By: Tyler Ward
The Heat continued their dominance in free agency today, signing former Cavalier, Zydunas Ilgauskas. "Big Z" will be re-united with LeBron James, who has spent his entire career playing with Ilgauskas.
Yesterday, the Heat re-signed power forward Udonis Haslem and officially announced the signing of swingman Mike Miller. This gives the Heat a dominant team with James, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, Mario Chalmers, and the three rookies they drafted this year. Also, this gives the Heat a 10-man roster with a few million left in cap space - Ilgauskas is expected to sign a two-year deal worth the veteran minimum, tallying around $1.4 million per season.
Ilgauskas expressed distraught with Cleveland last season after he was traded to Washington. The Wizards then proceeded to buy out his contract and since the Cavaliers were his former team, he was required by NBA rules to wait 30 days to re-sign with his former team. Ilgauskas eventually re-signed with Cleveland thirty days later and played sparingly throughout the rest of the regular season and playoffs.He may also have wanted to leave Cleveland after a fiasco that infuriated not only Ilgauskas, but LeBron James, too. It isn't certain if it was coach Mike Brown's decision or not, but they sat Ilgauskas in a game where he could have set the Cavaliers' record of most games played in their history. The coaching staff said they didn't play Ilgauskas because of the smaller match-up he would have had against an athletic Dallas Mavericks team. Not to mention, all of his family was in attendance and didn't get to see him break the record. It was also the first time he was active for the Cavaliers and didn't play.
No wonder he left Cleveland, huh?
This is such a valuable asset for the Heat as they just keep on adding more and more players. Ilgauskas brings them much needed height because Bosh is the only player with significant playing time that stands over 6'10". And although he is slowing down, he can still provide decent defense and mentorship for draftees Jarvis Varnardo and Dexter Pittman. I wouldn't hand them the trophy just yet, but it looks like they will be in the NBA Finals next season.
*UPDATE*
The Heat also announced today that they will also bring in power forward Juwan Howard. He is expected to sign a veteran minimum deal like Ilgauskas. The 37 year old will be the backup to Bosh and the newly signed Udonis Haslem. The Heat still have cap space, but they are really only able to sign players at the veteran minimum. Howard brings them a defensive presence on rebounds and even more leadership to a totally different Miami team.
