Delonte West

Delonte West

No. 13 – Cleveland Cavaliers
Position	Shooting guard
Personal information
Born	(1983-07-26) July 26, 1983 Washington, D.C.
Nationality	American
Listed height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Listed weight	180 lb (82 kg)
Career information
High school	Eleanor Roosevelt
College	Saint Joseph's University
NBA draft	2004: 1st round, 24th overall pick
Selected by the Boston Celtics
Playing career	2004–present
Stats  at NBA.com
Stats  at Basketball-Reference.com

Delonte Maurice West (born July 26, 1983, in Washington, D.C.) is an American professional basketball player for the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers.

High school career

West went to Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Maryland, where he excelled at basketball. He led the Raiders to their first tournament appearance. They made it to the Maryland 4A championship, where Delonte had 22 points and 8 rebounds, but the Raiders lost 70-58. He was named Washington Post All Met Basketball Player of the Year due to his averages of 20.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 3.1 steals per game. He scored double figures in all but one game his senior season. He then committed himself to Saint Joseph's University.

College career

At Saint Joseph's University he formed what was widely regarded as the best backcourt in the country along with Wooden and Naismith Award winner Jameer Nelson, averaging 18.9 points and 6.7 assists per game and shooting 41% from three-point range as a junior. His efforts helped the Hawks to go 27–1 in the regular season, and earn an Elite Eight appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Saint Joseph's finished the season at 30–2.

NBA career

West chose to leave St. Joe's after his junior campaign and was selected by the Boston Celtics as the 24th pick in the 2004 NBA Draft. In his first season he struggled with injuries, playing a total of just 39 games, mostly coming off the bench. He averaged 4.5 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. After making the transition to point guard in his rookie season, West was named the starting point guard at the beginning of the 2005–06 season by head coach Doc Rivers.

In 2005–06, West averaged 11.8 PPG, 4.1 RPG and 4.6 APG. On February 12, 2006, he was named to represent the Celtics on the sophomore team for the Rookie Challenge at NBA All-Star Weekend. Coincidentally, he replaced his college teammate Jameer Nelson, who withdrew because of injuries.

West was moved to the shooting guard spot in the 2006–07 season, but showed signs of difficulty early in the season. He was later moved back to the point guard position. West had some clutch shots, including a game-winning buzzer-beater against the Charlotte Bobcats on November 8, 2006, and a game-tying three pointer with 4 seconds remaining in regulation to bring the game into overtime against the New Jersey Nets on March 3, 2007. The Celtics would eventually win the game against the Nets. The next day against the Minnesota Timberwolves, West scored a career-high 31 points and made a career-high 12 free throw shots, in a double overtime Celtics victory. West scored all 31 of his points in that game during the second half and the two overtimes. At the end of the 2006–07 season, he was sharing starting minutes with Rajon Rondo.

2007–2008

West in Cleveland uniform.

On June 28, 2007 (during the 2007 NBA Draft) the Celtics traded West to the Seattle SuperSonics, along with Jeff Green (their 5th overall pick) and Wally Szczerbiak. Boston received Ray Allen and Sonics' 35th overall pick Glen Davis.

On February 21, 2008, West was part of a three-team trade that sent him, Ben Wallace, Joe Smith and Wally Szczerbiak to the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was reunited with his Saint Joseph's teammate Dwayne Jones.

As a Cavalier, West played in 26 regular season games (starting all 26). As a Cavalier, he averaged 10.3 points, 4.5 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 1.1 steals. He had a season high 20 points against the Boston Celtics only six days after his trade to the Cavaliers and a season-high 11 assists on March 30, 2008 against the Philadelphia 76ers. For the entire season, West played in 61 games (starting 31) and averaged 8.3 points, 3.8 assists and 3.2 rebounds.

On April 27, 2008, West made perhaps the most clutch 3-pointer of his NBA career with 5.4 seconds left in a playoff game against the Washington Wizards, in Washington. His tiebreaking game-winner took the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 3–1 lead in this first round series. In 13 playoff games, West averaged 10.8 points, 4.2 assists, and 3.3 rebounds. West scored 21 points in both Game 3 and Game 5 against the Boston Celtics.

2008–2009

On September 12, 2008, West signed a three-year $12.7 million contract with the Cavaliers. He was moved to the starting shooting guard position at the beginning of the season, due to the acquisition of Mo Williams.

