Per K.C. Johnson, a man who sorely needs the whole month of August off, the Kirk Hinrich trade is finally completed. In exchange for Hinrich, the rights to Kevin Seraphin and cash, the Wizards sent the Bulls the draft rights to Vladimir Veremeenko, the first Belarusian player ever drafted in the NBA.
The Bulls finalized and announced the draft-night trade of guard Kirk Hinrich to the Wizards Thursday evening.
The Bulls also traded the draft rights to Kevin Seraphin, the 17th overall pick they made for the Wizards, and sent $3 million to complete the transaction. The Bulls acquired the draft rights to forward Vladimir Veremeenko, who isn't on their summer-league roster.
Having charged myself for life with the unattractive and underpaid task of knowing something about every man to have ever played professional basketball - as well as being in the luxurious position of having an unusual amount of Russian basketball broadcast on my television - I am armed to the teeth (and arms) with luscious dollops of Vladimir Veremeenko information. In broadcasting such useless information, I feel strangely useful.
Veremeenko is a 6'11 combo forward who was drafted by the Wizards with the 48th pick of the 2006 NBA draft. He's a face-up scorer that is too slow to defend the wing positions in the NBA, which is one of the reasons why he will never join it. (The other is that he's not good enough.) He's also not especially strong or physical, which means he can't defend power forwards particularly well, either. If that reminds you somewhat of Viktor Khryapa, you're on the right lines, but you must take away Khryapa's textbook help defense (which makes him a feared defensive player in Europe, if not so much the NBA). If you also subtract Khryapa's ability to pass the ball and run the offense, you're getting closer.
(Only two players have ever won the Euroleague Defensive Player of the Year award. Greek guard Dimitris Diamantidis won the first five, and Khryapa won the sixth this season. He didn't work out here, partly because the depth chart hated him and partly because he was too damn slow. But Khryapa is a player.)
For a 6'11 guy, Veremeenko is a good ball handler and a legitimate small forward; it is that combination that made him intriguing enough to be draft. Veremeenko is also a pretty good shooter, and capable of taking players similarly athletic to he off the dribble, where he has decent touch at the rim and a mid-range game. Unfortunately, such players are rare in the NBA, even more so now that Austin Croshere has retired. Veremeenko also takes an unnecessarily large number of bounces before every free throw; this isn't important, but it is kind of annoying.
Last year, in his second season for Russian team Unics Kazan, Veremeenko averaged 7.5ppg and 4.0rpg in the Russian Superleague, alongside 8.5 points and 5.3 rebounds per game in the Eurocup. (If you don't understand the difference between those things, but would like to, read this.) Those numbers are solid, even if they don't look it, but they are also not spectacular (and thus not good enough). For the sake of comparison, one of Vlade's teammates at Unics Kazan was former NBA player Maciej Lampe, who averaged 16.7 points and 9.5 rebounds per game in the Eurocup. Lampe has improved quite a bit since his woeful NBA experience, but the fact that those numbers are so far in excess of those of The Meenkster is symptomatic of a point; the Meenk Machine just didn't pan out.
Nevertheless, the Vladimir Veremeenko era is now upon us, and it should be a long and beautiful one. His draft rights are merely a token gesture - teams are required to give up something in any trade, no matter how insignificant, and it doesn't get much more insignificant then the draft rights to a player who will never join the NBA. Nonetheless, they're ours now. So now we can begin years of mild obsession about them and their value, just like we (I) have been doing for years with those of Mario Austin.
Alternatively, we can include them in a Carlos Boozer sign-and-trade. It could go either way.
Filed under: News
Tags: Belarus FTW, chicago bulls, kirk hinrich, REJOICE, trade, Transactions, Vladimir Veremeenko, washington wizards
Well, we got our mythical stretch 4. Emphasis on mythical.
He might. Veremeenko plays the same position as him.
Seriously?!?!? That's we got for Hinrich, Seraphin & $3 million?!?!? My god. Nick Young makes $2.6 million next year with a player option for $3.7 million next year. He would've at least been a decent consolation prize as the third or fourth guard (I hope we can pick up two that are better than him with the rest of the money that we dumped for this Belorussian Bielski brother).
I can't believe that the FO's golden child was given away for rotten rat meat.
What were you expecting? It was always designed to be a salary. Remember how crap of a salary the Wizards are taking on. It is THEY who needed the incentive, not us.
It looks bad in hindsight...But that's the risk they took. I wouldn't be too worried about Hinrich after watching all his shooting woes. Yes, he would have a been great addition if we had somebody like LeBron, Wade on the team or as a good perimeter defender sometimes. But, if Thibs made Ray Allen into a good defender he can probably turn lots of others into decent defensive players. Hinrich was making up for Rose lot of times on defense and hopefully that's not a required case in the future.
One thing about Hinrich I didn't get is that he is not a good combo guard. He was a decent PG before Rose and seemed to get lost after we got Rose. I wish they had traded for a future first round pick but that's what happens when the Bulls did not plan well and had to do things at the last min..
A complete salary dump is ridiculous.
Ray Allen is not a good individual defender. The system in place allowed for him to be hidden. It helps when you have a shot blocker like Garnett roaming the paint.
I was never a huge Hinrich fan and wanted him gone earlier in the season. But that trade is really not pretty. Not only did we get nothing but we paid $3 million to get nothing.
We now have one guard on the roster. At least there is money available to overpay a guy that probably is equal or worse to Hinrich for more than two more years.
Lets hope that Seraphin does not turn out to be the next Karl Malone or even the next Nene.