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I think your prediction as some serious merit.

1) If rumors were a reasonable ballpark, he was never going to get higher then 5 mill from us.
If Milwaukee is even closer to the luxury tax then we are, its a good bet they can’t / won’t pay him more.

Siggian’s prediction of a lower base salary is possible, if only because as the NBA market dries up, Delfino loses leverage. Secondly, having Olympiacos sign up Kleiza and Von Wafer takes away the main European competition for NBA players (in terms of overpayment).

 2) Milwaukee was trying to give away Ridnour and Alexander in a package for expirings around the deadline. They must’ve soured on Alexander pretty quickly, since lotto picks are usually off-limits in trades for purely financial reasons.

3) Amir Johnson is first and foremost an expiring contract. The type that the Bucks shipped Jefferson out for. Why in the world would they send him out and in return take Delfino (since its a S & T deal, it has to be for a minimum of two years) and Ukic who has two more years to go as well. Alexander’s contract is the only one in the desired range for a non-core player. Warrick and Ilyasova were both signed this summer, so can’t be traded anyway.

In general,

-we have just used one of our only options available to add salary for this season, without trading equivelent salaries off of our current roster.

-If maximizing space in 2010 is an issue, why make this move at all. Your would have more cap space available by just leaving Delfino unsigned, then you would by acquiring Amir Johnson.

-If its purely a case of trading for Amir Johnson and salary filler…Amir is only signed for one more year. Since he’s on the last year of his second contract in the NBA he’s a free agent afterwards and we don’t have his Bird Rights to give us an edge in resigning him (at least I don’t think so). Combine that with the fact that PLENTY of teams will have capspace in 2010. Relatively unproven players that can be had on the cheap (like Warrick this year) will be at a premium. Not to mention, I’m not sure how many skinny power forward minutes there are to be had, on a team when you play behind one of the NBA’s best.

-I think this deal is about Alexander, BC must think he can groom his raw talents in a pressure-free environment behind Turkoglu. And if he turns out he can play the tweener 3-4 role that some of us have been clamoring for.

A includes a summary of Amir Johnson’s summer league exploits.

http://www.brewhoop.com/2009/8/5/953023/vegas-redux-jennings-meeks-and

Howland, I thought the exact same thing when I read that Weems was the fourth player.

I suspect Weems might be cut or moved again. If in fact Delfino is around the 5M number then using my previous math, 6.35 – (3.6 +.78) = 1.97M. So even cutting and eating Weems’ contract we free up about 2M we could spend on a free agent and still remain below the tax..i believe…I’m no capologist. If Delfino is closer to 4M we have a minimum value contract to offer.

This I think ends any chanse of Pops coming back to the raps. Even if there is money our front court is full now with Bosh,Bargs,Rasho,Evans,Amir,POB. I would love to be in training camp to see Evans, Amir and Rasho beat up on Bosh and Bargs. Our bench gets nastier and nastier…we need a good nickname for our bench.

Wouldn’t quite compare Weems to Graham, if only because Joey’s defining characteristic was great strength for his size. Remember those battles with Dwight Howard in the post. Pound for pound, he’s in the running for strongest Raptor ever. At the same time, I can’t think of any recent Raptors who’ve had that kind of raw atheticism at the SG spot. In general, I’d say he sounds somewhat similar to Rodney Carney when he came out of Memphis, except with less range

If he’s still 6’6, and around 200 pounds I can’t see Weems playing any three. I think Wright would get all those backup minutes by default. I agree with you on not really having any one skill to hang his hat on. Hopefully, this means we can mold him to suit the needs of the team, and have him focus exclusively on those required skills during a practice, and D-league assignments.

Weems sounds like an athletic, let raw SG option. He played last season for the Colorado 14er’s of the NBDL. He has one year of NBDL eligibility remaining, so he can get reps in Iowa, with periodic callups when injuries strike. I would speculate that with Ukics Euroleague experience, he’d think a D-league assignment was beneath him. Weems should be more humble, since he’s less accomplished, and the team holds the 2010 option on his contract. And if he stays up here, he is the only wing on the team that can match up to the raw athleticism of DeRozan. This could make for some good battles in practice battles.

As a side note, its neat that we traded away Jawai who was drafted 41st overall in 2008, and picked up Weems who went 39th in the same draft. It’s possible that he was on BC’s radar back then, and came into town for pre-draft workouts.

Not that he is the worst player in the deal, but I think Delfino is the least attractive player in the deal given his contractual demands and that he requires a 2+ year deal to S&T.

He’s capable but not a potential core piece, and extremely replacable – even for a team that actually needs him. So there’s no point in locking him up for very long as he’ll either take PT away from your youngsters or be a drain on your payroll that needs to be traded.

I would have liked for us to keep Ukic and give him some burn, but he clearly fell out of favour with BC. Shame..