Wizards Reportedly Trade Quinton Ross For Yi Jianlian

and not draft picks is disappointing.

yes…but the cash is necessary because these guys are underperformers relative to their salaries. i dont like he doesnt play defense, but maybe they arent available.

To add another $3 million down the road in the form of a draft pick? I’m not positive on where we are relative to the cap right now.

As a savvy poster over on RealGm, pcbothwel, put it

Also, dont underestimate the Chinese aspect. This is a quick way to build the Wizard/John Wall brand overseas and allow a generation of people to “grow” with Wall over the next 10-12 years.

It’s all about getting some hundred million Chinese people to watch John Wall’s rookie year.

Forget basketball.

exchanging ross for a 22 year old, 7ft guy with talent is a really good trade.
His contract of being 3million greater is neutralized somewhat by the cash the wiz got and
He is young with “potential” and in case he turns out worse than we thought, his contract is expiring anyways. He also has no known character issues which we always seem to loathe.

how’s that change things? and is it true? I only see it in Chad Ford’s article.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5340026

I’d like to give Ernie the benefit of the doubt and conclude that he is methodically accumulating components that will enable him to move Gilbert. I share the opinion with those that believe that if John Wall is to thrive in D.C., then he must be handed the keys and Arenas needs to get traded. Some extra cash to dangle in front of potential trade partners to ease their payroll hit could be what it takes to get a deal done. If all the Yi deal cost us is the $4.5 mil trade exception and a bag of chips (Ross) and Ernie adds another $3 mil as bait . . . .just sayin’.

can this guy play basketball??? their team stunk and all i heard about was lopez being the only good player.

that people saw in Kwame and Darko. He is not even close to being as physical as those guys but the core issue of tantalizing promise is very similar. He was a #6 pick after all. He can score a bit and (very) occasionally he also plays tough on the boards.

Considering that Ross brought less than zero to the table, that there is only one year left on Yi’s contract, and that the Wiz play in C-Town… and Yi represents a low-risk, high gain deal in my book.

I don’t see us playing him at the 3 — dude’s not quick enough to play there. And unless he starts drinking HGH for breakfast I doubt he’ll be a starting 4 either. But if he’s athletic enough to come off the bench and hit threeballs like Horry, then it shakes out pretty well imo.

However, I remember that guy Shakamanillivanilli from Russia, also a lotto pick, who was traded a few times and turned out to be squadoosh. My unprofessional view is that Yi will turn out kinda like that — and we coulda used our salary space much better than this.

I feel okay about the move… Don’t think much of Yi, but I think nothing of Ross. It’s a plus on its own, just not a very big one.

But combined with the Chicago trade, and considering the rumor that NY is dangling Gallinari in the hopes of moving Curry’s contract, I wonder if Ernie isn’t making this move to force NY and other suitors to make similar lopsided trades.

Between now and July 8, a lot of teams are looking to shed salary in the hopes of luring Lebron. Only one team will do so. Both the Chicago trade and this trade raise the urgency for all other suitors. The Knicks and the Heat must be hearing about this trade and thinking “shit, how do we one-up that?” And meanwhile, they know the Wiz still have cap space and are happy to absorb contracts if they come with something good attached.

This is just idle speculation at this point. But if we end up landing Gallinari, I’ll give Ernie a lot of credit for setting that up.

I posted this on the last thread, with no luck. What’s important is that his status on the team is relative.

Is it possible to put him at center?

McGee is inconsistent, raw, and unproven. Yi, at least, is less inconsistent, raw, and unproven. It’s not giving up too much to have Yi start at center, but cover power forwards (have Blatche on Centers, perhaps?). Two things lost: McGee’s ability on the break and alley-oops, but Yi’s no slouch. McGee’s freakish block shots; but, considering his foul-proclivity and jump-fake foolishness, it’s a zero-sum game at best.

I think Yi at Center of McGee is a possibility.

i think the real story is we cant give nick young away!

HE PLAYS LIKE HIS ANGRY DRUNK ABUSIVE FATHER IS IN THE STANDS READY TO BEAT HIM AFTER THE GAME.

NICK’S GOT ALL THE TALENT IN THE WORLD, BUT HIS BRAIN AND CONFIDENCE AINT THERE.

TIS IS LIFE. HE’S SPORTS PSYCH 101.

of “Bring Out Your Dead”. Why then are you surprised that the new players we’re trading for are all stiffs?

Yi is an expiring. He brings the Chinese market to the table, as pointed out above, and is a body on the roster; we’re still stuck short of the league minimum by 5 or 6. We got him nearly for free and got rid of a practice player in return. Yi may or may not be as terrible as most of you are saying—in the games we played against NJ last year, I saw some distinct signs of improvement. But that would be icing on the cake, anyway. A major part of the BOYD strategy is sucking for a year or two. The Wizards are definitely on course to do that. What else did you all think would happen? You improve this way by stocking up on lottery picks for several years in a row.

We’re not getting Lebron. But we’re sure as hell sticking it to Cleveland by freeing up other teams to bid for him. Look for a deal with Miami (Beasley) or New York (Curry) next, just to let the Cavs have a real taste of DC…

ernie is full of crap. the guy has been in the league three years…hardly significant. he’s 7 feet tall on crappy teams and has consistently been 10% of their offense and 10-15% of their rebounding and is a defensive meh.

i strongly hope JW can open things up for him offensively and he can turn into a defensive center to complement his ok offense.

we really did not give up much for him and he seems to be of high character. so i like the trade barring nothing better was available. much ado about nothing with some hope for upside!

