The Bratwurst - Milwaukee Bucks Blog

The Bucks have given one year minimum deals to a pair of veteran, limited power forwards. They added Samaki Walker and Michael Ruffin.

Walker’s career has had two highlights. One was being the number 9 pick in the 1996 draft, taken ahead of Kobe Bryant, Peja Stojakovic, Steve Nash and Jermaine O’Neal. The other was the fact that he wore one of the greatest draft-night suits ever. Every so often I like to attend a black-tie function, but I have yet to find one where a white bowler hat is appropriate. Walker is on his 8th different NBA team and was out of the league last year.

Ruffin is, quite simply, one of the most unbelieveably inept offensive players in NBA history. Seriously. In his 7 year career, Ruffin has averaged 1.7 PPG while playing 14.8 minutes per game! Prorated out to 40 minutes per game, he would average under 5 PPG. He is also a very entertaining 46% career free throw shooter. He is, however, a somewhat decent rebounder (10.8 rebounds per 40 minutes for his career) and has a reputation as a pretty solid defender. We’ll see.

These signings bring the Bucks up to 16 players on the roster, so I have to think that between Ramon Sessions, Awvee Storey, and David Noel, one of them will not be with the team at the end of camp. My money is on Sessions, who will probably be in the NBDL working out the kinks in his jumper.

Well, this is a bit of a surprise — Gery Woefel is reporting that Lynn Greer requested that the Bucks release him so he could take a 2 year, $7 million contract with Greek power Olympiakos. The Bucks granted the request, and now Greer is off to Greece to sign the contract that was originally offered to Charlie Bell.

And so ends Greer’s Milwaukee career, which certainly didn’t go the way he would have liked. He only got into 41 games this season, but his per-minute numbers indicated that he belonged in the NBA (he averaged 4 points and 1.3 assists in 10 mpg, and had an IPM of .6856, ranking him around the 75th best guard in the NBA). He didn’t play at all under Stotts, but had some big games late in the season, the highlight being 14 points in 15 minutes (after Mo Williams got ejected) to key a win over San Antonio.

But Greer also dealt with an awful tragedy during the season — the passing of his fiancee. Because of that, I’m sure that Greer is glad to put Milwaukee in his rear view mirror.

Greer’s presence was one reason that I felt the Bucks would be just fine not matching the Heat’s offer to Charlie Bell. However, with the retention of Bell and the addition of Royal Ivey and Ramon Sessions, it’s good that he was able to leave and upgrade to a much nicer contract.

That does leave one roster spot open, and I would not be surprised to see the Bucks fill it with an offer to Scoonie Penn. Penn was the third player in for a tryout with Royal Ivey and Dee Brown (who has since signed a contract with a Turkish team), and he fits the profile of a player that the Bucks have found before in Bell and Greer: big time college player, considered a “shooting guard in a point guard’s body” coming out of college, big time scorer in Europe.

Well, Bell opened up and explained how disillusioned be was by the whole free agent process, and specifically why he decided he couldn’t play for the Bucks with his heart in it since he was only offered 3 year/$9 million and only got 5 years/$18 million.

Rather fittingly, he explained himself on his Myspace blog … the outlet for millions of petulant teenagers to complain about how they are disrespected by their parents, friends and employers.

“I’ve always looked at my team and it’s staff as an extension of my family. This is the culture I learned playing in Europe and in college. This summer has taught me a lot. It’s very different here, at least from my experiences. AFTER you sign with a team, you hear things like, we love you and need you and your special to us. It’s just business, don’t get emotions involved. But BEFORE you sign you hear things like, this is what you’re worth, take it or leave it, we’ll just have to replace you tomorrow then. Which one do you believe? ……. That’s why I was confused for awhile. People say I needed a thicker skin, I have one now, but I’m not quite sure if it’s for the better. Maybe you guys can tell me. It has made me realize that when it comes to big business anywhere and in any profession, there’s no real place for such words as “family” or “loyalty”. ….. Oh BTW I like the city of Milwaukee and I Love the fans, always have and always will, I’ve never had a problem with the city or the fans. But that’s sentiment right? No room for that stuff around here…LOL.”

You know, somehow he doesn’t get much sympathy from me, given that millions and millions of people have to search for jobs every day, often because they were fired or laid off from their previous jobs with virtually no notice. Very, very few people in this world get contracts for 1, 3 or 5 years. And Bell had multiple multimillion dollar offers to choose from this whole time, as well as an agent to stump for him all along. Cry me a river with your “it turns out its a business” whining. Besides, I find it very hard to believe that anyone who has bounced around European basketball for any amount of time would honestly believe that it’s a “family” over there. Maybe he should try reading Paul Shirley’s book sometime.

I know that this whole thing bothers me a little more than it should have. After all, these are basketball players we are talking about, people who’s livelihoods depend on their athletic ability instead of their media-savviness, so normally I’m the first person to write off this behavior as mistake. But Bell seems too smart for that and I don’t like his behavior about this all along. Bell was the one who went to the media and started complaining about how he wouldn’t play hard for the Bucks right before he signed the Heat’s offer sheet. Who is being disingenious here? Was he treating the team that gave him his NBA chance and the fans who supported them like a family? He’s the one who tried use the scorched earth strategy to get out of town!

To Bell’s credit, his Myspace entry contained two references to how he wants to play hard and win now. But his little; “no room for sentiment around here, LOL” joke is silly little sarcastic aside that makes one wonder how seriously the reader is supposed to take the whole explaination. He has to admit that his behavior was completely inappropriate, apologize for it, and directly address the error of his “I can’t play hard for them” remarks.

