Antawn Jamison Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Cavs Notes: Sessions, Varejao, Jamison

February 26th, 2012 at 11:36am CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavs hit the All-Star break in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, at 13-18 and a game and a half back of the slumping Celtics. Here's what's buzzing with the team as it chases its first post-LeBron James playoff berth:

Bob Finnan of The News-Herald said the Cavs would prefer to get a first-round draft pick in a trade instead of veteran talent. Nonetheless, Marvin Williams' name has come up as a potential target, as he was drafted by former Hawks executive and current Cavs GM Chris Grant. A straight-up swap of Williams for Ramon Sessions, a rumor Finnan has been hearing, wouldn't work under the salary cap, but another deal is within the realm of possibility.
Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Terry Pluto believes the Cavs are better off trading Sessions for a first-round pick rather than risking that he'll turn down a $4.55MM option for next season and seek a starting job as an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Tom Reed of the Cleveland Plain Dealer answered reader questions and said that even though Anderson Varejao is likely off the table for this year's trade discussions, the high energy big man will likely be back in trade talks next season.
While trade candidate Antawn Jamison could remain in Cleveland the rest of the season, Reed doubts Jamison, who's a free agent this summer, will return to the team in 2012/13.
Finnan has another story on top-pick Kyrie Irving, who's reminding coach Byron Scott of a young Chris Paul. Scott, who also coached Jason Kidd during his prime in New Jersey, was Paul's first coach with the Hornets.

Jamison Not Expecting Cavs To Trade Him

February 24th, 2012 at 9:35am CST by Luke Adams

For teams seeking cap space this summer, Antawn Jamison's $15MM+ expiring contract would be a valuable asset. For teams looking to make a title run, Jamison would be a valuable frontcourt piece, having posted 17.4 PPG and 17.9 PER for the Cavs this season. However, Jamison doesn't expect to be traded before the deadline, as he tells Tom Reed of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

"Honestly, deep down inside, I don't want to go anywhere, and I don't feel like I'm going anywhere," Jamison said. "I enjoy playing with these guys. These guys are very receptive to what I tell them and what I do on the court."

When I examined Jamison as a trade candidate last week, I noted that the 35-year-old may be too valuable to the Cavs for the team to find a deal it likes. Cleveland is well-positioned to have a tremendous amount of cap space this offseason, and trading Jamison for a player under contract for multiple years would affect the club's flexibility.

Additionally, the Cavs seem more inclined to attempt a run at the playoffs rather than selling off players that can help in the short-term. Jamison has certainly been helping this month, averaging 22.0 PPG and 9.0 RPG in 11 February games (36.0 MPG). If the former Tar Heel continues playing well and the Cavs continue to believe they're postseason contenders, I think Jamison may be right — he'll remain in Cleveland past March 15th.

Reed On Sessions, Jamison, Mayo

February 19th, 2012 at 9:16am CST by Daniel Seco

In his latest edition of "Hey Tom!", Tom Reed of the Cleveland Plain Dealer assesses what he believes the Cavs will do prior to the trade deadline. Let's take a look at some of his musings:

Reed expects the Cavs to make a concerted effort in trading point guard Ramon Sessions before the deadline. Sessions, 25, is in his second season with Cleveland and is currently averaging 10.4 PPG and 5.6 APG in 25.1 MPG. Earlier rumors linked the former Nevada star with the Lakers and Knicks, but the rise of Jeremy Lin and signing of J.R. Smith would seem to signal that New York is no longer interested in Sessions.
The Cavs are also looking to move Antawn Jamison whether that means trading him or buying him out. What makes Jamison difficult to trade, as also pointed out by Hoops Rumors writer Luke Adams, is the fact the Cavs would have to take back salary in any trade situation. The 35-year-old former Tar Heel is enjoying another solid season as he's averaging 16.6 PPG and 6.1 RPG in his third year with the team.
Grizzlies guard O.J. Mayo would be a great piece to pair with the team's foundation of Tristan Thompson and Kyrie Irving. In responding to a proposed package of Omri Casspi and Daniel Gibson, Reed believes the Cavs would need to include more on their end in order for the trade to actually come to fruition. The 24-year-old former USC guard has been struggling this season as all of his minutes for the Grizzlies have come off the bench.

