo of the above 4-5 guys to acquire him, if you were in Danny Ferry’s position? Would the Sixers do it?
I’d love to hear your thoughts!
I’m not sure I’d trade all those pieces for Iguodala – though I am a huge Iguodala fan – I wanted the Cavs to get him badly this year. That’s a lot of players for one guy. We certainly wouldn’t have the “depth” we have this year. However, a starting lineup with Iguodala, LeBron, and Jamison would terrorize teams offensively.
I would venture to guess that D West would get another contract similar to the last one from the Cavs after this season. Hickson also has too much upside to use 1 and a half mil as an expiring.
Great topic for conversation, I am very interested to see what the Cavs do next year.
I think Iguodala is kind of redundant for the Cavs every minute LeBron is on the floor, which doesn’t make me think he’s worth the $12M a year. If he was cheaper, I’d be interested. But with the Cavs personnel I think he’s a 6th man at best and not worth losing 3-4 quality guys for.
On a side note, I almost guarantee the trade-buyout-resign thing is going to absolutely be changed if the casvs win a title this year. To much crying about it this time around for David Stern to do nothing.
West, Hickson, and Powe more than outplay their $7 million cap value. With their current contracts, I would consider all three quality keepers. Not sure that AP’s contributions and his fit in a Bron-centric team necessarily exclude him from being in that group, either.
Not to say that we should expect that the Cavs can trade for a player of Iggy’s caliber without giving up some quality keepers, but they should be viewed as more than just ECs. I think the trade that kept getting batted around was Hickson, Parker, Boobie, and some others, as well as perhaps a pick, for Iguodala – if Telfair and maybe Jawad were thrown into that equation, the salaries would match – the Sixers could hold out for a pick but we’d be taking on somewhere in the neighborhood of $27 million in salary ($42 million if Iggy picked up his player option, which from the looks of the new CBA, would be the smart move).
That being said, at a certain point, you start to worry about depth vs. top-heavy talent, and with a 13-man rotation, the Cavs might easily benefit from a clear-cut 2nd option that is at a higher level than Delonte or Andy (even if it’s just one level) if the cost is our 9th, 11th, and 13th men.
For argument’s sake:
It could be argued that if Bron leaves, everything needs to be blown up, and perhaps all of these guys would go. However, I think those three that I singled out earlier would need to assume larger roles, and that trading that many minutes of production away for a single guy would be one of the worst directions to go. The ECs may be set up for this purpose as well, since Gilbert has shown that he is not at all afraid of taking on salary if it helps build the team to contender status.
Remember that going into the offseason Z is likely to resign with the Cavs (perhaps for part or all of the MLE?), and the team will also have Shaq’s Bird rights. Depending on how those contracts are structured, they might go along with potential flips in 2010-11 or perhaps along with Jamison’s contract in 2011-12. Who knows.
Mat is reading my mind with his point about depth in my hypothetical Iguodala trade.
At this point, I’d argue the Cavs are the deepest team in the league. So much so that, as others have pointed out, they could field two quality starting lineups. That depth is vital for the regular season. In the playoffs, however, it would be nice to have that strength consolidated a little bit.
Let’s say the 4-for-1 Iguodala proposal above goes down (excluding Powe). Your roster for the stretch run of next season looks like this:
Mo
Iguodala
LeBron
Jamison
Shaq (let’s assume a re-signing using Bird rights for the sake of this)
Gibson
Moon
Powe
Varajao
Z, and/or a 4.5M-a-year midlevel exception guy
Green
Jawad, if the team the team chooses to match any FA offer he receives.
That 12-13 man roster above still has plenty of depth, IMO. It’s also cleared up some of the slightly muddled lineup issues the team currently has. Gibson would have a clear role as the backup PG; Powe’s role gets to expand as his health improves over time.
Come playoff time, when Lebron and Iguodala would both 40+ minutes in the critical games, you settle in with an unbeatable 8-9 man rotation of:
Mo, Iggy, LBJ, Jamison, Shaq; Varajao, Gibson, Powe, and “9th guy” – be it Ilgauskas or the $4.5M midlevel FA.
