Antawn Jamison Traded to Cleveland Cavaliers: Fantasy Implications

The Deal

Cleveland receives: Antawn Jamison , Sebastian Telfair

Washington receives: Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Al Thornton, and Cleveland’s 2010 first round pick

LA Clippers receive: Drew Gooden

What It Means

The headline name in this deal is Jamison, who flies in to be LeBron James’ wing man despite almost every rumor for the past couple weeks being about Phoenix Suns’ power forward Amare Stoudemire.

Jamison was averaging 20.5 points and 8.8 rebounds per game in Washington, where he was playing with marginal talent surrounding him. In moving to Cleveland, where he’ll presumably take over as the starting power forward, the 6′9" Jamison could find it harder to keep his scoring up. After James, there are only two Cavs currently scoring over 11 points per game: Mo Williams (16.9) and Shaq (11.7).

The domino effect on the Cleveland roster could have enormous fantasy implications. There is a good chance that Williams’ scoring could go down, the fact that Anderson Varejao has a younger set of legs in front of him likely will hurt is team-leading rebound numbers, and Shaq’s minutes could be cut before the playoffs to keep him fresh.

Frankly, the only players in Cleveland that this deal doesn’t hurt from a fantasy perspective is James.

Thornton moving to Washington is an interesting part of the trade, though. The 6′8" forward was averaging 10.7 points per game for the Clippers, but it’s hard to get touches when Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman and Baron Davis are all very willing to shoot the ball.

Thornton and Josh Howard, acquired in a trade with the Mavericks on Feb. 13, are now the highest scoring players on the Wizards’ roster. Considering what’s left in the nation’s capital, Thornton could finally get a chance to show the great athletic ability that convinced the Clippers to take him with the 14th overall pick in the 2007 draft.

Sebastian Telfair is injury insurance. The Cavs have enough guards that the New York playground icon will either get lost in the shuffle. If you have him on your fantasy team, you have more problems than Telfair’s minutes. He has no value.

Rumors are that Ilgauskas, whose contract expires after this season, will likely be waived by Washington, wait 30 days, and end up back in Cleveland after a nice break. His numbers have fallen off enough this year with Shaq in town that his fantasy value remains little, if any, to begin with.

Gooden is now miserable. He was dealt to the Wizards from Dallas in the Caron Butler-Josh Howard deal, and has been trying to get out of his contract ever since. If there’s one place in the NBA that’s worse than the Wizards right now, it’s the Clippers. He was a fringe fantasy player to begin with, but the soap opera of how/where/when he finally lands could at least be fun to watch.