The Cleveland Cavaliers essentially traded for Antawn Jamison for one of the last picks in the first round of the draft.  Sounds like a fair trade.  The Washington Wizards need to save money and cap room and the Cavaliers wanted to bolster their team for their championship push.  The Wizards also received Big Z Ilgauskas but he will eventually be waved and resigned with the Cavs in 30 days, like Jerry Stackhouse with the Mavs last year.

So what does this mean for the Cavs?  Instant Championship.  Jamison is one of the most underrated players in the NBA and has been for many years.  He isn’t as explosive offensively as Stoudemire who was rumored to be heading to Cleveland instead, but hes probably a better offensive player.  And Stoudemire is essentially worthless on defense, Jamison has a very high basketball IQ and will help the Cavs defend the Odom’s and Lewis’ in the late stages of the NBA playoffs.

Jamison plays from the perimeter and works his way inside.  So he won’t just be clogging up the lane with Shaq like Stoudemire would.  You don’t have to run any sets for Jamison to do his part like you do with Shaq and would need to for Stoudemire.  Jamison fills up the stat sheets in the natural flow of the game, just making teams better.  He puts up 20 ppg and 9 rebounds without too many sets run for him and hes done it every year he’s been in the league.  This instantly makes the Cavs a much better team, and a favorite over the Las Angeles Lakers for the NBA championship.

But was it a good idea?  Well if the Cavaliers assume Lebron is leaving after this season and signing with a team with more financial ability it was a great move.  I mean really just one of those Gasol to LA for Kwame Brown trades that is just genius and is instant championship in a bag, just add water.  But if you were trying to keep Lebron long term, it was a huge mistake.

Lebron wants to sign with a team that has flexible cap space and can bring in another big time star like Chris Bosh of Toronto to play along side of them.  While the Cavaliers have shown the commitment to winning by bringing in and paying Shaq, and now Jamison (33 yrs old, 2 years, 28 million contract), they have strapped themselves financially.  Even though Shaq’s 22 million and Big Z’s 12 million wont be on the payroll for next year, with Jamison they now have a commitment of over 50 million dollars for the 2010-2011 season.  Big problem.  The salary cap is projected to be lower than this years 57 million, meaning there would only be 7 million dollars to sign another big name player which obviously isn’t enough.  Now that 7 million dolalrs worth of room doesnt’ include Lebron.  While they will go way over the cap resigning him, it’s allowed under the CBA since he is a veteron player who has been with the Cavs.  But it does mean they cant sign Bosh, Stoudemire, Boozer, any big talent young big guy who is a free agent this off season.  The only option is signing a player to the mid level exception.

Had they taken Stoudemire, it could have been an audition of sorts to see if him and Lebron can play long term.  And just for the record, I think Stoudemire is garbage unless packaged with a Steve Nash, Lebron James, or Dwayne Wade.  He would have worked very well with Lebron and there would have been a ton of highlight reels from every game to prove it.  And if things didn’t work out with Stoudemire they simply do not resign him and go with Bosh or Boozer (Who Cavs management would never resign after he screwed them 4 years ago).  So while I firmly believe Jamison would allow the Cavs to easily win 2 out of the next 3 NBA championships, it doesn’t provide the long term talent and roster Lebron is looking for to go after a pocket full of NBA championship over the next 10 years and will eventually lead him out of town.

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3. “The Decision” As Mocked By Simmons On SportsNation And Steve Carell On ESPY’s
4. Two More Great Lebron Spoofs (Videos)
5. “We Are Lebron” Song By The Most (Un)Famous Clevelanders

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