The trade deadline is now over for the NBA mid season. Lots of trades were for financial and future season reasons and some were to make possible championship winning team rosters for this season. Lets get into detail.
The Cavs just added Antawn Jamison. There was much speculation of Amare Stoudamire moving to the Cavs in a deal involving JJ Hickson and Illgauskas but the Cavs made the right move! Jamison was the better fit. With Jamison, they can play him at the three if they want to go big. They can also play him at the four if they want to go with a smaller lineup instead of having LeBron play the four every time the Cavs want to insert a smaller lineup. Jamison is also the stretch-four that they coveted, unlike Amare Stoudemire. They now have their core of LeBron, Jamison, and Shaq, and are set up well for a finals appearance against the likes of the Lakers or Denver Nuggets.
The New York writers have gone so crazy with the possible coming of LeBron in 2010 free agency, that they had LeBron on the cover of the New York daily news wearing a Knicks jersey. The Knicks have made a significant step towards adding not one but two max players now that they have the cap space. They cleared 9.4 million dollars by trading Jared Jeffries’s bad contract and adding Tracy McGrady’s expiring contract. The Knicks are basically giving away their future if they don’t make a splash in 2010. However, they now can go after two top tier free agent. If McGrady plays well he can be a solid piece moving forward in the Knicks long term future. He said he would be willing to take a large pay cut if the team adds two max players in free agency. McGrady could possibly be the sixth man, adding instant offense for the Knicks moving forward.
Despite not landing Tracy McGrady and his expiring contract, the Bulls achieved their goal of clearing salary for 2010. Chicago realized that they are a borderline playoff team; they probably won’t advance to the second round of the playoffs. So they made moves for the future. With a core of Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, the Bulls are going to be an attractive free agent destination for some of the big names. Imagine a big man like Bosh or Stoudemire running pick and rolls with Rose: their defensive deficiencies would be masked playing with a Joakim Noah. The Bulls may be the team of the future.
