2008-2009 Team Review

What do you get when you put together your favorite quirky Cleveland combo guard and your favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger or Antonio Banderas flick?  Yeah, you guessed it.  You get Delonte West’s off-season arrest near his home in Maryland while riding his motorcycle and carrying two loaded handguns, which is illegal in that state even if you have a gun permit,  AND a loaded shotgun in a guitar case on his back.  Very El Mariachi-esque, no?  

Seriously though, the Cavs aka LeBron & Co. have a very strong team with depth at all positions and have positioned themselves to be the front runner to go to the 2010 NBA Finals from the Eastern Coference in front of the Celtics and Magic.  They made some very nice acquisitions over the off-season and Dan Gilbert and Danny Ferry look to be intent on showing LeBron that they are more than happy to provide him with the supporting cast he needs to win a ring and, of course, encourage him to re-sign during the free agent class next summer, of which King James is the crown jewel.  The Cavs have added veterans Jamario Moon, Anthony Parker, and, most importantly, Shaquille O'Neal over the summer among other additions.

Off Season Moves

Draft – The Cavs owned the last pick in the 1st round – pick 30 – and selected SF Christian Eyenga, who will be playing in Spain for the next few years.  They also owned the 16th pick in the 2nd round, which they had acquired from Chicago, and selected North Carolina SF and 4 year senior Danny Green, who they have signed to a contract and is expected to make minimal impact this year.

Trades- In a move to get the slow paced O’Neal off their fast paced squad and clear cap space at the same time, the Phoenix Suns traded Shaq to the Cavs for Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic.

Free Agent Signings– The Cavs re-signed bigs Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao and added free agents Jamario Moon, Anthony Parker, Leon Powe.  They also signed a handful of other guys who are just trying to make the team and will stock their bench.

Impact Players  

LeBron James should be a consensus top 2 pick in just about all fantasy leagues and for good reason.  Last season he brought his free throw % from 71.3% up to 78%, which is huge since he has been one of the highest volume free throw shooters in the NBA in recent history.  Good %s, almost 30 points per game (28.4 in 08-09, 30.0 in 07-08), just above 7 rebounds per game, just above 7 assists per game and a little less than 2 steals and 1 block per game are absolute money in the bank.

Mo Williams showed once again that, although Cleveland’s offense flows through LeBron, a point guard who doesn’t run the offense can still be a valuable fantasy commodity.  He played in 81 games and ranked 45 per game on basketballmonster.com (BBM) while averaging 17.8 points per game, 4.1 assists per game, a blistering 91.2% at the free throw line (although he only had 2.8 attempts per game), and 46.7% from the field, which is good for a guy averaging 2.3 3 pointers made per game.  I expect all of Mo’s numbers to drop across the board except for 3 pointers made and FG% while Shaq is on the floor slowing things down, but Mo should get strong considerations as a PG2 in the 5th round and on in 12 team leagues.

Shaquille O'Neal is getting on in years and may have found his last NBA home in Cleveland, but he had a resurgence of sorts in 08-09.  If you take FT% out of consideration, Shaq ranked 17th per game overall last year by BBM and played in 75 games, which is the most games he has played in a decade (79 in 1999-2000, 74 games in 2000-2001, and 73 games - 2004-2005).  Shaq’s 59.5% at the line with 6.9 attempts per game dropped him down to 105th, but as long as you can absorb his FT% in roto or have a H2H team tanking FT%, Shaq should be considered in the last several rounds of your draft.  You should be warned that there is a good chance Shaq will miss more than the 7 games he missed last year with his injury history and another year under his belt and I see last year as more of an anomaly than the beginning of a trend.

Anthony Parker, Delonte West, Daniel Gibson, and Jamario Moon will all deserve fantasy consideration at some point this year.  With Delonte’s mental health issues and recent arrest, for which a suspension of some sort is probable after conviction, Parker looks to be the front runner to start at shooting guard and have the most fantasy value.  Parker has shown that he has no real flaws in his game and should be a decent source of 3s and steals while contributing across the board.  Delonte ranked 56 per game last year on BBM and if he was physically and mentally ready to go, there’s a good chance he and Parker would kill each other’s value. So if you own Parker, be ready to drop him once Delonte gets his act together.  Gibson will be good for some assists and steals and will back Mo Williams up, but will be extremely inconsistent.  Moon will be good for 3s, blocks, and steals and will need an injury or two to get enough playing time to be rosterable.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao provide the Cavs with a lot of options in the paint and Varejao looks to be the starting PF with Big Z coming off the bench.  At this point it is a mystery how these two will produce with Shaq on the floor and either way, they should be drafted in deep leagues and probably avoided in 10 or 12 team leagues.  Like the guard/forwards above, they will both be fantasy relevant at some point this year, and most likely it will take an injury to Shaq to make that happen.  Big Z is a must add when Shaq goes down and GMs who are willing to gamble on a fairly unproductive roster spot may want to draft Big Z and hold him until that eventuality.