Yi to the Wizards for Ross

[hands11]

With the understanding that the deal is yi and 3 mil for ross, I would say that the deal is mostly a wash like Jwiz stated for a few simple reasons: While this is a historic FA class, every other team knows this and have tried for 2 years to get in position to get one of the top FA's. While LBJ, wade, and Bosh will be difference makers, the Boozers, Gay's, Johnsons, and Amare's will be an eventual hinderence. By enableing the Bulls and now Nets to better compete with the other teams, we can almost be sure that at least 2 or 3 teams will lock themselves into Max contracts with non max players in order to appease a fan base that has been waiting for 2 years.
A new CBA will be drawn up and the cap will surely go down to around 50 mil. Is anyone truly afraid of a Wade/Boozer Miami team. Or a Joe Johnson/Amare Knick team. In the new CBA those two players will represent 65-70% of their cap.

Basically, Im saying I believe that we will see 4-5 very good teams in the East, not 1 or 2 Elite teams. EG is an average GM who made an average GM move today, but it doesnt hurt us. This move will be better evaluated in a week and a half, and fully evaluated by mid-season, lets sit back and watch.

This could well be true

[Hoopalotta]

Hmmmm, so Yao's a Reebok guy then? I'm going to take a wild guess that reebok well migth have a robust marketing presence in China already. I'll go out on that limb.

Come on, people, are we still talking about basketball here? Isn't it obvious where this is going?

This deal should make John Wall many millions of dollars long term, never even minding the Wizards revenue. Put Wall and Yao together on an assortment of billboards across the empire and it's a done dilly.

This trade is practically circumvention of the CBA to get Wall more money.

[closg00]

Yi on a 1-year rental and at Ross's salary, it works for me.

[verbal8]

The Wizards were not going to be players in free agency this season and should they choose to move Hiney and let Thornton and Yi exprire - they'd have max cap space again next year. They still have cap space for smaller BOYD deals but now will have 2 expirings to use. The Wizards still need talent and are 3 years away from even considering the playoffs.

You are the second person to make this argument. It doesn't make any sense. Expiring contracts are less valuable than raw cap space. If we want to make a move in the future, we'd put together a better package if we could offer to absorb bad salary outright, rather than to give back another expiring contract.

There is no silver lining. This is an utter waste of cap space. I'll cede that it's possible that EG shopped around elsewhere and could find nobody willing to give us picks for cap space, so he defaulted to this. But in that scenario, the prudent move would have been to do nothing and wait until the Trade Deadline to see what teams became desperate to dump salary.

Doesn't the fact that we used our exemption change that ?

The only effect of using the exemption is the trade can occur before July 8th. Only July 1st all the 2010 contracts come off the books and the Wizards will renounce all their cap holds(including the haywood TPE) except the draft picks and Singleton. This will free up the cap space for the Hinrich deal. Yi then will be taking up cap space for 2010/11 rather than being added over the cap as he is for the end of the 2009/10 year.

[LyricalRico]

Yi on a 1-year rental and at Ross's salary, it works for me.

Never thought I'd say this to clogs but...

Great post!

[rockymac52]

Put me down as indifferent. I don't think Yi is any good, nor is he a player that I would ever want on my team, but at the same time, he does have some upside in the sense that he really can't get any worse. It's frustrating not knowing how old he actually is, but he's probably 27 at the most. However, I don't think he was brought here for basketball reasons at all.

Here's how I see it: Quinton Ross was not going to get any minutes on this team. Yi has the chance to get some decent minutes at PF/C, especially if Blatche has to miss some time early on in the season. And as much as I want Blatche, McGee, Booker, and Seraphin if he comes over to get a lot of playing time and experience, aside from Blatche, they're all very raw and not quite ready. Booker is seen as "NBA ready" moreso than the others, but he's still a rookie, and he's not phenomenal by any means. Having a guy who has played starter minutes in the NBA for several seasons can't hurt. I see Yi as more of a bench role player with a small possibility of turning it around, who at the very worst is gone at the end of the season. Not to mention the whole China factor, economically. Hard to argue with that. If we're going to suck this year we might as well suck with a little less cap room that we weren't going to use anyways and make some money while doing it.

