Cavs Searching for Answers

Without Ilgauskas, rookie coach Randy Wittman had to call on Andrew DeClerq and Mark Bryant to man the center position. Both are better suited to play power forward with only spot duty in the middle, and neither provided the kind of interior presence the team needed, especially on defense. Cleveland ranked near the bottom of the NBA in both blocked shots (23rd, 4.42 bpg) and opponents' blocks (26th, 6.09 bpg).

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After a strong start, Cleveland's lack of a dominant center began to take its toll. By the All-Star break, the Cavaliers' playoff hopes were all but extinguished.

As the team struggled to a 32-50 record and its second straight non-playoff finish, general manager Jim Paxson was searching for answers. "Everything is an option," said Paxson, when asked how the current club might be altered in the offseason.

Perhaps the best thing that could happen to the Cavs would be the return of a healthy Zydrunas Ilgauskas , who has played only one full season since being drafted by Cleveland in 1996. That season was full of promise - the 7-3 center averaged 13.9 points and 8.8 rebounds and played in all 82 games in 1997-98, after sitting out the two previous years due to a broken bone in his right foot. But five games into the 1998-99 campaign, he broke a bone in his left foot. That injury kept him out this year as well, and he underwent surgery Jan. 26.

Ilgauskas' absence was felt offensively as well. Shawn Kemp , the team's only real inside scoring threat, was double-teamed just about every time he got the ball near the basket. Forced to bull his way through a tangle of arms and bodies, he committed 4.5 fouls per game - many on the offensive end.

Despite frequently running into foul trouble and playing just 30.4 minutes per game, his lowest figure since 1991-92, Kemp led the Cavs in scoring (17.8 ppg), rebounding (8.8 rpg) and shotblocking (1.17 bpg). He shot only .417 from the field, however, a career-low and far below his career percentage of .508 going into the 1999-2000 campaign, and he was fifth in the league with 3.5 turnovers per game.

One encouraging sign for the Cavaliers was the second-half emergence of rookie point guard Andre Miller , the team's first-round pick from Utah and the eighth overall selection in the 1999 Draft. When starter Brevin Knight missed seven of eight games in February due to right quadriceps tendonitis, Miller stepped in and averaged 16.9 points and 9.6 assists per game, including his first career triple-double of 28 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds in a 102-94 loss to Atlanta on Feb. 5.

Miller, who started for most of the second half of the season, finished at 11.1 points and 5.8 assists per game, while Knight averaged 9.3 ppg and a team-high 7.0 apg. It's likely that one of the options Paxson had in mind was a deal involving one of Cleveland's point guards, which might plug a hole elsewhere.

Even though Ilgauskas was out, the season started off well for the Cavs, who were cruising with an 11-9 mark after routing Boston 115-88 on Dec. 14. But a 111-101 loss at New Jersey the following night touched off a seven-game losing streak, and by the All-Star break Cleveland's record had dipped to 19-30.

Following three consecutive victories, Cleveland was clinging to an outside playoff hope at 25-34 on March 5, but a six-game losing streak put an end to that.

Wittman, completing his first season as a head coach, believes the Cavs were not as far from the playoffs as their record might indicate: "You take out the close games and the games where we've at one point been in control of the game& there are a lot of them. Even if you're conservative and you take half or 40 percent of them and turn them into wins, we're in the seventh or eighth (playoff) spot."