Jefferson trade puts Spurs in le hunt
Sending Richard Jefferson to San Antonio all about the money for the Milwaukee Bucks
By John Hollinger
The first rule of NBA trades is "Follow the money." It's the only way to make sense of a seemingly lopsided deal, such as today's swap that reportedly sent Richard Jefferson to the Spurs for Kurt Thomas, Fabricio Oberto and Bruce Bowen, pending league approval.
For starters, understand that the Bucks painted themselves into a dark, ugly corner last season by trading for Jefferson and Luke Ridnour right as the economy was going into the tank. Those deals added more than $20 million in contracts for 2009-10 just as the luxury tax level is slated to decline.
That, in turn, had the Bucks slated to be well over the luxury tax line this year if they wanted to keep restricted free agents Charlie Villanueva and Ramon Sessions, both of whom are due large raises from their rookie-scale contracts. For a rebuilding team like Milwaukee, losing its two best young players would have been disastrous, so money had to be saved someplace else.
This deal does the trick in a big way. Oberto is guaranteed only $1.9 million for the 2009-10 season and Bowen only $2 million. Both will likely be waived in the coming days in order to avoid paying their full salaries (Bowen becomes fully guaranteed on Aug. 1, Oberto on July 1). The trade will save Milwaukee $6.35 million in payroll, and possibly more if the Bucks can reach a buyout agreement with Thomas.
That money will be put to good use. With roughly $9.4 million in wiggle room now available under the luxury tax line, the Bucks are in a much better position to defend against offers to Villanueva and Sessions. Even if re-signing both puts the Bucks slightly over the tax line, they'll have until the trade deadline to strip the extra dollars from the payroll and could easily shed Charlie Bell or Malik Allen at that point to get back under. The Bucks can also get further under the tax line by trading the 10th overall pick in Thursday's draft.
So it's not such a head-scratcher after all from the Bucks' side: They basically just traded Jefferson for Villanueva and Sessions. They never should have put themselves in this position in the first place, but it was a pretty crafty escape maneuver.
As for the Spurs, it's another example of how their superior cap management allows them to make deals that aren't available to a lot of other teams. Because the Spurs had three players on short-term deals and two of them weren't fully guaranteed, they were able to send out three role players and get back a starting small forward. Jefferson should provide a dramatic upgrade from the Michael Finley-Bowen combo that manned the position a season ago, and he adds a desperately needed shot creator to take some of the heat off Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and the increasingly brittle Manu Ginobili.
That said, the Spurs took a larger risk on this deal than we're used to seeing from them. The deal basically takes San Antonio out of the 2010 free-agent market since Jefferson is owed $15 million in 2010-11 (he has an opt-out that he'd be insane to exercise), and one wonders if he's an ideal fit with the Spurs. Jefferson has been a high-volume scorer with middling efficiency, and really has been riding off his reputation a bit the past two seasons. At this point, he's one of the league's most overpaid players.
However, one thing that may have caught San Antonio's attention was his 39.7 percent mark on 3-pointers in 2008-09, a career high that he set by taking far more attempts than he'd taken in the past. The Spurs ask their small forwards to spot up in the corners as much as any team in the league, and Jefferson made 54-of-118 (45.9 percent) from those spots a season ago. If that wasn't a fluke and he nails it consistently, he can really make opponents pay for doubling Duncan, Parker or Ginobili.
The deal surprisingly also makes small-market San Antonio a tax payer, putting the Spurs $4.5 million over the tax line for this season without a real obvious remedy for getting back under. They could save some of it by drafting a foreign player with their first-round pick (not exactly unheard of around these parts) and the rest by trading either Matt Bonner or Roger Mason for a non-guaranteed deal, but at that point they'd be cutting into bone.
The other interesting wrinkle will be whether the Spurs try to re-sign Bowen or Oberto to minimum contracts once the Bucks waive them. Bowen in particular has been a huge part of San Antonio's defensive philosophy, and even in his diminished state he could have value as an elder statesmen and occasional rotation player. Oberto could probably make more money in Europe at this point, so it may be the last we've seen of him on this side of the pond.
Regardless, the big takeaway for the Spurs is that they just rolled the dice on Jefferson's potential to pry their championship window open for another year or two. The threesome of Duncan, Ginobili and Duncan clearly didn't have enough help this past season. If Jefferson can make it a fearsome foursome and retain his improved 3-point touch from the corners, it could launch the Spurs back into the le hunt.
And the other teams in the West have to be shaking their heads, because at first it seems unfathomable that the Spurs could get a 20-point scorer for three spare parts. But follow the money, and it all makes sense.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/column...rstrade-090623
Not a very good take on the situation ... especially due to the factual errors.
But yes, Jefferson is overpaid. He's not worth what he'll make this year. However, this trade is exactly what the Spurs needed to do to remain true contenders.
Props to Holt for opening his wallet and props to RC for giving the half guaranteed deals that made this possible.
Great work all the way around
Um, John...............
So the trades does take us out of our 2010 plan? Thats a shame. I thought it was a longshot to bring in a big market player anyways; but you never know.
I never thought I'd type this, but Hollinger should stick to writing about his made up stats. It sure beats writing about made-up facts.
Yessir...talking out of his ass.
I guess the Spurs' 2010 plan was having enough money to bring Splitter over next summer...
Guys... Our possibilities of having the Gist signed have just came down dramatically aren't they?
Nope, if anything they've increased. Gist would be a relatively cheap signing, and adds a little depth to the 4 position. As timvp has been saying, that makes Gist a very good fit for this offseason.Guys... Our possibilities of having the Gist signed have just came down dramatically aren't they?
I wouldn't say the Spurs are out of the 2010 plan just yet...
True, though any significant signing in 2010 either relies on guys coming here for significantly less (not horribly likely, but one can hope), no Manu Ginobili (I sure hope this isn't the case), or Jefferson opting out of his contract (not likely at all).
They are unless Jefferson is willing to walk away from $15.2 mil for 2010-2011.
We?
Who's we?
Ginobili taking less COULD help.
I've heard from reliable people though that they wanted Chris Bosh real bad and who knows if thats still on or out the window now, haven't talked to said person about it.
Spurs are not in the luxury tax yet, wtf?
You do the same sh*t, don't be a .
Does anyone think this scenario is feasible:
Gino and Tim are healthy and fully recovered. Jefferson fits well with the Spurs next year. Gino gets extended and RJ opts out to get his last long term contract (4 years 25M)?
They're going to have more than $47 million committed to Duncan, Parker, and Jefferson. I don't think they'll find anyone better than Manu for the $6-$7 million they might have left after that. The 2010 plan is dead, and I'm glad as . There's going to be potential to sign a lot of so-so players to really bad contracts next summer with all the capspace everyone is going to have. Summer 2010 is a sucker bet for almost every team in the league clearing room for it. Miami, Chicago, New York, Brooklyn, and Cleveland (if LeBron stays) are the only teams with any real shot of landing anything good in that FA market.
We need help defensively. A big man who can rebound and block shots. I hope Ian can do that.
I don't do the same .
Pipe down kid.
Really?
Not at all. No way Jefferson is going to opt out of $15 million for '10-'11. At age 31 in the summer of '11 he should have no problem getting a better contract than 4 years, $25 million anyways.
Yes you do, I can show you an example if you would like....So just shh girl.
Yeah, I never trusted that the Spurs would be able to land anything of note in the 2010 plan. , I would have been surprised with a Jefferson level of player.
Trading expiring assets for a known commodity >>>>>> 2010 gamble
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