Cavs Notes: LeBron, Varejao, Jamison

February 16th, 2012 at 10:15pm CST by Alex Lee

With LeBron James stirring up a hornet's nest with his surprising comments about potentially wanting to return to play for the Cavaliers, let us take a look at some other recent news in Cleveland:

The announcement that Anderson Varejao will officially miss 4 to 6 weeks while he recovers from a broken wrist likely ends any lingering trade talk involving the Cleveland center. With Varejao out for at least a month the Cavs are unlikely to make a run at the 8-seed in East, and may be more likely to be active at the trade deadline.
Luke Adams examined Antawn Jamison as a trade candidate yesterday, concluding they won't get an offer more valuable than having Jamison's $15MM come off the books in the offseason. John Hollinger agreed in an ESPN.com chat today, saying that a post-deadline buyout is looking more and more likely.

Trade Candidate: Antawn Jamison

February 15th, 2012 at 2:33pm CST by Luke Adams

With a month remaining until March 15th, it's not clear yet how the Cavaliers plan to approach the NBA's trade deadline. The Cavs, currently 2.5 games out of the eighth spot in the East, have enough young talent and potential trade chips that it makes sense for the team to become deadline sellers, stocking up the future.

However, comments made by coach Byron Scott today echoed multiple reports from the past few weeks. The Cavs weren't shopping Anderson Varejao prior to his wrist injury, and may be reluctant to sell off pieces if they're in position to make the playoffs.

"Once a team gets a taste of the playoffs like (the Pacers) did last year, even though they lost in the first round, you come back hungrier the next year," Scott said. "That’s why I don’t understand why people say we should lose games."

Even if the Cavs are reluctant to compromise their postseason chances by making moves, it may be a moot point by March 15th. If Cleveland continues to slip further out of the playoff picture, I expect them to listen closely to offers they receive on players like Ramon Sessions and Antawn Jamison. We've covered Sessions as a trade candidate already, so let's take a closer look at Jamison.

At age 35, Jamison is approaching 1000 career games and 35,000 career minutes, but his production doesn't seem to be slipping. His 19.0 points per 36 minutes and 17.7 PER this season are just slightly off his career averages of 19.4 and 18.5, and he's still rebounding at a respectable rate. The 6'8" forward wouldn't be a top scoring option for a title contender like he is for the Cavs, but he could be a useful frontcourt piece on a team with championship aspirations.

While those are Jamison's pros, there's one big con standing in the way of a potential deal — a salary that exceeds $15MM. No NBA team has the cap space to take on such a figure, meaning any trade partner would likely have to send at least $10MM in salary back to the Cavs, if not more. Cleveland wouldn't want to move Jamison unless it improved the club in the long-term, but there aren't many teams out there that could put together a package of expiring contracts and long-term assests worth giving up for Jamison.

One potential match is the Rockets, who have a number of former lottery picks on expiring deals. Hasheem Thabeet, Jonny Flynn, Jordan Hill, and Terrence Williams aren't getting much playing time in Houston, so perhaps they could figure into an offer for Jamison. The Cavs, meanwhile, would maintain their cap flexibility while also getting a chance to look at some young players over the season's final few weeks.

Ultimately, I don't expect Jamison to be traded. The $15MM+ coming off Cleveland's books is too valuable for the Cavs to move him unless they receive a great offer, and there just won't be great offers out there for a 35-year-old scorer off the bench.

Assessing Stocks: Cleveland Cavaliers

February 12th, 2012 at 8:17pm CST by Jesse Blanchard

Portfolio Review: The Cleveland Cavaliers were dealt a blow to their season with news that center Anderson Varejao is out indefinitely with a broken wrist. While the injury probably drops the Cavaliers out of contention for the Eastern Conference’s 8th playoff seed, it likely is in their best long-term interest for that very reason.

The Cavaliers are a rebuilding project. And a much better one than originally thought due to rookie Kyrie Irving outplaying all expectations. But building around a point guard like Irving can be a double-edged sword.

