As the Cleveland Cavaliers are in the midst of a three-game losing streak, many fans are curious as to the future regarding center Zydrunas Ilgauskas. The man they affectionately know as “Big Z” was traded to the Washington Wizards (along with a draft pick) in exchange for Antawn Jamison. His pictures are down, he has a new jersey number, but he also can return to Cleveland following a 30-day period. But will he be able to?
The Internet was thrown into a tale spin once LA Times reporter Mark Heisler tweeted that a source of his told him that the NBA was planning on blocking Ilgauskas from returning back to Cleveland. Yahoo! basketball reporter – and resident proprietor of all things negative regarding LeBron James and Cleveland – Adrian Wojnarowski took this report and published his own twist on the matter, making things appear worse.
The emails and tweets started trickling in right after the deal was first reported. You had questions. Lots of questions. I try to answer as many emails as I can, and I know the other guys do the same. I thought perhaps a frequently asked questions post might be in order, since so many more probably are wondering the same things, but didn’t ask. Here goes-
The Cavaliers have dominated nearly every minute of the Cleveland headlines for the past week without playing a game. The week was one of the more hectic and tense weeks of the LeBron James era as the Cavs sought a trade to improve for their championship run this spring while also considering the underlying specter of LeBron’s impending free agency. At 6PM Wednesday, the week came to a climax when the Cavs completed a trade for Antawn Jamison. Let’s take a look at how the trade for Jamison developed and materialized over the course of Wednesday.
With rumors all around, it is time to stop the conspiracy theories and start to analyze what the different options bring to the table. Certainly there are various financial reasons to make particular moves or another, but this article will focus on what the most commonly mentioned trade pieces bring to the court. The individuals under examination in this article are Washington’s Antawn Jamison, Indiana’s Troy Murphy and Phoenix’s Amare Stoudemire.
The calendar has recently turned to 2010 and the city of Cleveland is less than six months away from a possible doomsday occasion with the beginning of NBA free agency in July. This is arguably the last season of productivity for Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Shaquille O’Neal, meaning that even more changes will be coming next summer as well if those two players come off the books. This is the season however, where the Cavs need to step up and prove to their franchise savior that they are his best option towards winning an NBA title immediately.
While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your daily viewing pleasure. Have something else you think we should see for tomorrow’s post? Send it to our fancy tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
You have to admit that, for being a Cleveland sports site and being “rivals” of the Washington Wizards, we really haven’t taken too many cheap shots at the Wizards over this whole Gilbert Arenas fiasco. Perhaps because in truth, I’ve quietly been watching from afar, just waiting for this thing to spiral out of control to the point that Washington will get serious about moving their pieces.
The Cleveland Cavaliers came into Wednesday night’s game in Washington nursing a 5 game win streak. The Wizards meanwhile had been losers of 6 straight, a streak the Cavaliers started earlier this month in Cleveland. Both streaks would reach their end by the time this game was over.
