I've been looking for a reason to break up the Brewer talk and thanks to the Milwaukee Bucks I now have that. The Bucks have agreed to send Richard Jefferson to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for Bruce Bowen, Fabricio Oberto and Kurt Thomas. It's good to know that they have already thrown in the towel for the 2009-10 season.A good headline for this trade would be "Spurs get better, Bucks get old." Jefferson was one of only two players on the Bucks roster to play in all 82 games and was second on the team in scoring. The combined age of the three players the Bucks are getting is 107.
Don't get me wrong, this is probably a good move in the long run. None of the three players is under contract after next season and will free up over $13 million in cap space. This probably means enough money to re-sign pending restricted free agents Ramon Sessions or Charlie Villanueva.
But as far as next season goes? Good luck. Even if Michael Redd comes back healthy and Andrew Bogut finally plays to his potential (and stays healthy, which is unlikely) the Bucks will be hard pressed to replace Jefferson's production, offensively and defensively.
Bowen may be able to improve the team defensively but can Milwaukee afford his lack of offense. And at 37 what kind of minutes can he play? That's if he does play, Bowen has spent the last eight seasons contending for a title with San Antonio. Whose to say he doesn't retire rather than join a new team.Kurt Thomas will provide some much needed front court depth, but much like Bowen, he's 36 years old and won't be able to play heavy minutes. Oberto may not even see the court more than 20 times next season. He's coming off surgery to fix an irregular hearbeat and is 34 years old.
Let's just call this what it is, cost cutting. At least we don't have to worry about a playoff appearance interrupting the start of next year's baseball season.
3 comments:
That's the best spin on this I've heard yet. There are few things more irritating than a basketball game getting in the way of crew-time on FS-Wisconsin.
a necessary move for the future of the franchise from the dollars and cents perspective. bowen will have some potential as a mentor to sessions and mid-season trade fodder for to contender looking for postseason experience off the bench. plus i think thomas has something to contribute in the hustle categories. and the mil needs its first-ever resident named "fabricio".
i expect that this was a money play. i think they will release bowen to free up more cash. What they will do with the money, however, is anyones guess.
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