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Wow.
So. This is not something I expected to be telling you today.
According to Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski, the Milwaukee Bucks have actually pulled the trigger on a trade sending Ersan Ilyasova away from his home for seven years.
Milwaukee has traded forward Ersan Ilyasova to Detroit for Caron Butler and Shawne Williams, league sources tell Yahoo.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) June 11, 2015
For Bucks, this is chance to shed salary, bringing in contracts that could be waived. Milwaukee could have $22M in cap space.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) June 11, 2015
With the free agency of Greg Monroe looming, Detroit gets Ilyasova to plug into the power forward spot.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) June 11, 2015
Trade rumors have circled Ilyasova for the last few years, but they had always fallen apart well before anything remotely concrete arrived. Yet today, hours before Game 4 of this year's NBA Finals, the Bucks have honest to goodness redirected the man incessantly referred to as "Turkish Thunder" by the Bradley Center arena crew to Stan Van Gundy's open arms in Detroit.
As indicated by Wojnarowski above, the Bucks intend to waive both Butler and Williams despite the former's early embrace of his home state on #Social #Media.
Home....#262#414
— Caron Butler (@realtuffjuice) June 11, 2015
Sorry, Caron.
With pretty much all of the cap space in the entire world available (about $22 million), the Bucks can lob a max deal at virtually anyone in addition to still being able to match any offer sheet thrown in front of Khris Middleton's newly-desired face. Whoever else the Bucks intend to spend that money on is anyone's guess, though I think I know someone out there who could use a new defensive-minded team with a cool and nice and chill young core.
See you soon, Marc Gasol. And see you around, Ers.