Another Sarunas Update...

[Rimage]

Another source stating that Sarunas is coming to Cleveland

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/player_main.asp?leaguenum=&sport=NBA&id=8283

"The Cavs have reportedly landed Lithuanian point guard Sarunas Jasekevicius.
He's supposed to be the best guard in Europe, and if you don't know about him, he’s a sharp-shooting point guard from Lithuania who played in Israel last year. Larry Bird loves this guy, so he is probably the real deal."

Still waiting on a more official source to confirm the other two.

 

[Rimage]

Nevermind that source is based off the original source...nothing new.

 

[Maximus]

The problem is the Cavs are playing by different rules than the other teams bidding on Saras.
The Cavs have no idea what the CAP is yet. Indiana has a MLE and they can go over the cap to sign Saras. The Cavs are trying to sign a big and Saras and fit them both fit under the cap cleanly. Until Ferry knows EXACTLY what the Cap number is on the 22nd he is flying blind. I am quite sure this is the source of the problems.
The only other possibility is if he creates more space by moving one of our players under contract.....which was the idea behind my Luke/Sasha poll.

 

[Style]

I'm beginning to have second thoughts about Sarunas and the Cavs...The upsides are said to be his passing and three-point shooting ability, but my recollection of some data I saw recently is that he didn't average many assists and shot about 40% from beyond the arc.

Here is Saras's stats:

http://www.euroleague.net/plantillas/jugador.jsp?id=ADG

He averaged 5.3 assists in 31 minutes. Now while that works out to 8 assists per 48 minutes, giving him Lebron type assists numbers, not Nash type, he lead Euroleague in assists. This is b/c the ruling on assists is more stringent in Euroleague than it is in the NBA. The guy lead the league in assists. Rest asured he knows how to dish the rock.

This year in Euroleague he hit 39.9%. Now that's not Steve Kerr, but that's pretty damn good. If you look at his career in Euroleague the worst he's shot 3's was 37.8%, not bad, and he's hit as high as 44.9% which is ridiculously good. The boy can shoot.

Add to that that he's known for being clutch and hitting bit shots. He shot 57% on 3's in the Euro final four this year. This is a guy who you want shooting the ball when the game is on the line.

Basically, Saras is like the Steve Nash of Europe. An MVP player who led the league in assists and can shoot, but is just an average defender. The question is how does that translate to the NBA? I think he will be a good starter in the league, but at worst he's a solid backup. We're paying our current backup pg what, $6 mil? I'm willing to take the gamble.

 

[ChicagoCavFan]

I don't know the exact percentage, but isn't he a dead-eye from the foul line as well (someone we can have at the line for technical's, etc).

The comparables to Price can be seen, if you look closely. I am not confident with LeBron shooting a FT with the game on the line yet. I wonder what Hughes' numbers are from the line. I think they're good.

Remember those days when they were automatic (Price, Kerr, even Brandon). We were having McGinnis shoot them at times last year...

 

[aaronr]

Cstyle,

Thanks for the data. I feel better about the Sarunas gambit.

 

[cdt]

Sorry ChicagoCav but Hughes shot like 77-78% from the stripe last year.

 

[Style]

I don't know the exact percentage, but isn't he a dead-eye from the foul line as well

As you can see from that earlier link, he shot 94% from the foul line. Reggie Miller led the nba at 93.3% last year.

 

[cdt]

Dang, we really do need this guy we are all around C average foul shooters other then E Snow..Varejao is terrible..

 

[MHSpecialist]

Another "Sarunas is signed" Article

http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_13453.shtml
I know everyone is getting tired of these uncorroborated articles that say Sarunas is signed, but I thought I would post this anyways, pretty good read if its true. Someone posted the link on the Cavs official message board. I think we are all starting to get Sarunas blue balls.

 

[CBBI]

Re: Another "Sarunas is signed" Article

Marko Jaric is still coming to Cleveland for his official free agent visit on Thursday so I wouldn't expect to hear anything about the point guard situation until Thursday evening anyway.

According to figures though, we have enough to sign Jasikevicius outright and not enough to sign Jaric to what he wants.

Although, a sign and trade could be worked out for Jaric if that's what Ferry really wants to do.

 

[King]

Re: Another "Sarunas is signed" Article

I hope they choose Saras over Jaric if both are on the table for them. Jaric is a good player but way too injury prone to give him a huge deal that he wants IMO. Coupled with two other injury prone starters in Marshall and Hughes it could be disasterous. I'd rather take the risk of signing Saras for less money. He could end up being better than Jaric, though he could end up being a bust. I think the odds of him being succesful in the NBA are greater than the odds of him failing.

 

[cdt]

Re: Another "Sarunas is signed" Article

put all Sarunas things in the Sarunas update thread it was made to prevent duplicate threads!!!!

 

[MHSpecialist]

Re: Another "Sarunas is signed" Article

put all Sarunas things in the Sarunas update thread it was made to prevent duplicate threads!!!!

Sorry about that, I'm new at this stuff. I'm used to lurking instead of posting.

 

[cdt]

Re: Another "Sarunas is signed" Article

np lol, just easier to make em all in 1 im sure dlock or inf will move it nice work on getting it though so far they are the only ones reporting it much like nbadraft.net and the hughes deal.