According to the Toronto Star, the Raps have traded "Hot Cocoa" Roko Ukic and the rights to restricted free agent Carlos Delfino to the Milwaukee Bucks for forward Amir Johnson and guard Sonny Weems. Both come off the books after this season, though Weems has a team option for 2010-11.
Johnson, a very athletic 6-10, put up 3.5 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in just 15 minutes last season in Detroit. He figures to add to our big-man depth, backing up Andrea Bargnani, Chris Bosh and Hedo Turkoglu. He'll compete for time with Reggie Evans and Rasho Nesterovic and may pass Patrick O'Bryant on the depth chart.
Weems, 6-6, spent the majority of last season in the D-League playing for the Colorado 14ers. He'll likely ride the pine most of the season. Hopefully he can make friends with Marcus Banks.
Grade for Raptors: B
It's a solid deal that brings a big man with upside to Toronto while reducing the number of contracts for next summer in an attempt to keep CB4 in town. Weems is essentially a non-factor in this deal, and Delfino's skills were redundant with DeMar DeRozan, Antoine Wright, Marco Belinelli and Turk in town. The only downside to this deal (besides losing 2 nations from the UN of the NBA) is giving away Roko. While he likely would have gotten very little playing time behind Jose Calderon and newly acquired Jarrett Jack, he's still a big, young guard with plenty of upside. It's entirely possible he could develop into a solid NBA player, but for the immediate future of this franchise, it didn't make any sense to keep him. Solid deal by Bryan Colangelo to try to make something from pretty much nothing.
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