But I digress, the issue with the trade is clearly that it was an impatient one, and we'd probably be better off waiting until the trade deadline to either get a player with a little more value and/or a draft pick of some kind. I have to assume EG exhausted all of his other options, and that there simply wasn't a better deal to be had at the moment. However, the reason the Nets made this move is primarily for the free agency bonanza that will very likely be over in roughly a week from now. So if Grunfeld liked this deal, it had to happen now, hence the not waiting until the trade deadline. Then again, I'm still not sure what he was so giddy about with this trade. I'd really like to get a comment on the trade from EG or Ted just to see where they're coming from, and what type of value they actaully place on Yi.

[Hoopalotta]

Yi has the chance to get some decent minutes at PF/C

Actually you're right, it will probably come to that when some injuries set in. God help us.

And as much as I want Blatche, McGee, Booker, and Seraphin if he comes over to get a lot of playing time and experience, aside from Blatche, they're all very raw and not quite ready.

As I was discussing with 'Barely Awake' just now over on the Ted-Thread, we well might end up with amongst the youngest rotations of big men in the history of the league. I have no idea how to search for that, but we've got to be somewhere on the list with how things are looking now.

I think that says a lot about the plan for our win total next year.

[verbal8]

Maybe the Wizards are hoping that Yi could end up being like Channing Frye. There are some similarities in that both started their careers on 2 different teams without very good PG play. Arenas is not a traditional point guard, but has had an ability to improve his teammates. Wall also should be able to penetrate and draw the defense which should give Yi open looks.

Yi could work out as an offensive player. However he is a defensive liability like Jamison and rebounds like Nick Young considering his height. I think his lack of contributions defensively and on the boards in addition to picking up fouls will make it hard for him to stay on the court even if his game clicks offensively.

[Hoopalotta]

From what Jersey posters say, it sounds like Yi's hands might be too poor to really benefit from a proper point guard. However, I really can't say I've seen much of him or paid a huge amount of attention to the guy when I've watched the Nets.

[verbal8]

From what Jersey posters say, it sounds like Yi's hands might be too poor to really benefit from a proper point guard. However, I really can't say I've seen much of him or paid a huge amount of attention to the guy when I've watched the Nets.

So we have Jamison's defense with Nick Young's rebounding(and possibly BBIQ) and Haywood's hands

[nate33]

The Wizards were not going to be players in free agency this season and should they choose to move Hiney and let Thornton and Yi exprire - they'd have max cap space again next year. They still have cap space for smaller BOYD deals but now will have 2 expirings to use. The Wizards still need talent and are 3 years away from even considering the playoffs.

You are the second person to make this argument. It doesn't make any sense. Expiring contracts are less valuable than raw cap space. If we want to make a move in the future, we'd put together a better package if we could offer to absorb bad salary outright, rather than to give back another expiring contract.

There is no silver lining. This is an utter waste of cap space. I'll cede that it's possible that EG shopped around elsewhere and could find nobody willing to give us picks for cap space, so he defaulted to this. But in that scenario, the prudent move would have been to do nothing and wait until the Trade Deadline to see what teams became desperate to dump salary.

Doesn't the fact that we used our exemption change that ?

No.

TPE's are irrelevant to us because we're under the cap. The only reason we used TPE a not raw cap space is because the trade took place prior to July 1st. Technically, the trade happened under last season's salary structure (when we didn't actually have any cap space) so a TPE was necessary.

Either way, as it stands now, instead of having $9.5M in cap room and no Yi, we have $6.5M in cap room and Yi on the roster. If, at the Trade Deadline, somebody wants to dump a $9M contract, we can no longer accommodate them. We could only give them Yi's $4M expiring contract plus $5M in cap room. If they're over the luxtax this year, that won't help them as much.

[nate33]

Hmmmm, so Yao's a Reebok guy then? I'm going to take a wild guess that reebok well migth have a robust marketing presence in China already. I'll go out on that limb.

Come on, people, are we still talking about basketball here? Isn't it obvious where this is going?

This deal should make John Wall many millions of dollars long term, never even minding the Wizards revenue. Put Wall and Yao together on an assortment of billboards across the empire and it's a done dilly.

