Here’s the second post in my new series, again from the Wizards perspective thanks to Michael Lee, the Wizards Insider. It’s a little dated, since he wrote this yesterday — but, still an interesting look at how he and other’s around the league view the deal.
Of course, we also know by now that the league won’t block Z if he does want to come back to the Cavs. The clock is ticking.
Ilgauskas’s agent: No prearranged deal with Cleveland
Zydrunas Ilgauskas’s agent, Herb Rudoy, is still speaking with Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld in hopes of working out a buyout agreement in the next few days. Ilgauskas won’t wear a Wizards No. 17 jersey, but there is speculation that the NBA won’t allow Ilgauskas to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers this season, either.
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the NBA has told teams that the league won’t let Ilgauskas go back to Cleveland based on evidence of a prearranged deal.
When asked about the suspicions of a wink-and-nod agreement between Ilgauskas and the Cavaliers, Rudoy sent a text message that read, “There is absolutely no truth to it. Ernie and I are still working on a buyout!”
The Wizards don’t have to do a buyout for Ilgauskas, since they already have dipped under luxury tax territory. They certainly have the leverage to get the kind of financial relief they desire from Ilgauskas, who already received $600,000 from his trade kicker. Rudoy told Yahoo! Sports that he expects the two sides to agree on a buyout “Monday or Tuesday.”
The money Washington receives from Ilgauskas, they will likely use to add some more frontcourt depth. The Wizards have just 11 players available and JaVale McGee played with a strained tendon in his right wrist on Saturday in Toronto. “There is a chance we might bring in one guy or make that a rotating spot” with players from the NBA Developmental League, Saunders said on Saturday. “We’re pretty much open.”
Ilgauskas has no desire to play in Washington and returned home to Cleveland immediately after taking his physical with the Wizards on Friday. He has played with the Cavaliers for his entire 14-year career. Although Dallas and Atlanta have expressed interest in signing Ilgauskas, the 7-foot-3 center is expected to join the team after waiting 30 days from the time he was traded.
After the Wizards acquired Ilgauskas in the Antawn Jamison trade on Wednesday, Rudoy told the Cleveland Plain Dealer, “His heart truly is in Cleveland.” “This is my team,” Ilgauskas told the Plain Dealer. “I’m going to be mad, but not so mad that I wouldn’t come back. I understand it’s a business. This is my home. No matter what happens in the future, that will never change.”
Los Angeles Lakers Coach Phil Jackson and Boston Celtics Coach Doc Rivers have both criticized the trade, assuming that Ilgauskas will be Jamison’s teammate before the playoffs. “They’re going to get Ilgauskas back and it’s going to be one of those scenarios that we see in the NBA where you ship a player out, you get another player, then your player retires or they pay him off and then he comes back in 30 days,” Jackson told reporters in Los Angeles after the trade was completed. “I don’t know what that does for the league. I think that’s kind of a weird situation.”
Rivers’s indignation seems odd, since he actually benefit from situation five years ago. The Celtics traded Gary Payton to the Atlanta Hawks for Antoine Walker and Payton returned after the Hawks waived him. “I actually do have a problem with that though. We did it, and I’m joking, but I do think” it’s a problem, Rivers said. “I don’t know what you do…just not allow them to go back to the same team or whatever. I do think that will be changed eventually, but I do have a problem with it.”
Grunfeld has also been criticized by one unnamed New York Knicks executive, who believe that the former Knicks general manager stuck it to his former team by giving LeBron James the missing piece to a championship. The executive told the New York Daily News, “It was as if the Wizards said, “You want Antawn Jamison? Well, here he is, take him,’” said one Knick executive. “They handed him over, just like the Timberwolves gave Kevin Garnett to the Celtics.”
All this and Cleveland is 0-3 since making the trade.
Holla at New Orleans
Windy just reported - JJ sick (coincidentally??) and Jamison to start. Powe might be activated — very interesting
I added the coincidentally part
Dad
