The Bratwurst – Milwaukee Bucks Blog

At the end of last season it probably seemed like a foregone conclusion that the Bucks would resign Charlie Bell fairly quickly. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case and now Charles Gardner is reporting that Bell’s agent says that he is considering offers from multiple European teams and “one unnamed NBA team.”

The Bucks have offered Bell a one year qualifying offer of $900,000, or they can either sign him to an extension or match whatever offer sheet he signs with another NBA team. in the same article, Larry Harris says that the Bucks intend to give Bell a multi year contract.

I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.

Bell’s performance wasn’t all that bad last year but nothing great. He had an IPM of .6351, placing him as the #110 guard in the league. The problem is that his IPM was similar to that of Jason Kapono (.6032), Luke Walton (.7252), and Matt Carroll (.6519), all of whom received multi year contracts in the $5 million range (Carroll a little less). Those guys have all gone from underpaid to ridiculously overpaid. We don’t need the Bucks to make the same mistake with Bell.

It’s not so much that overpaying Bell for 1 or 2 years is a problem, it’s the 5- and 6- year contracts that are cap killers. If Bell gets an offer like that from someone then I hope he jumps at it.

Here’s the problem with Bell — he’s a great spot player who makes excellent decisions on offense, shoots well, and forces some turnovers. However he’s not big or athletic enough to defend starting-caliber players (he had the second worst defensive IPM on Milwaukee last season) and has some trouble getting shots against the best competition (which in an odd way makes him more efficient offensively because he then tends to pass on bad shots, but his net production slips), so when forced into a 35 mpg role (as he was last year) his presence torpedos your chance to win.

Not that it’s necessarily a knock on Charlie Bell — if an all-star level talent like Michael Redd gets hurt then your team is sunk. That’s how it is. The talent pool isn’t deep enough to recover from injuries to stars. So (in the case of Kapono, Walton and Carroll) why pay those backups like starters?

I hope that the mystery NBA team that’s interested in Bell (if it does exist) is Boston. Bell would be perfect there as a point guard to split time with Rajon Rondo — Bell’s offense and Rondo’s defense would be a nice combo.

The Bucks are going to need Redd to play about 40 mpg anyway, so hopefully they can get 8 solid minutes from the group of Mason, Storey and Greer. I actually think that Greer could do pretty well in that role by himself — his game is similiar to Bell’s and he never got enough of a chance last year.

But that leaves a need for a #3 point guard. I’ve said it before … there’s a good one sitting at home in Chicago, and all he wants is a guaranteed deal — Dee Brown. He’d be a great addition on character alone, and I guarantee that several thousand Illinois fans would come to the Bradley Center to see him play. Anything that sells a couple hundred thousand dollars of extra tickets is a good idea in my book.

Also, anybody notice that Ramon Sessions hasn’t signed yet? Something tells me that the Bucks don’t really have him in their plans this season and want to send him to the NBDL or Europe to work on his shooting form. Yet another reason to sign on Brown — he’s ready to help out now.