Each week during August and September we’ll be taking a look at a random Cleveland Cavaliers player from the past. This time, we highlight Russian center Timofey Mozgov who played a necessary role on the 2016 championship team.
The Cavs were a mess in the winter of 2014-15. They had a losing record midway through January, LeBron James briefly left the team to “rehab” in Miami, Kevin Love wasn’t fitting with the core group, and David Blatt was in way over his head as a coach.
Things were simply bad and needed to change.
General manager David Griffin made two drastic moves to alter the course of that season. First, he sent out Dion Waiters — who very clearly didn’t fit with the rest of the team — for J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert. Two days later, he added Mozgov from the Denver Nuggets in exchange for two protected first-round picks.
Mozgov made an immediate impact. He replaced the injured Anderson Varejao as the starting center and provided some much-needed rim protection for a team that couldn’t consistently get defensive stops.
Mozgov also helped on the other end by being a solid interior scorer. He averaged 10.6 points and 6.9 rebounds in 46 outings with the Cavs in 2015. The team went from being 19-16 at the time they traded for him to being 34-13 after the deal.
Injuries caught up to the Cavs in the playoffs. Love was injured in the first round series against the Boston Celtics and Kyrie Irving was sidelined after Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors (which might not have happened if Mozgov wasn’t called for a questionable traveling violation in the fourth quarter on what would’ve been a made basket). The Cavs put up a good fight in the Finals as they took games 2 and 3, but they couldn’t keep up with the Warriors’ small-ball lineup.
Golden State changed basketball and particularly how the center position was played. Mozgov was a traditional center who couldn’t keep up with the Warriors’ five-out offense. Cleveland didn’t have anyone else to turn to in the 2015 Finals, but this stylistic change influenced his second season in Cleveland.
Mozgov was moved to the bench during the middle of the 2016 season in favor of Tristan Thompson who matched up much better with the Warriors. Mozgov only played sparingly in the 2016 Finals. Game 3 was the only time he saw non-garbage-time minutes.
The Los Angeles Lakers gave Mozgov a gigantic, at the time, four-year $64 million deal the following offseason. That contract didn’t age well as the league continued to embrace the small-ball revolution.
Even though Mozgov didn’t play a big role in the 2016 Finals, he was an important contributor to that era of Cavs’ basketball. His addition went a long way in changing the trajectory of the 2015 season. There’s no guarantee 2016 happens if the Cavs weren’t able to right the ship the year prior. Mozgov is partially to thank for that.