Jamsion Trade FAQs
February 18, 2010Trade Deadline Live Blog
February 18, 2010
As we’re all aware by now, the Cavs made a trade with the Washington Wizards and Los Angeles Clippers last night, acquiring Antawn Jamison from Washington and Sebastian Telfair from LA. In return the Cavs traded away Z and their first-round draft pick in this year’s draft. As we have done with past trades, each of the WFNY guys is weighing in below.
Denny: All things considered, this deal is the realization of the best possible outcome. This is far and away what the Cavs had hoped for. The future of the team is not up in the air. LeBron reportedly has signed off on Jamison coming to the team. It’s true that Jamison has struggled recently, but the impending trade decisions have loomed heavily over the Wizards ever since the Arenas suspension. It became increasingly clear here in DC that the team was going to get scrapped. Every media session was accompanied by questions about Arenas or about trades, and it wore on the players – especially team captain Jamison (see para #9). Make no mistake about it: though we traded Z away, we are absolutely getting someone else’s Victor Martinez on this one. A hard-working, great-in-the-locker-room, humble guy.
Rick: Sometime yesterday morning I started getting a bad feeling about the Amar’e deal. A big part of it was that we had no real assurance that Stoudemire would be staying. Their were still whispers that Amar’e really didn’t want to come here. All of it was weighing on me. Then I listened to Brian Windhorst’s chat on Cleveland.com. Brian certainly wasn’t sold on Amar’e. I started to wonder what dominoes might be set in motion if the Cavs made the swap for Stoudemire and he opted out of his deal and played the free agent market in the summer. Suddenly, our ‘bigs’ situation would be reduced to only Varejao and Powe under contract if Hickson was used in the deal.
Now the Cavs can have their cake and eat it too so to speak. If you asked me in December if I thought Cleveland could have Jamsion without giving up Hickson I’d have said that would be tough to do. If you asked me last week the same question I would have said probably impossible. Kudos to Danny Ferry for knowing when to move on and make a move that helps keep chemistry in balance and upgrades the roster. You think the Cavs are hunrgy for a title? Jamsion will fit right in.
Jacob: You have to adjust judgement of this deal with respect to trading for Stoudemire to the possibility of not making a deal at all: are the Cavaliers more talented today than they were yesterday? Absolutely! Hopefully, things are able to work out with Z returning back despite the reports of interest from Dallas. But in the end, Antawn Jamison adds yet another legitimate 20 point scorer to this club. With Shaq, Mo, LeBron and ‘Twan, the Cavaliers now have four players that have been All-Stars in the past three years. Additionally, their career per game scoring averages are a combined 71.8 points. Not too many teams can compete with a core of offensive-minded players like that. Jamison also provides the team with a strong base for the future as the combination of him with Mo, Andy, West, Moon, Gibson and possibly Shaq maintains a strong core around LeBron for next season. Danny Ferry managed to get the player everyone wanted at the beginning of the season without having to give up our only real prospect for the future. Job well done Ferry yet again and this is a steal of Mo/Gasol proportions if we are able to bring Z back in a month.
TD: What can I possibly say is bad about this trade, other than feeling sorry for Z? I’m sure he will be back in 30 days, which makes this perfect. You mean to tell me the Cavs brought in the PERFECT fit from a chemistry perspective, a guy who is a multi-talented, veteran stretch four man who is all star caliber and all they had to give up was a first round pick and Z’s expiring contract? AMAZING!
J.J. Hickson stays on the roster and still has a future here. Z will more likely than not come back on 30 days, and Lebron clearly signed off on the trade. How much more perfect can it get? I for one was against the Amare Stoudamire rumors strictly from a basketball perspective. The reward had could have been huge, but so could have been the risk. We are starving for a title in this town. Grabbing Antawn Jamison gives the Cavs their best chance RIGHT NOW to win it all. The future will take care of itself. The was no assurances that Amare would have worked well in this system, while I defy you to find someone who thinks Jamison is not the ideal fit.
DP: I don’t know what I can say that hasn’t already been said by my colleagues, but suffice it to say that my initial e-mail reaction to the guys was simply: “This is stealing.” I can’t see any reason that the Wiz won’t buy out Z’s contract, and one would hope that he would rather come back to Cleveland than go to Dallas. So, if we make the leap and assume Z will have a better-than-average shot of coming back, 30 days from now we will be looking at trading a first round pick–one that will most likely be in the high 20’s at best–for Antawn Jamison. Let that sink in for a minute.
