Top five Cleveland Cavaliers role players of all-time
No. 5: Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Zabonis (Ilgauskas) logged 23,839 minutes in the regular season and Playoffs combined for the Wine and Gold, per Basketball Reference. He even made two All-Star teams in 2003 and 2005.
The Lithuanian’s jump shot and footwork made him a fan favorite and a preferred target for playmakers. But he could buy a bucket on his own, too, as evidenced by teammates only assisting on 63.1% of his two-point field goals.
Ilgauskas averaged 12.6 points and 9.7 rebounds per game during the 2007 Postseason in which Cleveland made its first NBA Finals.
The Cavaliers retired his jersey on March 8, 2014.
No. 4: Hot Rod Williams
John Howard Williams was a late second-round pick (45) in 1985. He missed his real rookie season (1986) while waiting to clear his name in a point-shaving trial but played for the Rhode Island Gulls and Staten Island Stallions of the United States Basketball League in the meantime.
When he got to Cleveland, after being found not guilty, for 1986/1987, he earned All-Rookie First Team honors playing next to the latest #1 overall pick, Brad Daugherty, and eighth pick Ron Harper, who also were recognized.
In Williams’ second season, he helped the Cavaliers reach the Playoffs for the fifth time in its history. In the 1992 Playoffs, he averaged 15 points and 7.6 rebounds per game through 17 outings as the group reached its second Eastern Conference Finals. For the third time since 1988, the Chicago Bulls eliminated the Cavs, but that season was the first time it won multiple rounds in the Playoffs.
Williams played with Cleveland until 1995. His numbers sit at 10th in made field goals, eighth in rebounds and fifth in blocks for the Cavaliers in the Playoffs.
He died of colon cancer on Dec. 11, 2015.