Kaun won't be playing with the Cavs any time soon.
Why?
1) CSKA likes slow, physical game play and they like front court players that get rebounds and cause bruises. Kaun has value there. In the NBA, he'd look as useless as that Dwayne Jones guy from a couple years ago.
2) Euro teams have to keep a certain number of their own citizens on their teams. Kaun qualifies as Russian. It's another reason he's valuable to them. CSKA has money and CSKA will pay to keep him. Pretty much that means Kaun's going to keep getting more than NBA min salary in Russia.
Kaun's just more valuable to CSKA than he is to Cleveland.
I'd also like to mention that in the VTB playoffs,
Kaun did outplay Valanciunas. Valanciunas tends to get owned if the opposing center has good leg strength and CSKA has a lot of guys like that.
<table style="width: 477pt; border-collapse: collapse;" border="0" cellSpacing="0" cellPadding="0" width="636"> <colgroup><col style="width: 141pt; mso-width-source: userset; mso-width-alt: 6875;" width="188"> <col style="width: 48pt;" span="7" width="64"> <tbody><tr style="height: 15pt; zoom: 1;" height="20"> <td style="border: 0.5pt solid windowtext; width: 141pt; height: 15pt; background-color: rgb(238, 164, 29);" class="xl65" height="20" width="188">
Player</td> <td style="border-width: 0.5pt 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext black; width: 48pt; background-color: rgb(238, 164, 29);" class="xl66" width="64">
MIN</td> <td style="border-width: 0.5pt 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext black; width: 48pt; background-color: rgb(238, 164, 29);" class="xl66" width="64">
2P</td> <td style="border-width: 0.5pt 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext black; width: 48pt; background-color: rgb(238, 164, 29);" class="xl66" width="64">
FT</td> <td style="border-width: 0.5pt 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext black; width: 48pt; background-color: rgb(238, 164, 29);" class="xl66" width="64">
Reb</td> <td style="border-width: 0.5pt 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext black; width: 48pt; background-color: rgb(238, 164, 29);" class="xl66" width="64">
TO</td> <td style="border-width: 0.5pt 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext black; width: 48pt; background-color: rgb(238, 164, 29);" class="xl66" width="64">
+/-</td> <td style="border-width: 0.5pt 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext black; width: 48pt; background-color: rgb(238, 164, 29);" class="xl66" width="64">
PTS</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt; border-style: none solid solid; border-color: blue windowtext windowtext; width: 141pt; height: 15pt; background-color: white;" class="xl67" height="20" width="188">
Jonas Valanciunas</td> <td style="border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(88, 88, 88) windowtext windowtext rgb(88, 88, 88); width: 48pt; zoom: 1; background-color: white;" class="xl68" width="64">
14:00</td> <td style="border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(88, 88, 88) windowtext windowtext rgb(88, 88, 88); width: 48pt; zoom: 1; background-color: white;" class="xl69" width="64">
0/2</td> <td style="border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(88, 88, 88) windowtext windowtext rgb(88, 88, 88); width: 48pt; zoom: 1; background-color: white;" class="xl70" width="64">
2/2</td> <td style="border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(88, 88, 88) windowtext windowtext rgb(88, 88, 88); width: 48pt; zoom: 1; background-color: white;" class="xl69" width="64">
2</td> <td style="border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(88, 88, 88) windowtext windowtext rgb(88, 88, 88); width: 48pt; zoom: 1; background-color: white;" class="xl69" width="64">
2</td> <td style="border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(88, 88, 88) windowtext windowtext rgb(88, 88, 88); width: 48pt; zoom: 1; background-color: white;" class="xl69" width="64">
-1</td> <td style="border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(88, 88, 88) windowtext windowtext rgb(88, 88, 88); width: 48pt; zoom: 1; background-color: white;" class="xl69" width="64">
2</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt; border-style: none solid solid; border-color: blue windowtext windowtext; width: 141pt; height: 15pt; background-color: white;" class="xl67" height="20" width="188">
Alexander Kaun</td> <td style="border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(88, 88, 88) windowtext windowtext rgb(88, 88, 88); width: 48pt; zoom: 1; background-color: white;" class="xl68" width="64">
9:55</td> <td style="border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(88, 88, 88) windowtext windowtext rgb(88, 88, 88); width: 48pt; zoom: 1; background-color: white;" class="xl70" width="64">
1/2</td> <td style="border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(88, 88, 88) windowtext windowtext rgb(88, 88, 88); width: 48pt; zoom: 1; background-color: white;" class="xl70" width="64">
2/3</td> <td style="border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(88, 88, 88) windowtext windowtext rgb(88, 88, 88); width: 48pt; zoom: 1; background-color: white;" class="xl69" width="64">
4</td> <td style="border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(88, 88, 88) windowtext windowtext rgb(88, 88, 88); width: 48pt; zoom: 1; background-color: white;" class="xl69" width="64">
2</td> <td style="border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(210, 91, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(210, 91, 0); width: 48pt; zoom: 1; background-color: white;" class="xl71" width="64">
8</td> <td style="border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(88, 88, 88) windowtext windowtext rgb(88, 88, 88); width: 48pt; zoom: 1; background-color: white;" class="xl69" width="64">
4</td> </tr></tbody></table>