Zydrunas Ilgauskas very close to signing with Miami

so he;ll be the one guarding dwight howard and rest of the centers in this league?

great pickup!

Good luck to Z.  He is a class act.  He is loved here.  My guess is that Z doesn't have Jim Gray host a reality show to announce his signing.  He does things the right way.

Although I do think Riles should be looking for a beast that can handle D. Howard and possibly the size of Chicago and LAL if it comes to that.

i like the idea because it would be nice to see him win with lebron although ill be rooting against them i dont think hes the player they need in miami.

they should have gotten a guy who can rebound and block shots to compliment bosh. Z is not that guy...... maybe even okefur shit just someone whos going to challenge guys down low.

I agree.

What Centers in the League?

IMO, the league is dominated by wing players (Small Forwards, Shoting Guards & Point Guards).

Let's not turn the league into something that it is not --- the center's dominated in the 70s 80s & 90s.

im saying in the post season..... remember the lakers in 08..... and cavs these past 2 years....

Big Z is just an older bosh......

his offensive style..... but yeah thats what i mean hes extremely old.....

Lots more free agents out there.......I think miami is fine getting a "space eater" to play the "5"

I do not think the Lakers have won titles b/c they have a dominating "5"

If anything, the players on the floor at the end of the game in crunch time are

Fisher,   Kobe,   Artest,   Odum,    and    Gasol

Just heard that T-Mac is also interested in going to South Beach for mimumum pay

Miami's roster is still developing but it appears that the closing roster for the Heat will be 

Miller    Wade     LBJ      Haslem    and   Bosh

I still think the Heat will have a PG other than Chalmers and a "5" other than Ilgaskas (Brad Miller? )

But any lineup that has Wade, LBJ and Bosh on the floor is a nice offensive and defensive squad.

Nbafan I respect your views, but you watched the same playoff games that I did and  Ilgauskas  didn't make any type of impact in any of the games that he actually played in...He was DNP for alot of those games...Call it matchups or whatever..I just think the Heat could have picked up a better 5 then a guy thats got one leg in the retirement room

Big Z is a cheap yet a decent center who can play a hard 15-20 mins a game.

He is pretty close to lebron, and lebron has a lot of respect for Z so that is obviously a reason why Z is joining lbj.

i still remember when lebron was defending Z after brown benched him when he was going to break the alltime cavs record for games played. That was a pretty cool thing for lebron to do, he stuck up for Z and pretty much dissed brown for doing such a stupid thing.  Z invites all his family for that cavs game when he is going to break the cavs record and doesnt get off the bench lol.

Z is easily my favorite Cavalier of my lifetime (far surprassing the likes of Price, Nance, and that NASCAR analyst Daugherty, etc.).

Look at his career arc.  At 22 he was a rookie averaging almost 14pts, 9 boards, 1.5 blocks per game playing in all 82 games. Then his career was finished, done at age 25, playing less than 100 regular season games over 3 seasons, countless surgeries, etc.  It is all well documented how much he overcame to be a more than servicable center in the league.

I know people outside of Cleveland don't get it, but this guy was on track to be a hall of famer until his foot, ankle, knees, back all went bad at various points.  He will end his career with over 11,000 points, 6,000 rebounds, 1,300 blocks, playing in over 650 games with no mobility because of the screws in his feet. Imagine a center scoring from the outside at 7'3, but with mobility that wasn't restricted. I am not saying he was Hakeem, or Patrick, but in my opinion, a healthy Z surpasses Alonzo Mourning in the type of career he could have had.

Best of luck Z, we appreciate what you meant to this city. 

Quote Originally Posted by marnypoly:

@ people who thought nobody would want to play with these guys.

If they can get Ju.Howard (who had a pretty decent yr with Portland) and someone like K.Thomas then they're set.

Yep assembling a team of should be retired players around Wade, Lebron and Bosh.