JJ Hickson wasn’t a deal breaker for me (unless we were talking about Troy Murphy), but to keep him AND get the guy I think was #1 on Ferry’s wish list is a total thievery. The only stress on the depth of this team is that Shaq and AV now have to combine/step up and pick up Z’s minutes (for at least 30 days…). But, it’s a small price to pay to get a high-character, legit 20/10 guy to add to your roster. And Jamison has to be happy to be out from under the circus big-top that has been the Wizards this season. Here in Cleveland he can just show up, do his work, and go home at night. No drama. I’ll say it again… this is stealing.
Danny Ferry does it again!
Craig: There is nothing left to say about this. There is nothing negative about this deal for the Cavs. Another topic for another day is whether or not this type of player movement is good for the game. Today, because it works out in the Cavs’ favor (finally) I don’t care about the Macro-effects. This isn’t quite Pau Gasol to L.A. but it is pretty close. Gasol was traded when he was 28, and Jamison at 33 is certainly further along in his career. Still, assuming the Cavs get Z back soon (#HurryBackZ) this cost the Cavs even less than what L.A. paid for Gasol when they traded Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittendon, Aaron McKie, the rights to Marc Gasol and 2008 and 2010 first round draft picks. Make no mistake, this is a heist.
Also a shameful moment for Chad Ford on Twitter last night when he asked if Danny Ferry had just made the deal that would allow the Clippers to sign LeBron this summer. Shameful, indeed. Baron Davis is pretty good, and Kaman is a solid big man, but don’t tell me that is a superior situation to what LeBron has right now with this roster and this owner and this GM. Don’t even try to tell me that.
Scott: The big picture, forward thinker in me is a bit nervous about what the future holds beyond this season. The Cavs fan in me that can’t wait for the day he gets to take off of work to hang out on E 9th St for a parade couldn’t be happier. Our depth remains in tact, if not better. We added a weapon that can score inside and out. Jamison is one of those guys where everyone that has been around him couldn’t have better things to say – two others that are like that are Joe Dumars and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Which is a clever seague into the fact that my feelings on this will obviously be complete when/if Ilgauskas returns. He may not be playing crucial minutes for us, and I do think that this team can win without him – I just want him to be here.
Big props to Danny Ferry for being the polar opposite of Mark Shapiro. Sure, Shapiro has a smaller wallet, but he also wouldn’t trade Adam Miller for Mark Teixeira and held off on dealing Jaret Wright for Pedro Martinez. Sorry, Mark – those are sticking points.
With that said, there’s really nothing more I can add that hasn’t been said above. It sure will be nice seeing No. 4 draining some key shots over the second half…
Andrew: There’s not much left for me to say. I am in awe that Danny Ferry was able to steer this thing (and make no mistake, he has proven he was always in the driver’s seat on this thing) to the point where he got the guy he has wanted from day one without giving up the guy he wanted to keep. The reason I was ok with giving up Hickson for Stoudemire was that Amare is a young talent himself. I was less convinced about giving up JJ for Jamison because it would have left the Cavaliers without any developing young talent. Now, the Cavs picked up Jamison who makes this a complete lineup from top to bottom, and JJ Hickson gets to continue to develop for the future at a low cost to the Cavaliers. This trade is a win all around.
Since we inevitably have to tie in the Amare factor in this, I’ll just say that I still 100000% would have rather had Amare on this team than Jamison. I think the talk about Amare being a disruption was way too exaggerated and I think LeBron would have kept him in line similar to how Michael Jordan was able to keep Dennis Rodman in line (not that Amare is near the issue that Rodman was). However, Steve Kerr is a notoriously wishy washy GM. It’s clear the Suns have absolutely no plan for their future whatsoever, and they now pushed this issue to the point where they are almost certainly going to lose him for nothing unless a miracle happens for them today. So I will never ever fault Danny Ferry for not waiting for Kerr until the last minute and losing out on a chance to add a player again like last year. Ferry pushed as long as he could, and then he moved on to get a player who will be the absolute perfect fit in all ways onto this team. This is a great day to be a Cavs fan.
41 Comments
Great photoshop. Free Z!!1!
So, did Steve Kerr screw himself? We shall see.
How many Trade stories are you gonna run? WFNY is milking it already. I would rather see a tribute and debate over the NBA’s greatest Goggles.
