The Bratwurst – Milwaukee Bucks Blog

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