by TheChosen1

Created on: October 25, 2010

Richard Jefferson is one of the premier small forwards in the league. He together with Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin have led the New Jersey Nets to two straight finals appearances. He was a high flying forward who could take it to the rim, stroke it from the outside and play lock down defense. He was subsequently traded to Milwaukee and averaged nearly twenty points and shot nearly forty percent.

After a year, Richard Jefferson was traded for Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas and Fabricio Oberto. Pundits praised San Antonio for this highway robbery. Getting a premier player like Jefferson for spare parts was a master stroke. People put this trade way up there with the Pau Gasol trade which helped the Los Angeles Lakers get over the hump and win the NBA championship.

This experiment by the Spurs had the best of intentions in adding a viable fourth option to its terrific trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. Tim is no spring chicken and is showing signs of ageing. Ginobili is a wreck physically and has been injury prone the past few seasons. Parker is still in his prime but this isn't enough to get past the West. Jefferson was supposed to be a fourth wheel and insurance in case Ginobili's body doesn't hold up. He was also supposed to replace the defense provided by the departing Bruce Bowen. He was also supposed to provide much needed youth and athleticism to an ageing lineup.

The cost of this experiment in terms of players has been low. Chump change if you will. Bruce Bown, Kurt Thomas and Fabricio Oberto are all at the twilight of their careers and are all old at this point. The cost financially is another matter altogether. The Spurs would commit more than thirteen million to him for the 2009-2010 season. That is a lot to pay for a second, third or even fourth banana. Still the Spurs were determined to extend their championship window by a few more seasons by adding him to the roster.

Many analysts were ecstatic about this deal and immediately started hanging championship banners for San Antonio. They figured that a big four in San Antonio would be too much to overcome. After all the big three have already won multiple times and adding Jefferson would simply make the Spurs too powerful. The Spurs could then afford to send Manu back to his traditional sixth man role and devastate the opposing bench. This would also lower his minutes and keep him fresh and injury free.

However, the best plans of mice and men tend to go awry. RJ wdid not prove to be the solution the Spurs were hoping for. He struggled to adapt to the Spurs' system and produced a lower output in nearly every statistical category. He also produced the second lowest scoring average of his career at 12.3 points His performance in the playoffs was pathetic as well. He averaged less than ten points and shot twenty percent from the rainbow area. Jefferson's misery was ended when the Phoenix Suns swept them in the semi finals of the Western Conference and sent them to an early vacation.

Overall this acquisition was not what the Spurs hoped it would be. It proved to be a costly mistake financially and did not bring them any closer to the promised land than in previous seasons. The Spurs could not be blamed for trying though and virtually any team would have made the same deal under the circumstances. It just so happened that this one did not provide the impact the spurs hoped it would give.

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