Point guards like Irving (see Paul, Chris) are good enough to get a team into playoff contention fairly quickly because they mask so many deficiencies. However, those deficiencies still exist and pushing forward too fast (see the New Orleans Hornets with Chris Paul) without addressing them can have serious repercussions as the team begins to reach its potential. In a way, this was part of the problem the Cavaliers had when building around LeBron James.

Instead, this team should be stockpiling as many assets as possible while developing young players to try and acquire the type of elite talent that is generally only found with top-ten draft picks.

Prime Assets: Previously the Cavaliers were not attempting to trade Varejao, though his injury might make them more willing. Varejao is the type of player that is desirable for a number of contenders and those sitting in the bottom half of playoff brackets looking to take a step up.

Ideally Varejao would return a younger, legitimate rotation player to grow with Irving and Tristan Thompson–a player who mirrors some of the same strengths and weaknesses of Varejao–or a first round pick in the 15-20 range.

Barring a Varejao trade, point guard Ramon Sessions has been a steady backup point guard for most of his career and remains the only other player on the Cavaliers likely to return a viable rotation player. For a team like the Cavaliers that needs help everywhere, they cannot afford the luxury of redundant skill sets among their best players.

Worthless stock: Tempting as it is to throw Antawn Jamison‘s name into this slot, there is always a team out there somewhere willing to take a shot at a scorer off the bench on an expiring contract. These contracts are ultimately movable, however, generally only bring back other bad or expiring contracts. Still, there is value for moving a contributing veteran to free up developmental minutes for players that might have a future with the team.

The rest: The rest of the teams is young enough to have some redeeming value (i.e. potential), but too young and too unproven to bring back anything in return. This should be an evaluation season for the young guys, and to do so they need as many minutes as possible.

Trade Machine: Sessions To Knicks

February 4th, 2012 at 10:49pm CST by Jesse Blanchard

The New York Knicks, losers of 11 of their past 14 games, need a point guard. The Cavaliers, having an excellent backup point guard in Ramon Sessions, need as many young pieces around their star rookie point guard Kyrie Irving as possible.

Despite the Knicks previous reluctance to part with last year's prized second round pick Landry Fields, a trade package centered around Fields and Sessions would appear to make sense for both teams.

The Knicks offense has sputtered out of the gate this season, averaging 94.7 ppg–good for 14th in the NBA. They are currently 24th in the league with 18.9 assists per game. Those two aspects of the game had previously been staples of a Mike D'Antoni offense.

Sessions, currently averaging 9.2 points and 4.8 assists per game in just slightly over 20 minutes, would provide the Knicks with the pick and roll ball handler the Knicks sorely lack, allowing D'Antoni to open up his system and properly utilize Amare Stoudemire.

Fields, a surprising second round find, would provide, at worst, quality depth on the wings for a team that leans heavily on Antawn Jamison, Alonzo Gee, Anthony Parker, and Daniel Gibson.

While the Knicks have Baron Davis waiting in the wings, relying on a player with his history of injuries and conditioning troubles in the condensed lockout season could be a recipe for disaster. Not that playing Anthony in a point forward role hasn't been so far this season.

Even though Sessions likely would not be the long term answer, the Knicks have a lot of decisions to make this offseason, and it would be best to evaluate D'Antoni and his system in its natural habitat, with a point guard that can execute his offense.

Cavs Notes: Harangody, Trades, Varejao

February 1st, 2012 at 2:45pm CST by Luke Adams

Let's check out the latest Cavaliers updates, as the team heads south to Orlando for a Friday contest against Dwight Howard and the Magic….

The Cavs officially recalled Luke Harangody from the D-League today, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer beat writers (via Twitter). Harangody, who was assigned to the Canton Charge last week, played in three games before being recalled.
Tom Reed of the Plain Dealer believes Cleveland will be a seller prior to the trade deadline, predicting the team will try to move Antawn Jamison and Ramon Sessions (Twitter links). Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld suggested on Monday that if the Cavs have a shot at making the postseason, they may be reluctant to sell.
In a piece for the Plain Dealer, Reed wonders if Cleveland would consider moving Anderson Varejao, as his value continues to grow.