Cavs are on fire!!! Sarunas Jasekevicius had landed in c-town

Ugh, this sucks. They have gotten Hughes and now Jasikevicius...damn. That backcourt is scary.

Let's see what they will do when Z goes down, though...

 

Excellant pickup by the Cavs. Saras gives them the outside shooting that they really needed with Hughes in the backcourt. Huge upgrade to their backcourt in general.

They still arent done though, my guess is they are shopping Gooden to get a more rugged rebounder.

 

Good, this means Mighty Mouse is still available for us if we want him ...

 

I think Saras's agreement is creative writing on the writer's part. Cavs are reportedly going after Stoudamire.

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=99091

 

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/...ries/MYSA071705.5C.COL.BKNmonroe.12ab808.html

Here you are!!!

Mike Monroe: Cavaliers' improvement highlights major summer moves
Web Posted: 07/17/2005 12:00 AM CDT


San Antonio Express-News

A premature look at some of the NBA's major summer moves, some of which we expect to become official Friday, or shortly thereafter:

The Cavaliers have made the greatest improvement. General manager Danny Ferry proved that he learned a lot from his Spurs mentors — Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford — when he convinced owner Dan Gilbert it was important to bring back center Zydrunas Ilgauskas and then got Ilgauskas to agree to return for relatively modest money ($55 million over five seasons). This was after Ferry got a commitment from Wizards' guard Larry Hughes on a five-year deal, at a reported $70 million.

Ferry also had courted the Bucks' Michael Redd, but got lucky when the Bucks made Redd a maximum offer that Redd accepted. The Cavs are better off with Hughes. When Ferry got an agreement from Lithuanian guard Sarunas Jasekevicius, he made the Cavs one of the top three teams in the East.

The Suns have gotten better, too, as long as owner Robert Sarver doesn't renege on his promise to GM Bryan Colangelo and coach Mike D'Antoni to match any offer free-agent guard Joe Johnson gets. If Johnson is back with Phoenix, the additions of Kurt Thomas and Raja Bell are going to make the Suns tougher for the Spurs to get past in next season's Western Conference playoffs.

The Sonics are in free fall, even if they did manage to get Ray Allen back in the fold. Jerome James is gone, and Antonio Daniels has all but a couple of toes out the door. And owner Howard Schultz is about to find out how important it was to have a coach all his players were willing to give their all for.

The Bucks have been spending like Mark Cuban is signing the paychecks, but how much better will they be? They are grossly overpaying both Michael Redd and Dan Gadzuric, and new coach Terry Stotts is going to have to figure out how to make optimal use of Desmond Mason and another overpaid new player, Bobby Simmons.

The Knicks continue to be a joke, still unable to decide on a head coach and losing most of their interior toughness in the Kurt Thomas trade.

The Heat did what it had to do to bring back Udonis Haslem and will get Shaquille O'Neal back at a discount. But what's up with all the speculation about Pat Riley returning to the bench? Thus far, we've had nothing but non-denial denials. If it happens, feel free to speculate it was something O'Neal wanted.

The Spurs have done what they always do: Find ways to improve without breaking the bank. Robert Horry will return with a well-deserved raise, but still at a bargain price. Adding relatively bargain-priced Argentine center-power forward Fabricio Oberto gives them precisely the kind of flexibility they needed on the front line, not to mention some flexibility as they examine trade offers that come in and involve Rasho Nesterovic.

When will most of these moves be finalized? Some general managers have gotten edgy about a message attached to recent e-mails from the league office indicating a possibility the projected signing day for free agents could be extended a while from July 22.

This is what happens when the final details of a collective bargaining agreement are turned over to teams of lawyers.

Nobody expects the signing date to be pushed back very far, if at all, but the date is of most interest to the Hawks and Suns. The Hawks, of course, are expected to make a maximum contract offer to Johnson on the official signing day, after which the Suns will have a week to match the offer or let Johnson leave.

Since that decision is apt to have a domino effect, with other free agents anxiously waiting to see whether or not the Hawks will have the Johnson money to throw at them, you can bet they don't want the anxiety of their free-agent summers to drag too far into August.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mikemonroe@express-news.net

 

I somehow thought the Cavs got a commitment from him a week ago, but then I saw all these posts about teams being interested in him.

 

meaning that he's speculating.

 

Off the subject, but in the article ...

I'm sick of writers that get freaked out by MLE deals. Milwaukee's signing of Mike Redd was for WAY too much money, but the Gadzuric deal was a bargain. Six years and six-million per for a player who averages 15.1 rebounds per 40 and had the second-best rebounding rate in the NBA last year. The guy will be 31/32 when the deal ends, so how is that overpaying?

 

No. Means that (1) until July 22nd, none of these moves have actually taken place, and (2) summer's not over yet. It's a retrospective piece before any ink has hit paper.

Jasekevicius has got the attitude and smarts to be the best foreign floor general (far better than oft wishy-washy Parker), but he'll have a big handicap athletically in this league. Cavs may want to think long and hard about going to a zone D, cause no way does he stay in front of his man most nights. He should really help the Cavs adopt a take-no-prisoners attitude. Competitivness off the scale.

Evan

 

What do you guys think gadzuric will play for the Bucks? Will he play alonside Bogut? or will he come of the bench? Or wil bogut come of the bench? I was very happy with the development of Dan.

 

Gaz will probably be an energy off the bench.

Anyway, back on topic: I really don't know about the Sarunas signing. If it's the full MLE... it's a bit steep for someone who has yet to prove that he can play in the NBA.

The Celtics made a more reasonable offer to him, but he turned it down.

 

He'll come off the bench, I'd be shocked if Bogut plays 30 minutes a game this year (and I like Bogut). Gadz can't play the four, though, he played only seconds there in 2003-04 and 2004-05 according to 82games.

Once Bogut rounds into form, they can ship him and his affordable contract off for PF help.

 

I think it is great. The Cavs should no longer have enough money to steal a free agent 4 who otherwise might land with us for the MLE.

 

the cavs have no $$ left to sign a 4, and the NBA FA PG's are still available.

 

Was that the kid that played at Seton Hall several years ago? Isn't he also the kid that narrowly missed a three pointer agains the US National team that would have beaten us?

I don't feel like looking it up, but he's a scrappy player. He's not going to turn the team around or anything. Relax. But he's solid.

 

Why no NBA teams tried to grab Jasikevicius after seeing his 2004 Olympic performance is beyond me. His outside shooting is sick.

 

They tried, believe me, they tried. Bird was still seeing what he could do legally in December to bring him over. His asking price was high, he was making a lot of money overseas, and NBA teams can only offer 300k towards a buy-out.

 

Like JuHo???

 

I guess Cleveland isn't in the running for Stoudamire then.