Cavs: Franchise icons fill the Cavaliers’ All-1990s Team

Cavs’ All-1990s Team: F – Hot Rod Williams

The Cleveland Cavaliers of the late 1980s and early 1990s had one of the best big-man combinations in the league, with offensive powerhouse Brad Daugherty at center and defensive marvel Larry Nance at power forward. The beauty of Cleveland’s roster was that when either sat the Cavs could insert John “Hot Rod” Williams into the game as a 6th Man.

The 6’11” Williams was a star at Tulane before the Cavs took him as a late second-round pick in the loaded 1985 NBA Draft. He was an immediate starter, dropping 14.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game as a rookie. The team moved him to the bench during his second season, and he became one of the league’s best bench players over the next half-decade before moving back into the starting lineup in 1993-94.

Williams totaled 37.4 win shares for the team in the 1990s, fourth among all Cavs players, averaging a double-double despite coming off the bench for over half of his games. The team re-signed him at the start of the decade to a lucrative (for the time) seven-year, $26.5 million contract, placing him among the league’s highest-paid players despite coming off of the bench.

As such a bench player in 1989-90, Williams had his best season, putting up 16.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game to go along with a steal and two blocks. He ranks 44th in NBA history with 1,456 career blocks, around 23 slots below Larry Nance but six slots up on Zydrunas “Big Z” Ilgauskas.