Grunfield did something right and that is adding young players. How many people was ready to give up on Blatche, before he became “7 Day Dray” and greatly improved. Plus I love what we are doing with loading up on bigs, because you need that if you want to compete for a CHAMPIONSHIP. Of all the bigs we signed so far this offseason, if we can get at least one of them to be good starter then this will be the offseason that turned this franchise around for many years to come.

So the team got a little better — statistically Yi is capable of contributing, to the tune of 13 and 8 per 36, and is a 7-footer. Those things make him more valuable than Ross on the court. That said, I don’t think he’s really a prospect. By many accounts, he’s 25 or 26 years old, and he can’t seem to stay healthy for a full season. He’ll add some revenue to the team and improve the on-court product at no cost, so I think it’s a shrewd business move that only costs the Wizards a couple million in salary cap flexibility for one year (that the might not use anyway). I don’t see it hurting the team long-term, and I think Yi has a better chance of making a long-term contribution than Ross does.

 Nice move, now lets win 40 games,grab the #8 seed and save Ernie’s job.

Yi could still turn into something. I wouldn’t bet in it, but i’s a possibility. But he’s certainly an upgrade over Q. Ross from a trade-chit perspective.

What this suggests to me is that there aren’t plans to use up all our cap space this offseason. And that’s fine, we weren’t really expecting to. (though I do wonder about the Childress rumors.)

In that case, this is a solid BOYD trade. Yi is 7 feet tall, and he will have at least one game this season where he scores 20 points. That’s exactly the type of player who can provide a nice deal-sweetener down the line. You can’t teach tall, and Yi has a lot more tall than Q. Ross.

Pulling a draft pick out of them as well would’ve been sweet, but the only way it would’ve happened is if it was protected to the level of the Navarro-Memphis deal. And that would’ve done us no good since WHEN Lebron and company don’t settle into NJ, the Nets will be stuck as a lousy team for the better part of a decade. So instead they gave our owner enough money to make it an even swap, talent for talent, with us taking a cap hit that isn’t going to hurt us.

And again, I’m really excited about the game theoretic potential of this move. Look for NY and Miami to at least fiddle with additional space-clearing moves in the next week. If we can be the beneficiary of one of those (maybe nabbing Galinari) then it’ll be an out-and-out heist.

Not really a bad trade for the zards. He is a 7 footer with a good jumpshot. If Wall is as good on this level at getting guys open shots then Yi could be somewhat of a matchup problem- spreading the floor. Sure he has liabilities, but he does have some strengths and, it is on FLIP to make them translate on the court. He could be a good role player for us plus, it gives us depth upfront.

I think that’s a underrated part of this trade. Gil’s jersey was the sixth highest seller in China because the Wizards came there last summer and were also the first NBA team to visit China 30 years ago.
 I currently live in China, in Yi’s home province in fact, and while I wouldn’t say the zards have a fan base here, the Chinese guys I ball with are at least conscious of the Wizards, which is something you can’t say for a lot of teams outside the Lakers, Rockets, and Cavs.
 Also, Yi isn’t seen as a scrub here. He may not be a star in the NBA yet but he is one of only 2 Chinese players in China, so there is a definite rooting for him. This trade could take the Wizards to Rocket like status here, who have every game of theirs shown on TV here, which would give John Wall an immediate international following, the fanbase in China would translate to revenue coming in to the team, translating into a greater willingness for the front office to spend on the team, buy draft picks, and pay the luxury tax.

Yi also had career highs in points and boards last year, and gives us an outside shooter that stretches the floor for Wall’s penetration, which we all agreed before the draft was something we severely lacked and needed. And if he regresses or doesnt improve again this year, hes gone, and we get our cap space back.
Im pretty pumped about this trade, and not just because it means I’ll be able to watch a ton more Wizards games on TV here next season.

samthemanties great points!

I was just thinking that ironically. I think people are underestimated how great this trade is, in a revenue enticing sense. I mean anything to create positive attention toward this team is going to be helpful. I also notice a trend in all championship teams. Good PG and alot of scorers and bruisers. Right now with Arenas, Wall, and Blatche we have a pretty good core of scorers. With the new big men, plus McGee we have some bruisers. And obviously you hope Wall springs out to be an amazing PG along with “cringe” Hinrich.

I am still PRAYING we dont trade Arenas. Hate it if you want but I guess I have a dream of seeing one last semi-successful, exciting, competitive, badass season with Agent 0 included.

Wouldn’t the Nets get more desperate as free agency approached? How many other teams were lining up for the chance to grab Yi for cap space?

Ernie loves the trade-well-before-the-deadline. I think it’s because he has dinner reservations or a tee time.

that they are thinking Booker should play SF.

I like players who are among the first from their country. The extra expectations on them from their countrymen back home help keep them practicing hard and inhibit any screwing around.

Also, Yi should help with marketing much more than his jersey sales indicate. Remember that the government has control over what gets shown on TV in China. Yi’s games will get shown on TV over there because the Chinese government likes him, and that TV exposure is what leads to sponsorship deals. However, the Wiz do have to be competitive and/or entertaining, unlike the Bucks and the Nets teams that Yi has played for. Sponsors never want to be associated with a loser.