Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that the Clippers, Bucks, and Suns have finalized a mini-blockbuster of sorts. The Clippers are sending young stud Eric Bledsoe and Caron Butler's expiring contract to the Suns in exchange for Jared Dudley. The Bucks are shipping J.J. Redick to the Clips, and are getting two second-round picks for their troubles.
Obviously, Redick and Bledsoe are the names that matter here. Bledsoe is a promising, athletic point guard whose stock shot through the roof last season after he became a high-flying cog in the Clippers' up-tempo bench squad. Remember, the Clippers valued Bledsoe so much that they balked at the idea of sending him to Boston along with DeAndre Jordan in exchange for Kevin Garnett at last year's trade deadline.
Losing a guy who earned the nickname "Baby LeBron" is certainly going to hurt the Clippers, but J.J. Redick gives them a much more well-rounded starting five. Last year, the Clippers had to go through an entire season without a true shooting guard—Chauncey Billups and Willie Green did their best to play the part—and now they have a prototypical two-guard to space the floor alongside Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan. And swapping Caron Butler's desiccated, $8-million-per-year corpse for the always useful Jared Dudley is a nice bonus.
The Suns are making out pretty nicely, too. They've got a potential star to develop in Bledsoe, and Butler's expiring contract will clear up some cap space for their rebuilding project. As for the Bucks, well, now nobody's really sure why they even bothered trading for Redick last season, but nobody ever knows why the Bucks do any of the things that they do. Hopefully they'll enjoy those two second-round picks.
[Yahoo]