Round 4, Pick 8: Zydrunas Ilgauskas, C, Cleveland Cavaliers

Zydrunas Ilgauskas is part of a dying breed – the big man with a back-to-the-basket game.  And Ilgauskas is a European nonetheless!  Yes, not all European big men shoot J’s on the regular like Dirk Nowitzki.  Actually, it doesn’t matter if one is European because no one is like Nowitzki.  But, this isn’t about a goatee-wearing, deadly from anywhere on the floor, David Hasselhoff loving Maverick.  It’s about Ilgauskas, a 7’3”, hairline receding, have to double check the spelling of his name player who can score a number of ways down in the box as well as from mid-range when the occassion arises.  And it’s this last point that should have you interested in drafting the Cavaliers’ resident center.

Other than the elite centers, there aren’t many players from the five spot that can score as much as the Big Z can.  Last season, Ilgauskas averaged 15.6 ppg ranking him first amongst centers that qualified in real basketball.  For his career, he is a 15.0 ppg scorer and you can pretty much expect that average this upcoming season.  Ilgauskas is the Cavs only low-post threat, so the ball will always go down into him in a half-court set or whenever they slow the break down.  But, Ilgauskas doesn’t just do his damage down low, as he’ll step out and shoot that jumper.  See, there actually is a little bit of Dirk in him.  I wonder if Ilgauskas has a car named Kitt or a poster of Michael Knight giving the thumbs up with Gary Coleman? 

Anyway, not only is Z one of the better scoring pivot men, he can board too.  Although, the numbers aren’t spectacularly (7.6 rpg last season; 7.7 rpg for his career), you must remember that Ilgauskas is built like Frankenstein’s monster and has ZERO hops.  I seriously think that former Utah Jazz center Mark Eaton had a better vertical than Z.  Okay, so that’s not saying much.  In any case, it was only two seasons ago that Ilgauskas averaged 8.6 boards, so there’s potential upside from using a whole bunch of “backside” AKA how Charles Barkley averaged 11.7 rpg during his 16 seasons in the NBA.

Despite the total rebounds not coming in bunches, over 40% of Z’s boards have been of the offensive kind, which in the last few seasons he’s been in the Top 7 of total offensive rebounds for a season.  Two seasons ago, he actually led the league in that category.  Why mention this?  This basically means that Z has the great potential of getting a lot of stick-backs to accumulate his points AND giving his fantasy owners a pretty good FG%.  Last season Ilgauskas shot 50.6% from the field and for his career shoots at a 47.6% rate.  I’ll take it!

Of course, like any big man over 7’0” (unless you’re Frederic Weis and Vince Carter is coming at you), Z can block some shots.  Ilgauskas averaged 1.7 get that shiznit out of heres in ‘05-‘06 and averages about a couple of Spalding’s across an opposing shooter’s forehead for his career. Again, I’ll take it!

But, here’s what I really like about Ilgauskas and will take like Shane Battier takes a charge - Z’s free throw efficiency.  We all know about Shaquille O’Neal, Ben Wallace, Tim Duncan, and Dwight Howard‘s lack of, what Tim Hardaway calls skeelz, from the line, but you won’t get that from Ilgauskas as he shot 83.4% from the charity stripe last season and 77.6% for his career.  I mean, those numbers compared to the aforementioned bigs, makes Z look like the Steve Nash of NBA big men when it comes down to converting at the charity stripe!

Yes, he may have me doing spellcheck repeatedly and he may have a nickname that places him last in the alphabet, but after the elite centers are gone, Ilgauskas has me as a fan… just as much as Germans are fans of THE HASSELHOFF!

How He Fits On This Fantasy Basketball Team

Well, I incorrectly listed Dwight Howard as a PF/C, when he’s not.  At least not according to Yahoo, which most people use to serve their fantasy basketball needs.  My bad.  In any case, I don’t regret the pick because I would have chosen Howard anyway.  But, he’s not my first center anymore as Z steps in as that.  So, in a two center start league, I’m more than giddy at the prospect of having Ilgauskas.  Of course, Cavs fans (ahem… SARGE!) probably think Z stinks worse than skunk cologne because of his disappearance during the playoffs, but all we fantasy owners care about is the regular season.  Z will give me very good point production out of the five spot, a decent amount of boards added to Howard’s stellar numbers there and my guards’ excellent production in boarding, add some oomph to both of the percentages, and rejections.  Ashford and Simpson, what do you think of my team?  It’s “solid… solid as a rock.”

Other Team Members:

1.5. Kobe Bryant, SG, Los Angeles Lakers
2.8. Jason Kidd, PG, New Jersey Nets
3.5. Dwight Howard, PF, Orlando Magic