Earlier today, the Nets officially sent PF Yi Jianlian to the Wizards for SF Quinton Ross. This is no doubt a salary dump, so the Nets can attempt to lure free agents to New Jersey. The Nets also sent $3 million to Washington to complete the deal.
Yi is scheduled to make over $4 million this year alone, so that's why New Jersey wanted to get rid of him. With this trade, the Nets now have over $30 million in cap space, but falls short of signing two free agents to maximum deals. The Nets still have more work to do if they want to try to attempt making big deals.
This trade solidifies Washington's thoughts of using potential salary cap use in hopes of luring assets instead of big name free agents. Yi will compete with Andray Blatche for starting time this year, after Blatche suffered a foot injury and will be required to miss at least 3 months. In 2007, Yi was drafted by Milwaukee with the 6th overall pick. He was traded to the Nets in order to bring Richard Jefferson to the Bucks. This is now his third team in three full seasons. He is only averaging 9.6 and 5.8 rebounds for his career. It was thought to be that Yi would indeed be traded due to New Jersey's drafting of Georgia Tech PF, Derrick Favors.Quinton Ross is nothing more than a bench player with very limited playing time. Ross has been playing in the NBA for 6 years and has only played in a total of 422 games, most of which were a few minutes a game. He had his best season in his rookie season, 2004-05, averaging 5.1 points and 2.7 rebounds per game. Ross spent his first 4 seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers. He has since played less and less with stops in Memphis, Dallas, and now Washington.
Overall, it's a good trade for both sides. Washington gets a serviceable big man with an expiring contract while New Jersey frees up more space to hopefully sign two big free agents.
