http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nba/news/story?id=5340026
The New Jersey Nets traded Yi Jianlian to the Washington Wizards for Quinton Ross on Tuesday.
The Nets sent the Wizards $3 million to complete the deal and also received the Wizards' trade exception, according to league sources.
The move allows the Nets to clear another $3 million in cap space to spend on free agency this summer.
Yi is scheduled to make $4 million next season. Ross is set to make $1.1 million. The Nets should now have roughly $30 million in cap space to spend after the move, according to sources.
They will have to clear even more cap space, however, to sign two free agents to league-maximum deals. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and others are projected to earn $16.6 million in first-year salaries. So a team would need $33.14 million under the cap to sign two max-contract free agents. The Nets are close, but they aren't there yet.
The trade is the latest in a series of moves in which the Wizards are using potential salary cap space to acquire assets instead of free agents. Last week, the Wizards agreed to acquire Kirk Hinrich from the Bulls for the draft rights to Kevin Seraphin.
Yi is expected to compete for a starting position with forward Andray Blatche, who broke his foot this summer and will be out of basketball-related activities for the next three months.