Ok, get ready for some confusion:
Cleveland, Washington and the Los Angeles Clippers pulled off a three-team deal on Wednesday that sends Antawn Jamison to the Cavaliers as LeBron James' new sidekick, instead of Amare Stoudemire.
Cleveland sends Zydrunas Ilgauskas and his expiring $11.5 million contract to Washington. Washington also gets a 2010 first-round draft pick from Cleveland along with the rights to Emir Preldzic, who was selected in the second round of last year's draft.
The Wizards receive Al Thornton from the Clippers, with L.A. getting forward Drew Gooden, whom Washington acquired in last week's trade with Dallas.
Besides Jamison, Cleveland will also acquire Clippers guard Sebastian Telfair.
OK now that we got that out of the way, here's my take. Jamison is a great player, but allergic to defense. Cleveland is built around defense much like Boston, and if Jamison can pick it up, his game will be raised to a different level. But looking at this deal, it seems as if the Wizards got the best of this deal. They get a first round pick, as well as Al Thonton who is going to be a great player. I know he has had a disappointing year, but I still have faith that he can turn things around. Washington also freed a lot of cap space so they could be a major player in next year's NBA free agent extravaganza.
But this makes the Cavs an extremely good team and no matter my bias, they did get significantly better. Jamison will be the 4, and Varejo will move to his more natural position at 5.
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