A. Kareem
B. Rambis
C. Worthy
D. Horace Grant
E. Olajuwan
F. Other
Danny Ferry is a genius……..
from Paul Coro’s tweet last night….you have to assume he got wind that the Suns were NOT going to buy out Z and instead had a 2nd deal to flip Z and pieces to Utah (including possibly Hickson) for Carlos Boozer.
so, instead of the Cavs franchise getting screwed by Boozer (again), Ferry pulled Hickson from the deal and went with the Jamison deal. WOW!
Amare (giving up Z, Hickson and Green)
or
Jamison (keeping Hickson, Green and likely getting back Z)
Best part is that we still have all of our young assets to use in a possible trade this summer too
@4. if we throttled boozer in this process too, that is just the cherry on top.
Hart was the GM who wouldn’t give up Wright for Pedro Martinez (one of the all-time dumb non-deals, if that was truly on the table).
I’m ecstatic about this trade, assuming Z does indeed come back. I was really nervous about Stoudemire coming here; I was never convinced he would have been an upgrade over Hickson for this season (yeah he may be more talented but he could have been a disaster in the clubhouse, not to mention a huge injury risk) and he would have either walked afterwards or we would end up with what’s going to be a horrendous, Hafner-level millstone of a contract going forward.
If you are tired of trade stories, just don’t come back until tomorrow. I say that with no malice. I am just warning you. This is what we are going to talk about today.
It isn’t “milking” because we aren’t doing it for traffic. We are doing it because it is exactly what we want to talk about. Some days are good for beating the dead horse. This is one of those days.
The other? After the NFL draft. We will have 27 stories on the draft that day probably. We will beat that dead horse too. Sorry. 🙂
Ok, well can we at least get a goggles poll? By the way the Rockets made a move with the Kings. T-Mac is on his way somewhere…
We owe a huge thanks to the Mavs and the Clippers for getting this deal done. The Mavs were the laxitive that helped start Washington’s massive dump and the Clippers came out of nowhere to let this deal happen for just Z and another Eyenga (and we got a guard out of it).
Thank You Dallas and the other Los Angeles!
After we win a championship (several) I would like to vote for Danny Ferry for Mayor of Cleveland.
Also, I have this image of Z sipping Mai Tai’s on a beach somewhere in February / March and coming back well rested for a playoff run.
Amare has some pretty cool Oakley goggles (tieing everything back together)
Question: Have we ever seen Big Z with a tan?
floating on a cloud over here! Looking forward to tonight’s game… let’s get back at the Nuggets, Jamison or not.
Kurt Rambis had the best Goggles Ever. They weren’t even googgles they were “Birth Control.”
ESPN is reporting that Mallett broke his foot. So forget about that sign and trade with Wally.
@ Stinkfist – …wow…what an analogy.
Scott: #6 beat me to the correction re Hart hedging on Pedro, but there was more: 1) pedro was a one year rental that year unless he got the very long extension he wanted (which Bosox gave him), and 2) Hart was scared to death of pitchers’ injuries screwing up. His salary structure ater Smiley and others. In retrospect it was a great deal for Boston but they had the $70M over 7 years (I think) to take that risk.
“Antawn Jamison has been the embodiment of leadership on and off the court for this franchise for five-and-a-half seasons and we thank him for all he has done for the Wizards and the city of Washington,” said Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld. “We feel that we were able to acquire a quality young player in Al, a first round draft choice and a young prospect while putting ourselves in a much better position in terms of the salary cap.”
Didn’t even allude to acquiring the big man. Nice for us. Enjoy the Vacation, Z.
Question at Scott – E.9th parade? Not Ontario?
Other thoughts – Is there any real credibility to the Mavs interest in Z? If Z doesn’t make it back I will ultimately have to write this trade off as at least a 49% failure even if it does bring home a…. (Refusing to mention it until there are 0’s on the clock and LeBron has it hoisted above his head)
i feel for z and can imagine he’s upset, at least someone cares:
http://thisonesforz.tumblr.com/
can we get a roster spot for him. waive telfair?
“The Mavs were the laxitive that helped start Washington’s massive dump”
I love it
Lets analyze the Wizards for a second. They made a smart move. “This Dump” was much needed. Flip Saunders doesn’t deserve to coach amongst the nonsense neither did Jamison need to be playing with guys that are not serious about winning.
Arenas is a likable guy, but seems to use poor judgment. He is in a way a step up from Ricky Davis (play-wise) in his prime.
Javelle McGee
Josh Howard
Nick Young
Mike Miller
Al Thorton
Everyone else should be looking for employment elsewhere. Next they need to change their Uni’s ASAP!
