Cavs: Big Z joins LeBron James on Cavaliers’ All-2000s team

The new millennium did not start out positively for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who were trapped at the bottom of the standings to start the 2000s. They won an average of just 27 games from 1999-00 to 2002-03, a run of failure that was painful to watch but ultimately won them redemption.

That came in the person of LeBron James, whom the Cavs drafted first overall in the 2003 NBA Draft. Suddenly their fortunes turned around, and by his third season James had the Cavs back in the postseason; by his fourth they were in the NBA Finals. Over the final four seasons of that decade the Cavs averaged 53 wins.

The Cavs went from the basement to the Finals in the 2000s: what five players defined the decade?

If LeBron James was the spark to ignite the Cavaliers franchise back into relevance, then perhaps Zydrunas Ilgauskas was the firewood that had been there all along. The center made two All-Star teams and played the entire decade for the franchise.

What other players filled around Ilgauskas and James to define the decade of the 2000s for the Cavs? The backcourt was a revolving door, so we will work some lineup magic to lay out a full five-person All-Decade Team. We’ll start with The Professor and end with Big Z.