However, the addition of David Lee, in my mind, is perhaps worth it. The question the Bucks would have to ask themselves before making that trade… is Lee the PF to team up with Bogut and build around in the future. If so, then the Curry problem could be dealt with. Though, how it all works out money wise I haven’t a clue.

I’d be delighted to see an 8th seed. But I’m assuming lotto team. Again.

Don’t start thinking that the Knicks are shopping David Lee — they are willing to part with him if someone else takes one of their deadweight contracts (Randolph or Curry) as well and gives back expiring contracts. They don’t want to get rid of him, but Donnie Walsh understands that Lee is the only player that he has that anyone else would want. You can’t get David Lee for scraps.

Maaaaybe a desperate, waiting-for-2010 team will be willing to give up someone middling for the Mo/V/Mason scraps along with a draft pick, but from where I sit you can go ahead an pencil Alexander in as the starting 4. Which would be a mistake, of course.

Right now we’re looking at no better than a 7th seed, done-in-4-games team — at best. The roster’s out of whack, and I really can’t imagine there are any more teams out there willing to do a trade the size it would take to balance out this roster. Given how surprised I was when the Yi trade went down I certainly could be wrong, but from where I sit we can look forward to at best a small move and some bench fodder.

I would also like to add that in responds to your comment… “The more I think about it, the more I think Hammond was taken by surprise in this draft. The Yi-Jefferson trade came out of nowhere, so it probably happened so close to the draft that the Bucks didn’t have much of a plan (B) beyond taking Alexander. ” …then why the hell did they make that second round selection when they knew already that the suprise trade caused them to be overloaded at SF with the Alexander pick. I understand that they are saying they feel that Alexander & perhaps even Mbah a Moute can play the 4 spot but that is a joke when playing some of the more dominate PFs in the league. I felt that if they wanted to take a flier on someone and it wasn’t going to be Richard Hendrix, due to whatever reasons they came up with, there was a big player with what I felt was potential in Nathan Jawai which could have helped give the Bucks a badly needed backup center. Plus, he was from Australia which might have made Bogut happy.

The way I would have liked to see the Bucks shaped out for this season:

PG: Mo Williams? / Ramon Sessions / (FA-Chris Duhon)
SG: Michael Redd / (FA-Fred Jones or Quinton Ross or Tony Allen)
SF: Richard Jefferson / Joe Alexander
PF: (Trade-David Lee) / (FA-James Jones)
C: Andrew Bogut / (Nathan Jawai)

This team is more than likely impossible to create, but there are some decent players out there that would be nice to have added to this team verses some of the garbage time players we have now (Danny G. & *Storey).

If we do end up keeping Villanueva & Mason, I sure hope to god that coach Skiles can drill it into Villanueva not to chuck up 3’s when ever he’s left open beyond it and draw up no offensive plays for Mason other than ally-oops. He should realize he’s a defense player only and lacks any ability to dribble and create or shoot.

It would be a huge risk. I think there’s a little “grass is greener” about Lowry vs. Mo. Being on Memphis, Lowry has never played a meaningful NBA minute in his life. He brings the same problem as Mo — he’s too small to play very good defense (although he gets a bunch of steals). He’s also a lousy shooter (42% last year, 36% his rookie year), while the big complaint about Mo is that his offense has become too good. I don’t buy the whole “shoot-first” vs. “pure” point guard thing — the Bucks’ coaches had no authority last season and Mo wasn’t the only guy doing whatever he wanted out there.

Ultimately, I don’t think that would be something the Bucks would do, since there isn’t much guarantee that Lowry is anything more than a worse offensive/equally bad defensive version of Mo. I think they would rather roll the dice on Mo improving under Skiles and seeing what they really have in Sessions. Hopefully next offsesaon they wind up with a TJ Ford/Jose Calderon situation — two guys who someone else around the league would want.

If not, then they draft Darren Collison in the late lottery next year.

It’s a good idea, but I don’t think Memphis would part with Conley that easily. He was the #4 pick last year, and since Yi was worth Richard Jefferson then I’m sure the Griz would find Conley to be worth a lot more than this proposal.

Memphis is not shopping Conley. Just because they threw him in to a trade proposal to the Bulls for the #1 pick (which they knew all along the Bulls wouldn’t accept) doesn’t mean they are shopping him. He was hurt last season and played fairly well when he wasn’t.

Memphis might be interested for Kyle Lowry instead of Conley, but they don’t really need to do a deal. Remember that Memphis did also pick up Darrell Arthur in the draft, so they already have a power forward of the future in mind. It seems like the Grizz would cut cap room in the deal by losing Jaric and his 3 year deal (for Blount’s two years remaining) but that’s not really true since Charlie V is up for an extension after this season. So Memphis would either have to blow some of their cap room to extend Villanueva or else they would have made the trade for what amounts to a one year rental of a guy they hope isn’t a starter (since they have a cheaper replacement under contract for four years in Arthur), a guy they don’t need (Mason) and a guy they don’t want (Blount). Meanwhile, considering they are looking toward the future, Conley and Lowry as their point guards is about as good as they can do.

Of course, Chris Wallace is just about the dumbest GM in the league (I mean, he just got fleeced by Kevin McHale!) so I guess anything is possible.