Ok, funny story real quick.
There was a basketball player who played for a rival team when I was in high school. His first name was Antwan. His AAU coach used to sit behind the bench during high school games and he would yell “MAKE ‘EM RESPECT YOU TWAN!”
Can we start that for Antawn?
I for one would be happy to read a new article about the trade every hour for the rest of the day.
On the court Amare would easily without a doubt be better. But if you consider the chance Amare might leave at the end of the season (and giving up JJ), doesn’t that make these trades basically equal? I’ll take a solid improvement with basically zero risk (aka Jamison) vs a situation where we could have the best team for the next 5 years, or we could be left with a depleted roster next year (aka Amare resigning vs Amare leaving)
The Z thing puts a pit in my stomach. Hurry back, I want to buy some DVDs. I also wish the math majors at WFNY hadn’t convinced me that Jamison had terrible shot selection.
Didn’t Eliot Perry have a cup of coffee in the pros?
Rocked some serious goggles.
http://pictopia.com/perl/get_image?provider_id=362&size=550x550_mb&ptp_photo_id=967143
“The Mavs were the laxitive that helped start Washington’s massive dump…”
I present your comment of the month, ladies and gentlemen.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! We could’ve had Pedro Martinez if we gave up the immortal Jaret Wright? To quote the Sports Guy, I will now light myself on fire.
How could we not get over the hump for at least, one year, with Pedro as our ace?
Ferry for Mayor, Gilbert for Governer. Did any of you hear the conversation Gilbert had with Rizzo? Gilbert was talking about getting Cleveland on the right track and redeveloping it along with Detroit. Gilbert truely cares about Cleveland above and beyond the Cavaliers.
Now hopefully we resign Lebron, he gets the casino up and running, and he buys the Tribe!
“2) Hart was scared to death of pitchers’ injuries”
How’d that work out?
@Corey — 28. I do not want Gilbert as Governor!
I want Gilbert to buy the Indians, AND Browns. He can own all our teams and my house if he wants.
Windhorst just tweeted that the Wiz might flip Z to Miami or Utah.
In other news, the Kings just got Larry Hughes from the Knicks. That’s just…….just precious.
Like the trade. Definitely upgrades our talent. But as a lifelong Cleveland fan, all this exuberance makes me nervous. Maybe let’s bask in this for 24 hours then quickly get back to being scorned, skeptical, when-will-the-other-shoe-drop Cleveland fans. The whole Z thing smacks of bad karma. If he’s back in 30+ days, then maybe I’ll do a small, private victory dance. Until then, I’m going to be worrying about all the ways this deal could blow up in our face.
@Mark (#16) – Where did you find that image of a “Canada-Cleveland-Mexico” map? That might be the greatest cleveland image I’ve ever seen.
@ Colin – it’s a shirt available from Homage Clothing.
Loving the deal, but I agree with the guy from SLAM Magazine: no more excuses..
He can own all our teams and my house if he wants.
Refi with Quicken, and you can make that happen.
Dallas and Denver wants Z. Z’s agent said his heart is here in Cleveland. The question is will he come back without a grudge? I want him back and so do everybody else but if hes doesn’t come back, he doesn’t get a RING! or at least play for one.
Tryus Thomas to the Bobcats. Nice move.
@37 – I wonder why there hasn’t been a refi promotional night at the Q…
the ONLY negative about this trade is that I’m worried we are a bit too thin at the 5 if there’s an injury and we don’t get Z back in 30 days.
If there are no injuries, or if Z’s back, this was a move of Gasol-esque proportions.
we only need to worry about an injury at the 5 without Z if we are facing the Lakers.
Orlando – if the injury is to Shaq, obviously that hurts…but having Z does not help that one much as we need Jamison/Hickson/Powe out there chasing Rashard and AV is better defending Dwight than Z.
Boston – Perkins is little to no offensive threat…Garnett is looking old and slow. Sheed just fires 3’s at this point.
Atlanta – they are a small team anyway. Sure, it takes away some of our size advantage, but I think we would still be a matchup nightmare for them.
Nuggets – they play fast with a small lineup in height, but a big lineup in how they play at each position. that said…our PFs can guard their Cs.
Lakers – this would be the problem….they put Bynum, Gasol, Odom, Artest and Kobe on the floor and how do we matchup with that? But that is not their primary lineup as they save Odom for 6th man most of the time. Our PF would definitely have their hands full with Bynum though as whatever 5 we have (AV or Shaq) would definitely be on Gasol.