RealGM Analysis
With a less demanding asking price and an uncomplicated contract situation, the Cavaliers took the path of least resistance in acquiring Antawn Jamison from Washington in exchange for Zydrunas Ilgauskas and a first round pick from Cleveland, along with a few pieces from the Clippers.
Phoenix was commanding more compensation for Amare Stoudemire, requesting J.J. Hickson and though Amare is signed for $17.67M for the 10-11 season, he has an early termination option. Stoudemire is clearly angling for a max/near-max extension and he was sending mixed signals as to his preference for where he ends up in the long-term. He seemed to signal a preference for him homestate of Florida and he may now end up there with the Heat.
Jamison becomes Cleveland's famed 'Stretch 4' acquisition, a term that had never seen so much publicity until a few weeks ago when Danny Ferry made it clear that was his target.
This begs the questions of how effectively can Jamison stretch the floor?
According to HoopData, Jamison has hit 38% of his attempts from 16-23 feet, which is significantly below Troy Murphy's 50% and Amare's 45%.
Jamison's midrange game (10-15 feet) dips even further to 35%, compared to 58.8% for Murphy and 51.4% for Stoudemire.
Furthermore, Jamison is largely dependent on his scoring chances coming on assists. This shouldn't be a huge problem for the Cavaliers, as they have one of the best facilitators of all-time in LeBron James, but like most of Cleveland's other players on offense, he will be dependent on James.
What Jamison offers that Stoudemire does not possess is a three-point shot. Jamison is a career 34.7% shooter from distance and is posting a mark of 34.5% this season.
As a rebounder and defender, Jamison and Stoudemire are roughly equivalents, though I would characterize Stoudemire as having the greater potential for upgrade in a motivated situation like he would have enjoyed in Cleveland. Jamison isn't particularly gifted defensively, but he isn't a huge liability and can of course defend bigs on the perimeter such as Rashard Lewis and Lamar Odom.
Jamison has a slight edge against his opponent counterpart at power forward this season at a +1.5 PER, compared to +2.9 for Amare and -0.4 for Murphy.
When a team with the best record in the NBA acquires a player of Jamison's caliber, it clearly takes their championship chances from 'very promising' to 'pretty darn good.'
But Jamison will turn 34 during the middle of a Finals that Cleveland aims to be participating in. His game isn't tremendously predicated on athleticism and he hasn't demonstrated any significant variances in his production since one season with Golden State back in 00-01 when his usage went up. The player he is now should be the player he is during the 11-12 season when his contract expires.
I identified a wing scorer as the area where Cleveland could improve the most significantly, with Corey Maggette being the best option available. He would come cheaply in terms of what Golden State needs in return and acquiring him is Danny Ferry's ace in the hole that can still be played.
Jamison helps Cleveland significantly while allowing them to hold onto Hickson, but at the same time, it isn't the long-term home run type of trade that Amare could have been.
Grade for Cavaliers: A-
The Wizards have cleared a lot of salary off the decks in the past few days and now they get out from under Jamison's remaining two seasons of $13.36M and $15.08M. The return of a first round pick (which will practically be a second rounder since it's from Cleveland), along with Al Thornton doesn't seem like much for Jamison, but a few more seasons of cap hell for a non-contender doesn't sound too good for a franchise in transitional ownership.
Thornton is practically a dinosaur for a third-year player and though he has improved his TS% with a reduced role offensively this season, the fact that the Clippers rather have $2.81M more cap space than him says almost everything you need to know about his upside.
The Wizards clearly would have loved to acquire Hickson, but the presence of a competing offer from the Suns with Stoudemire made driving a hard bargain difficult. The Suns at least have Miami to fall back to while Washington had nobody else for Jamison.
The Wizards are almost certain to negotiate a buyout with Ilgauskas and he will re-sign with the Cavaliers after 30 days. While teams cannot mandate such maneuvers, the Wizards are by all accounts expected to be gentlemen in this regard.
Grade for Wizards: C+
The Clippers found themselves in the middle of things and really made out by bandits. They absorb the remainder of Drew Gooden's contract, which will ultimately end up being bought out, while clearing over $5M in contracts for this summer.
One day after giving away Marcus Camby for absolutely nothing, Mike Dunleavy redeemed himself with this maneuver.
The Clippers now will have enough cap space to offer a max contract slot to a free agent, who they will attempt to lure on the basis of the Los Angeles market and a chance to play with Blake Griffin, Baron Davis, Chris Kaman and Eric Gordon.
James will be the Clippers' first choice and this move helps their chances. The Cavaliers willingly participated in this move and they know LeBron's mind better than anyone else and it is doubtful they would have helped the Knicks clear cap space in this way.
It makes a signing of Joe Johnson or Dwyane Wade more reasonably likely.
Grade for Clippers: A
