The Bratwurst – Milwaukee Bucks Blog

Today Gery Woefel is reporting in the Journal-Times that Charlie Bell has been offered a 2 year, $10 million contract by Greek League power Olympiacos.

Take it, dude!

Oh, and did I mention that Europe’s VAT means that the contract is tax-free, and that Euro teams typically find homes and cars for their foreign players?

Bell’s agent, Mark Bartelstien also says that AXA Barceolna (new home of Ersan Ilyasova) and an “unnamed NBA Team” are also in the mix. If it was me and I had to choose between Barcelona and Olympiacos, I’d go to the Spanish league in a heartbeat. But that’s just me.

According to Woefel, Bartelstein wants a 5 year, $25 million contract for Bell. That’s absolutely ridiculous. Woefel also reports that the Bucks have offered 3 years/$9 million. He’s probably not worth that much, either.

The Bucks are setting themselves up for a pretty big salary cap crunch for a long time. They have $58 million committed this year and also next season (to only 8 players). When Michael Redd is in his final season (4 years down the road) extensions for Bogut and Villanueva will be kicking in. So a contract longer than 3 years for Bell would be a terrible cap killer, especially since once he hits 30 his game will probably slip very quickly (small shooting guards + 30 years old = trouble).

Woefel also reports that the Bucks could be considering Troy Hudson has a replacement for Bell. That would be a huge mistake. He shoots too much, is pertetually hurt and has been tied to rumors of being a me-first player who drags down team chemistry. No thanks.

UPDATE:

Woefel may have gotten it wrong — the Boston Globe is reporting that Olympiacos’s contract offer to Bell is for a total of 2 years/$5 million, not 2 years/$10 mil, which is a little more reasonable.

UPDATE (9/13):

I was doing my homework and realized that we’ve been talking about this deal as if it was in dollars, it’s actually in euros.  This makes it worth about a half million more a year than the $3 million a year the Bucks were supposedly offering him.