RealGM

http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archi ... cleveland/

Marion, Ricky, Cook & our #1 for LBJ and Hughes (they'll want to dump him), bitches.

Re-signing Zydrunas, giving out long contracts to Hughes, Marshall, and our boy Damon Jones; the only thing he's done right was giving LeBron the extension, but that was a given. So of course LeBron's pissing the night away.

Well, he'll be stuck there until we have our cap clear in a couple of years and we'll have the following:

Rose/Wade/LBJ/Marion/Earl Baron

With that team Baron can be our version of Luc Longley.

Oh well one can only dream...

John Salley

Joel Anthony > Earl Barron. Write that down.

unowen85 wrote:Re-signing Zydrunas, giving out long contracts to Hughes, Marshall, and our boy Damon Jones; the only thing he's done right was giving LeBron the extension, but that was a given. So of course LeBron's pissing the night away.

There was nothing wrong with re-signing Big Z, nothing at all.

He's managing 14/10 and almost 2 blocks a game in under 31 minutes a game; he's been a good defender and a very valuable piece. He's not a second scoring option by volume but he's been exceedingly useful to the team. He's also got two years left on his contract after this season if he picks up his player's option but that's not really limiting and it ends as an $11.5M contract, which isn't a cap-breaker, it's market value for a guy producing those types of numbers.

The rest of it, yeah, Cleveland has screwed up badly, most garishly with Hughes.

But Big Z was not a mistake.

Big Z is pretty money in fantasy too

I don't got nothing against Ilgauskas, it's just that I don't see him as the center that I would want when building around LeBron.

Another Sam Smith article.....

unowen85 wrote:Re-signing Zydrunas, giving out long contracts to Hughes, Marshall, and our boy Damon Jones; the only thing he's done right was giving LeBron the extension, but that was a given. So of course LeBron's pissing the night away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lJIjdajBww

Heat3 wrote:Another Sam Smith article.....

Right - last month he said that Tracy McGrady was extremely unhappy in Houston. Remember that?

He just makes up stuff...

bulls6 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Right - last month he said that Tracy McGrady was extremely unhappy in Houston. Remember that?

He just makes up stuff...

This year he's had Wade leaving, T-Mac leaving and Lebron leaving twice! He must be pissed that Kobe, the one guy that wanted to leave, is still in LA lol.

unowen85 wrote:I don't got nothing against Ilgauskas, it's just that I don't see him as the center that I would want when building around LeBron.

Yeah, well, Dwight Howard isn't exactly available, nor are any of the other handful of guys that would qualify. Everyone wants things but Ilgauskas isn't on the books for a long time or an unreasonable price and he IS a valuable player. He's better than what most of the league has.

In fact, let's see...

The only guys who are CLEARLY superior to him are Camby, Yao, Kaman (this year only), Gasol, Dwight, Amare and Duncan.

Of those, several are perennial All-Stars, superstars even, and are completely inaccessible to the Cavs. Gasol was theoretically available and represents failure on the part of Cleveland management but really, you're looking at a DPOY and four perennial All-Stars among that group, those are the best of the best at the position.

Of the rest that matter (Okafor, Al Jefferson, Tyson Chandler, Bynum this year), each has something that makes him of comparable value (Jefferson's defensive inadequacy at the 5, for example, or Chandler's inadequacy as a scorer and lack of range). Bynum is debatable, since he was offering comparable production but worse man defense... but in any case, he was utterly unavailable and is therefore moot.

Okafor is perennially injured; Big Z has played 78+ games for about a half-decade straight now and has played in all of the Cavs' 52 games so far this season, so his value (which is actually less on O, comparable as a rebounder and not much better as a defender) is questionable relative to Z in all aspects except age... and Big Z is holding up better despite being older and having a critical foot issue.

So really, what other options were there?

He's on a reasonable contract that's not ridiculously long; in an ideal scenario, Lebron would have Redd next to him (and the Cavs did make offers to both Redd and Ray-Ray but were turned down on both fronts) in the backcourt and then there would be no questions about Ilgauskas.

There were no other options at the 5 and it was WISE to re-sign Ilgauskas.