Breaking News: Richard Jefferson to Milwaukee
RJ’s headed to Beertown USAWe just got word that the Nets have agreed to trade Richard Jefferson to the Bucks for Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons. We knew RJ had been on the block for a long time, but it’s kind of surprising that Milwaukee would give up on Yi so quickly. Was there something going on behind the scenes? Did Yi truly hate it in Milwaukee like everyone said he would?
As for how this affects the draft, the Bucks were said to be high on Joe Alexander at the #8 spot, but with a proven vet at small forward in Jefferson, will they still go that route? Moving two wing players for one helped clear up the logjam at the position, so we doubt they’d take another small forward. The Bucks do need a true power forward, though, and Kevin Love is likely to be gone by the time they pick. Could they be looking at Brook Lopez to pair with Andrew Bogut?
For the Nets, they get younger with Yi replacing RJ, but not better. With their #10 pick they still have the same needs, and actually their defensive needs just worsened. Would they take Anthony Randolph, who is drawing a lot of Tayshaun Prince comparisons?
June 26th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
purpleshoes says:
damn yi is going to be sick
June 26th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
miamiVIS3 says:
This trade kind of came out of nowhere. This draft should be real interesting if things keep up this way.
June 26th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Icy says:
Freak. Well there goes 200 MILLION viewers of Milwaukee Bucks games. Bet you Jay-Z is happy
June 26th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Daily boy says:
NOW WHO SAW THIS ONE COMING??
NOT ME, WELL I HOPE IT WORKS OUT FOR BOTH TEAMS
BUT I FIGURED RJ WOULD TRY TO GO TO A REAL CONTENDER
NOT A TEAM JUST TRYIN TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS
June 26th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Imperial-Mel says:
I cant even picture this, seems like Jefferson is a staple player of Jersey, damn hes going to be bored in Milwakee…any word on Redd yet??
June 26th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
ERIC says:
It was a poor business decision by Milwaukee who, as Icy said, had a tremendous amount of publicity (+ jerseys sold) with Yi as a Buck.
June 26th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Truth says:
Anthony Randolph?? That clown is a stick figure! And he’s lazy as h*ll. LSU had a crappy season and dude didn’t particularly dominate there. Tayshaun is a hard worker and had to pay some dues to be that defensive juggernaut he is. Randolph is just a big bag of ALLEGED potential!
Micheal Redd
Richard Jefferson
Andrew Bogut
Nice little combo (for the east at least). They probably still won’t win anything, but at least there making some moves.
June 26th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Tom says:
I wonder if any of the draft picks were part of the trade? Any news on that?
June 26th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Octopus Jonny says:
No picks involved as far as I’ve seen.
Sucks to lose the potential in Yi and the marketing dollars, but can I say WOOOOHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOO RJ!!!!!!!!
The downside is I don’t see them taking Alexander, who I am extremely high on. Maybe trade up and get Mayo or trade down and take Rush, CDR, Augustin…
I have to say the Bucks just traded for an extra 10 wins though, and I am hyped on that!
June 26th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
D'Antonio says:
Apparently no draft pick involved.
How on earth do you give up a player like RJ for a player like Yi ?
These Nets owners have to be greeeeeeeeeeedy…
I read somewhere that LBJ was currently learning Chinese as he sees himself as a bigger business man than MJ: I can just see him selling kicks in a Chinese ad with his future Brooklyn Nets teammate cum new best friend Yi…
June 26th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
GEE...Forget ya mama, I'm talkin bout you and me toe to toe says:
So we looking at Redd and Jefferson. That is a tight combo. If they go well in the draft you could have something.
Now what in the world were the Nets thinking. Dumb as can be.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
godfreyallstar says:
yi sucks
June 26th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Yoooo says:
Terrrrrrrrible trade for the Nets on the basketball court. Business wise they get a national icon of one of the most supportive nations. But they could have traded Jefferson and #10 to move up or something better than what they got. Jefferson is 20+ a night, top 15 scorer in the league. And you send him away for potential? Naaaaaaah fam. I been a fan of the Nets since Chris Morris and Armon Gilliam ( the hammer!) and I think this is terrible.
For Jefferson Im already picturing him, Redd and Williams sending each other evil glares for not passing the rock. Milwaukee definitely has to be on the verge of packaging/plotting something.
And how many times this season do people get Villanueva & RJ mixed up on the court?
June 26th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
ERIC says:
LeBron will NEVER be as good a business man as MJ. He can learn 20 different languages and it wouldnt mean ish.
Jordan only knows English and he remains the most popular player in the world years after retirement and 10 years since his last title.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
sam says:
one of my friends said maybe the nets are hoping Yi can post up all the empty seats in the izod center
June 26th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
fallinup says:
Yi needs time to develop…NJ officially and finally going into rebuild mode will help that. And the big plus is, NJ still banks off of Yi.
Carter is now stuck in Limbo….haha, Carter.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
fallinup says:
And Milwaukee has done the impossible…they got even worse on defense.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Octopus Jonny says:
fallinup, I disagree. Simmons played pretty much no D, and Yi got beasted in the post and blown past by faster wing players.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
JHov says:
Can I buy my Lebron Brooklyn Nets jersey now?
June 26th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Homeless J says:
Somehow I see them drafting gallinari to pair with yi in order to compete with the international-ness of Toronto. it’s been said that gallinari would go to either NJ or NY and I see NY making bigger moves with their guards to make D’Antoni happy first before anything else.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Celts Fan, "Kobe, Tell me how my @$$ tastes" says:
WOW, great move for both teams!
NJ loses on the talent standpoint short-term (though it should make them some $$$ from the China connection,) but this deal’s incomplete until the summer of 2010, when King James comes calling. Though, I think Devin Harris just tried to swallow a bottle of sleeping pills…
Milwaukee now probably won’t ship out Redd and has a nice nucleus of Redd, RJ, Bogut, and the 8th pick to build around. Should make the playoffs next year. I LOVE the move from their standpoint. Didn’t even have to give up the #8, just take on and pay the waste of life that is Bobby Simmons. How many chairs did Milwaukee have to include?
June 26th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
DJ Go GO Gomez says:
This looks like strictly a salary cutting move by NJ.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
chrisGO says:
this move reeks of making capspace for LBJ in ‘10
June 26th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Celts Fan, "Kobe, Tell me how my @$$ tastes" says:
@DJ
Step 1. Cut Salary
Step 2. No big deals
Step 3. Get LeBron in 2010
Step 4. RUN NYC
Hova’s bout to take over this game too…
June 26th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
K.i.n.G. says:
new jersey is gonna draft joe alexander now LOL this is perfect for NJ
Starting 5
Harris
Carter
Alexander
Yi
Krstic
Bench
Sean Williams
Marcus Williams
Antoine Wright
Bobby Simmons
All they need now are some freakin vets
June 26th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
kobeef says:
Hova is takin’ ova
Yi is a nice throw-in but this deal is all about Lebron in 2010. The Nets are ow poised to be $40 million under the cap in 2010. The Brooklyn Nets are ready to custom build a team for Lebron and can pay him Max $$ to play for them.
If there was any doubt that Jay-Z has got the crosshairs set on Lebron in 2010 there should be none now.
June 26th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Nathan Gugliotta says:
If LeBron honest to god leaves cleveland, then im a monkeys uncle.
If Yi can learn to play the post (Not sure if he does this already – not a big fan and the last i heard about him was last years draft where they said hes more of a Koufos-ish parimeter game), then the Nets maybe didn’t get robbed.
June 27th, 2008 at 9:17 am
doc says:
Jefferson and Redd aint gonna do shit,just like Jefferson and carter aint do shit.