Richard Jefferson Doesn't Think the Nets Will Be Very Good Any More

Crisis averted, if you let the reports Richard Jefferson had been displeased at being shipped to Milwaukee bother you much. As often happens with these things, Jefferson made to Milwaukee and seems happy now. In his introductory press conference today, Jefferson revealed what made the trade sweeter than originally perceived.

After calming down and evaluating I looked at the opportunity here. An opportunity to get back to the playoffs and I really don't think the Nets are going to be headed there in the next couple years. They've voiced that with some of the moves they've made.

The two moves, of course, being Jefferson's trade (for Yi Jianlian) and the Jason Kidd-Devin Harris swap. To be honest, the point guard maneuvering likely served to make the 2008-09 Nets more potent than the previous version. But Jeff's right: there's no way to dust the Yi/Bobby Simmons acquisition as anything but "building for the future."

Meanwhile, though some have penciled Milwaukee in for contention for a lower Eastern playoff seed, it seems like Jefferson's ability has been sold short. He's a greater scorer (9th per-game last season) but an efficient shooter who gets to the line and takes the bad three sparingly. His rebounding has fallen off -- with little team-based excuse -- in recent years, and (as Jefferson admits in the presser) his defense needs to be resuscitated. Let the magic of Scott Skiles' perfectly manicured fingertips take control.