Antawn Jamison to Cavs in Three Player Trade, Cleveland Makes Their Move

It's Antawn Jamison to the Cavs in a three-team trade. Antawn Jamison was traded to the Cavs for Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and it seems like the Cavs have almost stolen away Jamison in order for Washington to get salary cap relief going forward. The deal as a whole sends Jamison to Cleveland along with point guard Sebastian Telfair from Los Angeles, Ilgauskas to Washington with Al Thornton from Los Angeles, and the Clippers ending up with Drew Gooden from Washington. Washington comes out just getting Zydrunas Ilgauskas, whom the team will probably just waive, clearing a ton of salary room for the 2010 season.

With Antawn Jamison going to the Cavs, Cleveland gets a guy who can go for 20 points and 10 rebounds every night. He will definitely become the starting power forward for the Cavs, and gives the Cavs one of the best front lines in basketball when teamed up with LeBron James and Shaq. Through 41 games that he played in this year for Washington, Jamison put up 20.5 points per game and 8.8 rebounds per game. He won't score as many points for Cleveland, but it really gives the Cavs another great weapon when the shot clock is clicking down towards the end of the game. With the acquisition it will become even harder for opponents to double-team LeBron effectively.

It's amazing that Cleveland was able to pull off this trade without losing their young power forward J.J. Hickson. It does mean that they are out of the Amare Stoudemire sweepstakes, but recent rumors have had Miami leading that bidding war anyways. The Cavs seem to come out way ahead in this trade, but Washington has cleared even more roster space going forward. In less than a week, Washington has been able to deal Jamison, Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood. This team is being blown-up from the inside out, and this franchise is really turning the page to the next chapter post-Arenas very quickly.

Is this trade enough to put Cleveland back in the NBA finals this season? On paper it certainly looks like the Cavs are the team to beat even more so than last week in the East.

References:

Caron Butler Traded

Cavs Get Jamison

Jamison Stats