Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 9:00 am  |  57 responses

Lakers, Celtics Dreading Big Z’s Return to Cleveland

by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

It’s one of those magical loopholes within the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and one that teams — especially title contenders — take advantage of all the time. And now that the Cavs are seemingly on the verge of re-acquiring Zydrunas Ilguaskas (30 days after “trading” him), their main rivals are up in arms.

Despite overtures from other teams, everyone assumes that Ilgauskas will be back in Cleveland sometime in March. Prior to last night’s wildly entertaining showdown in Hollywood, Doc Rivers and Phil Jackson served as the mouthpieces for their respective franchises, expressing mock outrage and concern about the Cavs’ plans.

Pro Basketball Talk has the quotes from both coaches:

“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 said. “I don’t know what that does for the league.”

It was more ironic to hear Rivers complain about it — the Celtics did the same thing with Gary Payton back in 2005, when the Celtics traded the point guard for Antoine Walker, then got him back after the buyout.

“I have a problem with that,” Rivers said. “I loved it three years ago when we did it with Gary Payton if you remember, but now I think it sucks. I think it’s a terrible deal. I actually do have a problem with that though. We did it, and I’m joking, but I do think (there is a problem). 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.”

No need to feel sorry for either coach (or team); given the opportunity, they would do exactly the same thing as what the Cavs are planning to do. The rules — crappy as they may seem — are the rules, and it’s up to the creativity of the front-offices around the League to take advantage of them.

Besides, who ever said that life was fair?

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  • http://twitter.com/PDXGayBBall dma

    I don’t think ANYBODY should be able to return to the NBA in the same season they get bought out/retire. If you’re traded to a team, and have a contract, you should have an obligation to that organization, and that organization’s fans, to fulfill said contract. There shouldn’t be some buyout clause they can revoke, and essentially be getting paid from two different teams at the same time.

  • dp

    hey guys just wondering if anyone caught the NY vs thunder game… NY lost the game but look at the trades… wow… walsh is a genius NY with lebron james > cleveland with lebron james… say what you must about the cavs defense but take lebron out of that team and they’re barely gonna make the playoffs, but with the young players and new players NY have + lebron, i’m thinking a younger celtics… and can NY still go after 2 max players or have they lost that opportunity after taking TMAC?

    lee danilo chandler harrington duhon rodriguez house TMAC + lebron… also D’Antoni.

  • http://fjkld.com Jukai

    dp: it’s very unlikely that David Lee will stay with the Knicks.

  • MikeC.

    Another idea to reduce teams re-signing bought out guys they just traded away: double the luxury tax bill for that particular contract. Since they’d then be paying for that contract 3 times over, it would make the team re-signing the traded away player think long and hard about taking on that financial commitment.

  • dp

    jukai: unlikely yes, if lebron does not come over, but if lebron signs i’m pretty sure he’ll stay.

  • therighttoremainsalient

    I mean this isn’t really Clevelands fault – The Wizards were the ones that signed off on the deal. If they don’t actually want to get A PLAYER in a trade and just go through the red tape for cap relief and money for next season then thats their perogative isn’t it? It really doesn’t impact the Celts and the Lakeshow as much as Doc “I hate this trade scenario but I’ve done it too” Rivers makes out. And officially Phil Jackson can’t speak on these matters for as long as Pau is in the wine and gold colours…
    oh by the way Jamison dropped an EGG in his first game – O-12 fgs!

  • http://alimartin07@yahoo.com Ali

    Jamison is not the answer to the Cavs winning a championship. I said it when the trade went down and I’ll keep saying it. Adding Shaq and Jamison, will aide to them in winning more games but in the playoffs team cohesivness is the key, unloading and gaining players mid season is always a bad move. Z coming back aint gonna help the Cavs either, his minutes are gone!

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