Friday, July 08, 2005

High on Hughes

No Ray Allen. No Michael Redd. No worries, mate.
Media reports this afternoon said Wizards guard Larry Hughes has agreed to bolt for the Cavaliers, a move more surprising and sudden than Redd's quick decision to stay with Milwaukee on Thursday. Terms of the deal were not available at the time of this post.
Hughes reportedly wasn't happy with the way initial contract talks were going between his agent and the Wizards, and apparently when Redd declined Cleveland's five-year, $72 million offer, Hughes saw his chance to cash in.
Hughes, 26, isn't really the outside shooter the Cavs needed, but he stepped up his all-around game last season in helping to lead the Wizards to their first playoff series victory since 1982.
The 6'-5" shooting guard averaged 22 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists last year.
The tandem of Hughes and LeBron James will unite two of the greatest ball-stealers from last season. In being named to the all-defensive NBA first team, Hughes led the league with an average of 2.89 steals per game.
Hughes has gained a reputation as an immature ball-hog, mostly earned during his time with the Golden State Warriors. But there is no question he was part of a successful concoction of players last year in Washington, and he apparently learned to share the spotlight with fellow stars Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison. Sharing the spotlight is important when LeBron James is your teammate (reference my post below).
If this deal gets finalized without incident or last-minute cold feet (I should bite my tongue for even saying that), and reports that the Cavs and Zydrunas Ilgauskas might be able to hammer out a deal by the end of next week are true, that will make me feel a whole lot better about the Cavs this summer.

1 comment:

Zach said...

Off topic, but ...
Was it me, or did the Indians appear intimidated this weekend? It seemed that the pitchers were overly, overly cautious with the hitters, to the point where the number of walks were mind-boggling.
The thing is, New York is not that good, but the Indians appeared almost in awe of them.