And until then he has insluted all the fans who paid their hard earned money for tickets, many of whom have had to deal with stretches of unemployment themselves. Come on out into the real world and see what “big business” is really like.

I’m a few days late, but better late than never.

• Fresh Coast Pistons notes the birthday of Rasheed Wallace.  ‘Sheed is now 33.
• The Bucks matched Charlie Bell’s offer sheet with the Miami Heat.
• Troy Hudson might join the Golden State Warriors according to Golden State of Mind.
• Andrei Kirilenko says he’s going to play in Europea next year.
• Fresh Coast Cavs wants Danny Ferry to bring in Sarunas Jasikevicius.

HoopsHype.com, which is my favorite source for NBA info, has an interview with Charlie Villanueva.

The most interesting part is where he says that the pain in his shoulder finally went away about 6 weeks ago, and now he is working out in Milwaukee and is ready to go.

I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to come back from a shoulder injury, both mentally and physically.

Best of luck to him for an injury-free season. I’ve been following his career ever since he originally committed to Illinois (later breaking the committment when Bill Self took the Kansas job), and I’m excited for a chance to see him realize his potential.

The Bucks didn’t waste much time matching the Miami Heat’s 5 year, $18 million offer to Charlie Bell.

What?

I thought Bell didn’t want to be here.  I thought this contract offer was for 2 years longer than the Bucks wanted to offer.  If the Bucks only offered 3 years/$9 million but would match 5 years/$18 million then why not offer a 5 year deal in the first place? 

What, were the Yi rules in place — if a guy says he doesn’t want to be here than you have to lock him up on general principle?

I will say this — just based on how underpaid Bell was for his contributions during the last two seasons then he deserves to be overpaid for a couple.  He makes shots, takes care of the ball, gets his share of steals, has a good reputation as a defender, maybe he doesn’t win you games but he doesn’t kill you.

I look at Charlie Bell as comparable to Jeff Suppan — the sort of guy who will put up the exact same (average) numbers for a good team or a bad team, but with the good team people will say; “oh, he brings a lot of intangibles and contributions that can’t be measured in a box score” while on the bad team then people say; “Well, it wasn’t his fault.” (By the way, Suppan should be making about $3 mil/year, too.)

Now the Bucks have a decent combo guard who can backup Michael Redd and fill in as the #2 point guard and who we, the fans, have to worry about whether he is giving his all.

“I don’t know if I can go out there and play the best I can for Milwaukee, knowing everything that’s happened. Inside my heart, I just won’t be there. I won’t feel the same toward the organization. I just don’t have the passion to go ahead and play again.”  

– Charlie Bell, in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, September 15, 2007

I guess this will pretty much do it for Charlie Bell and my pipe dream of Dee Brown.  The Bucks signed Royal Ivey to a one year contract today.

Ivey isn’t really all that great.  He’s 6′4″ and has a reputation for defensive intensity, but that wasn’t really borne out in the numbers last year.  I had Ivey ranked as the 98th best defensive guard in the league at .6918 defensive IPM, about the same as Mo Williams.

But it’s offensively where Ivey really doesn’t bring the goods.  He only played 10 minutes per game last season, averaging 3 points and 1 assist.  He doesn’t shoot much (45% last year) and turned it over at a fairly high rate last season (but, to be fair, his turnover rate was exceptional the season before when he got about 65 starts but still only played about 10 mpg).  Basically, he’s a nonentity on the offensive end, so his defense has to be pretty darn good to keep him out there.

Are the Bucks counting on him to fill in for Michael Redd for 8 minutes a game?  It seems like that’s the idea, since he’s the only other guard after Redd who stands over 6′1″ (not counting Sessions), but Ivey has played very little shooting guard in the past, and it may be a stretch to think that his defensive ability will translate to the other guard spot.

Oh well, let me go on the record for one last time that I would have preferred Dee Brown, and I’ll let it go at that.

According to Dee Brown’s website, the Bucks had him in for a workout.  However, he doesn’t feel too optimistic that an offer is forthcoming, as he might not be the type of player the Bucks’ brass apparently wants.

The Milwaukee Bucks workout went really well and felt like the location and their situation fit me very well. My fan base is right here in this area, so I know people who come out and support me all games. The Bucks say they are looking for a bigger guard and the opportunity for me to play close to home is unlikely, but it’s still a chance. I played well though and thank the The Bucks organization for inviting me up there to workout.

Brown’s height really is a detriment, but he’s got plenty of heart and the enthusiasm that would make him a great addition as a 12th man.

Sign him, Larry!

Charlie Bell signed an offer sheet a couple hours ago with the Miami Heat, five years, $18 million. The Bucks have seven days to match the deal.

I’m sure Larry Harris is drawing up every sign-and-trade possibility he can think of right now.

The Heat didn’t get Mo Williams, but they may have just snagged Charlie Bell. That’s a lot better than the opposite.

I was sad when watching the lottery when I saw that the Bucks were going to get the sixth pick, but Ty at the Bucks Diary has cheered me up with his thoughts on the Greg Oden saga and the fact that Yi has signed…

Think about what might have been, Antlerheads. Had the Bucks won the draft, we would have been partying in May, dancing in June… and crying now. Could you imagine the pain BucksNation would be feeling today if we had selected Oden, believing him to be the second coming of Lew Alcindor, only to find out we actually selected a 19 year old big man saddled with the knees of an aging Bob Lanier (and not the deadly babyhook either)?