This trade is practically circumvention of the CBA to get Wall more money.

Now THAT is an interesting take. I doubt it'll help us resign Wall to a hometown discount, however.

[keynote]

Has a highly-touted prospect ever failed to live up to a high draft pick at first, only to "turn it around" in a new environment with lower expectations?

I remember MEM, LAL, and DET singing the same song with Kwame.

So, to me, I am under no illusions that Yi has a chance to blossom into a stud. His alleged upside is irrelevant. I'm setting the bar at "solid bench player."

[jholmbe1]

Has a highly-touted prospect ever failed to live up to a high draft pick at first, only to "turn it around" in a new environment with lower expectations?

I remember MEM, LAL, and DET singing the same song with Kwame.

So, to me, I am under no illusions that Yi has a chance to blossom into a stud. His alleged upside is irrelevant. I'm setting the bar at "solid bench player."

Which is fine by me because we turned a terrible bench player into a solid bench player with no long term risk

[montestewart]

the issue with the trade is clearly that it was an impatient one, and we'd probably be better off waiting until the trade deadline to either get a player with a little more value and/or a draft pick of some kind. I have to assume EG exhausted all of his other options, and that there simply wasn't a better deal to be had at the moment. However, the reason the Nets made this move is primarily for the free agency bonanza that will very likely be over in roughly a week from now. So if Grunfeld liked this deal, it had to happen now, hence the not waiting until the trade deadline.

Nice post.

The repeated mischaracterization of objections to EG's erratic behavior centers on the lack of peer reviewed scientific evidence that a better alternative to any of EG's bizarre spasms existed. It is as easy to prove there were many better alternatives as it is to prove there were no better alternatives, so y'all go your own way and I'll stick with experience watching people, the Wizards, and EG.

It's worse than ever now. EG's got a bad poker face, and everyone else at the table knows how he's going to bet because they know what his cards are and they know how much money he's got. EG MUST make trades to save his own hide, and everyone in the league knows it. If he's double or nothing on careless bets and wins, he can spin it as genius, and if he loses...oh well, it's someone else's money anyway and he can't believe he still has a job.

[Hoopalotta]

Hmmmm, so Yao's a Reebok guy then? I'm going to take a wild guess that reebok well migth have a robust marketing presence in China already. I'll go out on that limb.

Come on, people, are we still talking about basketball here? Isn't it obvious where this is going?

This deal should make John Wall many millions of dollars long term, never even minding the Wizards revenue. Put Wall and Yao together on an assortment of billboards across the empire and it's a done dilly.

This trade is practically circumvention of the CBA to get Wall more money.

Now THAT is an interesting take. I doubt it'll help us resign Wall to a hometown discount, however.

Yeah, who knows how tangible the rewards would be, but it seems like a "start things off on the right foot" move that could only help in Wall's assessment of the franchise. Needless to say, that would need to be followed up with actually winning.

But I can tell you from being in Asia, it's not the same feeling with the economy over here and construction and sales are pretty robust.

Interestingly, these tweets just started crawling across the Hoopsworld twitter feed concerning free agents taking less to sign with Miami:

PDcavsinsider The term "make it up in endorsements" is popular, I know. Except, if you haven't noticed, there aren't many rich endorsements anymore.

PDcavsinsider Example: LeBron signed a 2-year deal with McDonalds this year for a fraction of what he made on deals as rookie. Also took Nike paycut.

You can really see it as a coherent move with the Reebok signing for some serious international pocket padding. If a good chunk of Wall's games are on TV in China during his rookie year, that's just big for him.

I don't know how much the Wizards themselves would benefit financially long term, but I'm sure Ted's looking into exploiting that.

[fishercob]

One thing I love is that all the moves of the offseason, good, bad or questionable have brought the absolute best out of our fellow boardmates. Caustic, sardonic, witty, well-reasoned, passionate, verbose, exacting... If this is what the addition of John Wall brings out of the fans, well shoo, it's gonna be a great career.

+1

Getting to read doc, ed wood, badinage, montestewart, banndc, keynote, dat, nate, CCJ, poopalotta (oh wait, that's me after too much dairy), et al is a sheer joy for me. I'm appreciative of this community. I really wish we could find a way to bring our common love of this team offline -- a la Barra Brava, Screaming Eagles, etc....

