Report: Cavs Get Jamison For…Nothing; Salmons On Way Out

Posted by Zach Lowe on Feb 17, 2010 613016 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F2010%2F02%2F17%2Freport-cavs-get-jamison-for-nothing-salmons-on-way-out%2FReport%3A+Cavs+Get+Jamison+For...Nothing%3B+Salmons+On+Way+Out2010-02-18+00%3A17%3A57Zach+Lowehttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F%3Fp%3D6130

The big news of the day: Those of you worried about the Cavs getting Jamison are going to be even angrier about how they got him. The Cavs and Wiz took advantage of the Clippers’ cheapness/smart desire to get far under the cap for next season and roped them into the a three-teamer, according to Yahoo!

Cavs receive: Antawn Jamison, Sebastian Telfair

Wizards receive: Al Thornton, Brian Skinner (expiring), Zyndrunas Ilgauskas (expiring, likely to be waived), Cleveland first-round pick, the rights to Emir Preldzic, Cleveland’s second-round pick in last year’s draft.

Clippers receive: Drew Gooden

So, if you wondering what it took for the Cavs to land Antawn Jamison and his 20.5 points per game, it took this: A late first-round draft pick and Ilgauskas, who may return to the Cavs in a month. J.J. Hickson remains a Cavalier, giving the Cavs a pretty healthy stable of power forwards once Leon Powe returns. 

This is mostly possible because of the Clippers. 

The Clips shave another $5.5 million off of next year’s payroll by ridding themselves of Thornton and Telfair (who held a player option), putting them about $20 million under the projected cap. You better believe they are going after LeBron guns-a-blazin’. 

The Clips also provide a semi-promising young-ish player (Thornton, who recently turned 26) to entice the Wiz to pull the trigger without Hickson in the deal. 

You have to admit: This is a pretty genius deal for the Cavs. Danny Ferry did well here…unless LeBron signs with the Clips in a few months. And the Clippers are either unbelievably cheap (they’ll likely save about $700,000 this year) or smart and forward-thinking (the aforementioned cap space). It’s not like Thornton and Telfair could be considered super-promising at this point. Bassy is Bassy, and Thornton, though he averaged nearly 17 per game last season, has never had a PER as higher than 13 and has intermittent shot selection issues. 

• In other news, John Salmons will not play tonight at New York, apparently because the Bulls are trading him, according to Marc Stein. No word on where Salmons is going, but it’s not a surprise. Chicago, like the Clips, is positioning themselves for this summer, and Salmons has a $5.8 million option he’s sure to exercise for next season. 

I’ve always thought Salmons would fit well in Boston and have mentioned him here often. We’ll see where he goes.