I would like to formally apologise to all of our readers. Sometimes our opinion pieces make strong statements about players or events, and on occasion, they turn out not to be totally true. We are all human of course. Well, yesterday was one of those events.
I used my occasionally sharp tongue to refer to the NBA trade deadline talk as “Trade Dead…duck”. Now that the deadline has passed, looking back I was clearly out of line.
Dead ducks are more active than this trade deadline.
I would like to apologise to dead ducks everywhere.
We broke down the Camby/Outlaw deal yesterday along with the 7-player trade from the weekend. But there are only 2 deals of any significance that occurred prior to the deadline.
Deal 1:
Washington trades Antawn Jamison to Cleveland and Drew Gooden to Clippers;
Cleveland trades Zydrunas Ilgauskas, rights to Emir Preldzic and 2010 first-round pick to Washington;
Clippers trade Al Thornton to Washington and Sebastian Telfair to Cleveland.
This was without doubt the biggest of the deadline day since it was the only trade involving a contender. Let’s break it down team by team:
Cleveland: Antawn Jamison is not only a premier player in the NBA, he’s also a stand up guy and all round good egg. “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. That’s rather glowing praise from a team that just showed you the door.
He’s a cheaper option that Stoudemire, and he probably addresses weaknesses in the Cavalier offence in more ways. Plus they gave up less than they would have done to Phoenix. But Jamison at 33 he is 6 years older than Amare, and is under contract until he’s 35. Losing Ilgauskas may end up being no loss at all since the Wiz will likely buy Big Z out leaving him free to re-sign with Cleveland in 30 days. Let’s not forget though, the deal saves the Clippers cap space, a team that will be competing with Cleveland for free agents (including LeBron, however unlikely that sounds) in the summer. The move has guts, I’ll say that much.
Washington: Just a few days after taking Caron Butler away from Washington Wizards fans, the team also took their spiritual leader away from them. You’ll get no argument from me that the team needed blowing up, but it’s a sad situation that Jamison had to go effectively to create $20m in cap space when Gilbert Arenas is still on the books. Financially they can make a max offer to a free agent but frankly, who wants to go and play in the mess that has become the Washington Wizards?
LA Clippers: The Clips freed up $5.5m in cap space for this year, and at least $14m for next season. Given the cash they received from the Camby trade, it’s been a bumper week for Donald Sterling financially. They are in a better position than Washington to attract free agents (despite being the Clippers) purely down to the solid core of players they currently have. Put another way, if this team is a #9 seed with the current squad, add in a Joe Johnson calibre player and they become a real challenger.
Deal 2:
New York trades Larry Hughes to Sacramento, and Jared Jeffries, Jordan Hill, a top-5 protected 2012 first-round pick and the right to swap first-rounders in 2011 to Houston (top-1 protected);
Houston sends Tracy McGrady to New York, and Carl Landry and Joey Dorsey to Sacramento;
Sacramento sends Kevin Martin and Hilton Armstrong to Houston, and Sergio Rodriguez to New York.
Most of those names can be ignored. The key 3 names are Jared Jeffries, Tracy McGrady and Kevin Martin. Here’s why:
Tracy McGrady: He’ll put a few bums on seats in the “sold out” Madison Square Garden, and he’s still a huge name in China so merchandise sales will increase. On his day McGrady is the best pure scorer in the league, but it has been some time since that form has been reproduced. The Knicks aren’t going to be playing postseason ball even with LeBron and Kobe so T-Mac is just a rental for pure entertainment purposes.
Kevin Martin: A superb shooter will help the Rockets immediately in their push for a playoff spot. His contract makes him rather a risk long-term but there is nothing to indicate that Martin’s production will be dropping off. Plus it beats paying McGrady to post up against thin air on his own in a Chicago gym.
Jared Jeffries: From a basketball standpoint, Jeffries is so irrelevant that the Knicks had to part with multiple 1st rounders just to get Houston to take him. Where Jeffries comes into play here is his 2-year $6.4m contract. By off-loading Jeffries and taking back McGrady’s and Rodgriguez’s 1-year contracts (albeit $24.3m combined), the Knicks have now cleared enough cap space to make max contract offers in the summer.
So there you have it, the teams that will feel like the real winners will be those who cleared cap space. The Knicks, Wizards and Clippers are all now in position to make max offers to the much hyped free agent class of 2010. Of course, the Cavaliers, Heat and Raptors are also in such a position yet there are only 3, maybe 4 franchise-changing players available. That means there are going to be a lot of teams with a lot of cap space, nobody to spend it on and just plain bad rosters.