[fishercob]

OK, the trade is close to a day old. I've read the entire thread, gotten a night's sleep and have a little more measured reaction.

Here are the positives of the trade, as pointed out by others: we traded old for young, big for small, and upgraded talent. EVen if Yi isn't worth where he was drafted, he's undeniably more useful than Ross. We didn't commit any long term money. We made a little cash in absolute terms on the deal (I think the league pays some of Ross's salary since he's a vet minimum guy). It's a pretty low risk proposition in all those regards.

My main objection relates to opportunity cost. That said, as long as there are no more big additions, I don't think we've actually shut ourselves out of any serious opportunities this year. We can still save another team a lot of money with our combo of cap space and expirings if the right opportunity comes along. If Melo wants a trade and extension here, having Yi won't be the thing that prevents that.

badinage made an absolutely fantastic point that I used to make myself but had sort of forgotten, having been sucked into the vortex of message board world. We like to think of ourselves as educated fans, and compared to many we are just that. But what we don't know completely dwarfs what we do know. We create these hypotheticals and because they may sound good to us or help prove a point, we accept them as truth after a while. But for the most part we really have no idea about much of what we're arguing about -- be it what Ernie asked for, the need for a big man coach, Gilbert's attitude, whatever. I think we need to be reminded of that from time to time. We think we know, but really, we have no idea.

I spent way too much time in these parts yesterday (more than usual) because I was stressed about some life stuff. That probably fueled a decent bit of my ire over the deal. I'm gonna take a step back today. I appreciate everyone's opinions and contributions to what is a truly special online community. Have a great day, everyone and Go Wiz!

[rockymac52]

I spent way too much time in these parts yesterday (more than usual) because I was stressed about some life stuff. That probably fueled a decent bit of my ire over the deal. I'm gonna take a step back today. I appreciate everyone's opinions and contributions to what is a truly special online community. Have a great day, everyone and Go Wiz!

Great post!

Even if our GM is actually awful (I don't mind EG), he knows a heck of a lot more about basketball than any of us, and he sure as hell knows more about how making trades/signings/draft selections works. I always think it's funny when we analyze and discuss potential trades here for days, if not weeks, and then we make a move that is completely different, and the fans ridicule EG for not making the move that we had been discussing. And yet for all we know, EG read this message board, saw our idea, said, "hey, that's a great trade, let's give it a shot" only to get a prompt "No thanks" from the other team's GM.

[WizarDynasty]

I will say this. Yi is basically blatche with less defensive agility--Ok "less body coordination in the "Blatche and his Hakeem shake is no joke"..ok blatche has a better left hand...better shot blocker...better post player..Ok Yi isn't on Blatche's level but if Yi works really hard with the right guidance he can become a poor man's blatche...and bigman depth coming off the bench is what gets you past the second round. The best thing about this trade is that there is a high probability that Blatche's emotions are transferred to Yi. I definitely see Blatche finally being able to use his leadership skills with a clone of himself since Blatche is nice guy with an extremely high basketball IQ. So actually Blatche's social skills and high basketball IQ mesh really well with Yi's physical and social background. Yi is going to eventually blend into Chinatown and there will probably be some sort of asian basketball revolution in that part of DC if he stays in DC beyond this contract. So if blatche and Yi become friends off the court then Yi is going to look alot of P.Gasol. I think McGEe and N'Diaye are really going to push each other. N'Diaye with his nasty streak is really going punish McGee's softness but McGee will eventually rise to challenge because its in his blood from his mother. Thornton and Booker are going to great to watch but booker has a higher basketball IQ so his IQ will catapult him over Thornton since Saunder's offense requires you to think. Having Arenas be guarded against young full time in practice should really help arenas push nick young. I think before it was harder for Arenas to mentor Young since Arenas was technically a point guard and why is a point guard--pretend shooting guard training another shooting guard but the acquisition of hinrich allows for wall to battle hinrich in practice every day instead of dueling with arenas. Seraphin and Booker immediately become the team's two only true physical presence which shows just how smart those picks were.