Mostly, I just love the thought of Iguodala playing Pippen to Lebron’s MJ, with both guys playing terrific perimeter D and getting out on the break. I’d be willing to sacrifice the long-term potential of Hickson and the steady play of West and Parker to make it happen.
It would be terrifically hard to turn down. On a purely personal level, the only person of that group I would feel sad about is Delonte. I feel like with all his problems, the Cavaliers are perhaps the only team in the league that can cope with him and are willing to make exceptions for him. Obviously the leagues a business and all, but I would hate to see an unstable guy with bipolar disorder who seems to be on the mend a little get traded to a team with no experience and history with him.
The 76ers would throw Danny Ferry a parade if he gave them not only expiring contracts but *talented* expiring contracts for AI’s ridiculously bad contract. I’m also a little surprised that people balked at trading JJ for Amare but are now willing to turn around and trade him for AI? Plus, this trade does nothing to address the logjam in the frontcourt but makes our backcourt dangerously thin.
For now the only thing that matters about next year is will LeBron stay? That, and will the Cavs be the defending NBA champions, of course.
Jacob, I think this is the key problem with your proposed trade:
Come playoff time, when Lebron and Iguodala would both 40+ minutes in the critical games…
Haven’t we spent the last 7 year learning that LBJ needs good shooters around the perimeter to be effective? Look at AI’s stats and he’s clearly below league average in everything but shots at the rim (league averages in parenthesis):
FG%: 42.7 (46.2)
3%: 28.5 (35.4)
eFG%: 46.5 (50.1)
TS%: 51.8 (54.3)
16-23ft%: 39 (39.6)
10-15ff%: 29.2 (39.8)
<10ft%: 34.1 (44)
Rim%: 66.4 (61)
If we get AI he's not going to be giving us 40 minutes+ a game because he won't be effective next to LBJ, and LBJ won't be as effective next to him.
Speaking of the amare possibility, isnt everyone just a Liiitttle pissed about that now? I mean, jamisons been great and all, but 30 points and 10 rebounds throughout march? Damn…
I’m not upset about it.
1.) No guarantee Amare would be here next year.
2.) It would have taken him longer to fit in than Jamison.
3.) Huge Ego
4.) Jamison can play off the ball on the weak side.
5.) With Powe back, how many guys can we possibly play on the block? Amare doesn’t really spread the floor. Jamison can post up and such but he’s just as comfortable being a 6’9″ wing player which bodes well when we play big.
Oh tom you’re so relentlessly upbeat. I love it : )
my buddy texts me every day with Amare’s line and I really don’t care if he’s putting up 90/12 on 100% shooting. They made the right decision, we got Jamison for a number 30 draft pick, and he’ll be here next year. It wasn’t even a month ago that lots of people were worried about our depth in the front court next year. Next year we are guaranteed to have Varejao, Jamison, Hickson, and Powe. If we made the Amare move, subtract Jamison, Hickson, and Amare (unless he resigned) and You’re left with Andy and Powe? Of course either way there is the chance we resign Shaq and Z too – I’m not going to be upset we didn’t get Amare, esp since Jamison has been fitting in pretty well all things considered and Z is back now!
I’m not real keen on purely subjective conjecture regarding player production(The Kobe Fan’s Manifesto) but I will say this. When Terry Pluto pointed out that Amare is young and is playing for a max contract and that Jamison is playing for nothing but a championship, I had to agree. Regardless of numbers, I like Jamison more because he’s “hungrier” (makes me cringe even using a word like that) and is going to “to whatever it takes”.
Wow now I really sound like a Kobe fan. Ok, back to work….
Amare’s a false choice. We offered JJ along with Z and it wasn’t enough. Suns said no, so the Cavs moved on.
That said, JJ + Jamison (JJJam?) in March: 26 & 14. Pretty comparable to Amare’s 30 & 10 and without the headaches/question marks Tom raises above. I don’t think Tom’s being “upbeat”, I think all 5 are genuine issues individually … in combination they could’ve sunk this team. After a small hiccup following the trade, this team is chugging along again. Who knows if that would’ve been the case with Amare.
Let’s get real, Amare is a contract year player..next year, after he gets signed to a max deal by some stupid team he’ll go right back to getting 20 and 8.