Danny Ferry you sly dog, making us all think Amare Stoudemire was your target, then swooping in on Antawn Jamison. I can't believe he got Jamison without giving up Hickson. Make no mistake, Jamison will make the Cavs a better team. The Cavs biggest weakness before the trade was the fact that their only consistent scorer was Lebron. Shaq could only give you half a game (by the way, Jamison averages 38.9 MPG) and no one else created their own shot. I thought that was their biggest problem in the playoffs last year, Lebron just couldn't be the only scorer.
Jamison is a legit NBA scorer, shooting 45% and getting to the line 5.3 times per game. He can do some heavy lifting on offense and he gets 8.8 rebounds per game too. He is not a great defender, it's true. The Cavs have a plethora of good defensive forwards, especially with Leon Powe coming back. And it's not like Amare Stoudemire would be much different from a defensive standpoint; he'd still be a liability.
It will be interesting to see how Jamison will integrate once they get on the court. Hopefully it will go something like the 03-04 Pistons after they acquired another former UNC Tar Heel, Rasheed Wallace, right before the trade deadline and went on to win the title against the Lakers.
Sweet. I can't wait for the Thunder-Cavs Finals showdown.
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean Staudemire is going to Miami? I don't really understand why the Suns don't want him, but whatever.
For real Perkins, you need to do an article about what you think the odds are of the Cavs and possible other teams winning the Finals. Apparently people love that shit
Stoudemire is probably staying in Phoenix. I think there are two reasons why the Suns were looking to trade Stoudemire:
ReplyDelete1. The Suns feared that he would opt out of his contract at the season's end and leave Phoenix for nothing in return.
2. Amare wants a long-term deal and the Suns probably aren't willing to shell out the money that he wants. If Amare decides to opt in for the final year of his contract, he would be making $17.7 million next season. This big contract would make him difficult to trade, and if the two sides can't reach a long term deal, the Suns would once again risk letting him leave for nothing. If the Suns regress next year with Amare on the team, his departure in free agency would be even more likely.
It's not that the Suns don't want Stoudemire. I think they see the writing on the wall that their championship contending days are over and they'll probably have to move Stoudemire at some point down the road. He's often been in trade talks, so they might have been eager to finally get it over with and move on.
As for Miami trading for Amare, it probably won't happen either. They're hesitant to include Beasley in a trade, which would likely be the only scenario to make it work. The Heat are banking on 2010 free agency in hopes of signing Chris Bosh or Stoudemire without having to trade any young talent away.
I probably should've just made this a post, but I'd rather let my poorly informed analysis of trade rumors linger in the comments section.