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

By Josh Cornelissen

Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Cleveland Cavaliers. Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Cleveland Cavaliers. Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images /
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Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Cleveland Cavaliers. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images /

Cleveland Cavaliers All-2000s Team – C: Zydrunas Ilgauskas

At 7’3″ tall Zydrunas Ilgauskas was used to towering over the competition, even in the NBA. His comfort taking jumpers allowed him to leverage that size and shoot over defenders, and his strength gave him options for scoring inside.

The Lithuanian center made his NBA debut with the Cavs in 1997 and played the next 12 seasons in Cleveland before playing one final year in Miami with LeBron James. After he was drafted 20th overall in the 1996 NBA Draft he played just one healthy season across the first five years of his career. Then he got healthy and his his stride.

Over the course of the 2000s Ilgauskas played in a whopping 620 games for the Cavs; only five players logged more games for a single team over that span, and they are names such as Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan and Paul Pierce (and Jeff Foster – shouts). He dropped in 14.4 points and 7.7 rebounds per game.

Ilgauskas was a force inside, leveraging his size to wall off the rim. He averaged 1.7 blocks per game, top-10 in the entire league for the decade. His best pure statistical season came in 2002-03 when he made the All-Star team as the primary scorer on a last-place team; he married stats and wins more successfully two years later, averaging 16.9 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game in making his second All-Star appearance.

No player other than LeBron James meant more to the franchise across his tenure. “Big Z” as he was called still holds multiple franchise records despite James’ attempts to take them all. No player has more career offensive rebounds, blocks or fouls than Ilgauskas.

dark. Next. LeBron James leads the Cavaliers’ All-2010s Team

Big Z, The King, The Professor. If nothing else the 2000s Cleveland Cavaliers have some all-time nicknames. From the bottom of the ladder to an MVP-winner and NBA Finals appearance, the decade was a roller coaster for the Cavs and their fans. These five players helped to steer the ride as the best the franchise had to offer across that ten-year span.