He became a starter for the Cavaliers, who won a league-best and franchise-record 66 games during the regular season and went 39-2 at home. In addition to his role as the starting shooting guard, he also served as the backup point guard, manning the position when Mo Williams was not in the game. He emerged as a talented backcourt defensive player, guarding a variety of players ranging from the 6'3" Ben Gordon to the 6'10" Hedo Turkoglu. Offensively, he proved to be a capable outside shooter, with a field-goal percentage of 46% (and 40% on three-pointers), and maintained his reputation as an athletic and hard-nosed driver with the ball. West, Williams, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Anderson Varejão came together to form a supporting cast for franchise player LeBron James.

On March 2, 2009, against the Miami Heat, West set a career high with 8 steals.

In the playoffs, West's averages shot up to nearly 14 points per game, despite struggling with his 3-point shot much like his backcourt-mate Williams, whose shooting struggles in the playoffs were well documented. Further, the Cavs' lack of scoring punch on the bench forced West to take on extremely high minute loads. He averaged 42 minutes per game throughout the postseason, and in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Orlando Magic (which the Cavs lost in 6 games due in part to, again, outside shooting struggles from Williams and West) he played over 45 minutes per game, more than any other player in the series. In addition to this, he drew the defensive assignment of Hedo Turkoglu, who had a 7-inch height advantage, to allow James to play the "rover". West was able to stop Turkoglu's facilitation of the Magic offense in spurts, but the height advantage was too much, as Turkoglu helped to dominate the Cavalier defense throughout the series. West set a new career playoff high in points, with 22 in a losing effort in Game 6 against the Magic when the Cavs were eliminated.

Legal problems

On September 17, 2009 West was pulled over for a traffic violation while riding a 3-wheeled motorcycle. During this stop it was found that West had a 9mm Beretta pistol, .357 Magnum and a Remington 870 in a guitar case. He was arrested and had a court appearance on November 20. West could face a fine of $2,500 and/or up to a 3-year prison sentence on weapons charges. His trial was scheduled to be heard on February 18, 2010, but was postponed until July 21, 2010.

Personal Life

He has been rumored to having sexual relations with LeBron James' mother Gloria James

Career transactions

• June 24, 2004: Drafted 24th overall by Boston Celtics in 2004 NBA Draft.
• June 28, 2007: Traded by Boston along with Wally Szczerbiak and draft rights of 5th pick Jeff Green to the Seattle SuperSonics for Ray Allen and draft rights of 35th pick Glen Davis.
• February 21, 2008: Traded by Seattle to the Cleveland Cavaliers as part of three-team deal (Cleveland also acquired Ben Wallace, Joe Smith and a future second-round draft pick from Chicago Bulls and Wally Szczerbiak from Seattle; Chicago acquired Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Cedric Simmons and Shannon Brown from Cleveland; Seattle acquired Ira Newble and Donyell Marshall from Cleveland and Adrian Griffin from Chicago).

NBA career statistics

Legend

GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field goal percentage	3P%	3-point field goal percentage	FT%	Free throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

Regular season

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2004–05	Boston	39	7	13.0	.426	.358	.704	1.7	1.4	.5	.2	4.5
2005–06	Boston	71	71	34.1	.487	.385	.851	4.1	4.6	1.2	.6	11.8
2006–07	Boston	69	47	32.2	.427	.365	.853	3.0	4.4	1.1	.5	12.2
2007–08	Seattle	35	5	20.8	.388	.339	.667	2.7	3.2	.9	.3	6.8
2007–08	Cleveland	26	26	31.0	.440	.367	.788	3.7	4.5	1.1	.7	10.3
2008–09	Cleveland	64	64	33.6	.457	.399	.833	3.2	3.5	1.5	.2	11.7
2009–10	Cleveland	60	3	25.0	.445	.325	.810	2.8	3.3	0.9	.5	8.8
Career		364	223	28.4	.446	.373	.818	3.1	3.7	1.1	.4	10.0

Playoffs

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2004–05	Boston	7	3	16.4	.524	.455	.500	1.3	.6	1.0	.1	4.1
2007–08	Cleveland	13	13	34.8	.400	.429	.854	3.3	4.2	1.1	.5	10.8
2008–09	Cleveland	14	14	42.2	.465	.333	.833	3.5	4.1	1.4	.5	13.8
2009–10	Cleveland	11	0	24.5	.418	.158	.938	1.9	2.6	.8	.9	6.7
Career		45	30	31.7	.439	.352	.845	2.7	3.2	1.1	.4	9.7

External links

• Template:NBA-profile
• Template:Basketball-reference
• ESPN.com Player Page
• Boston Celtics Player Profile
• Delonte West Yahoo! Player Profile