The Bratwurst - Milwaukee Bucks Blog

That is all.

I really don’t feel like going too much into his asinine comments about how nobody wants to play in Milwaukee. Fact is, he’s probably pretty much right. Arenas is going to get his share of heat for saying that stuff, which is just another example of how people always complain about athletes and celebrities never saying anything interesting and then those same people hammer a guy when he does say something.

As for me, I’d just rather not know what most professional athletes are thinking off of the field or floor. Especially Gilbert Arenas.

The Bucks “bolstered” their roster with two rather mundane signings, adding Tyronn Lue and Malik Allen. Terms were not disclosed, and while I’m sure that Allen got a 1 year, veterans minimum deal, according to who you listen to, Lue got either 1 year or two.

First, thoughts on Allen: He has a history with Scott Skiles and is kind of a Michael Ruffin clone with a little more offense. He probably shoots a little too much, as he plays the catch-and-shoot game a lot (as opposed to Ruffin, who played “Catch and either give it up or throw it away”). Allen is a big guy who is not very athletic. He throws his weight around and has carved out a pretty decent career for himself. Since Skiles is familiar with him he will probably play a little more than we would like. But he’ not a bad guy to have around.

The Lue signing, though, has me perplexed.

Lue is a pretty average player — not bad to have around as a backup, not someone you want starting for you. He is a pretty good shooter, an okay defender for someone only 6 feet tall, and he takes care of the ball well. The thing keeping him from being a starter isn’t that he is bad at anything but that he’s not really superior at anything — shoots an okay percentage, doesn’t get many blocks or steals … he’s okay.

It can be suggested that Lue’s arrival means that a big deal involving Mo Williams might be around the corner, but I can’t really see anything but an expansion team intentionally going with Tyronn Lue as the starter.

Should John Hammond intend to keep a point guard rotation of Mo, Lue and Sessions, it kind of concerns me that he may be missing an opportunity within his own roster: Charlie Bell should be the backup point guard, and the roughly-$2 mil that Lue is making should go to somebody who can back up Michael Redd.

Bell takes care of the ball and is good at staying in front of his man, but for the last two years has constantly been forced into matchups with players 3, 4 and 5 inches taller than him. Let him guard points who he has a size and strength advantage over! Bell has not played much point the last three years, but according to 82games.com, he has played a little better, his opponent played a little worse, and the team a little better with him at the point than elsewhere on the floor.

Signing Lue is definitely the safe move over moving Bell to point guard, but this team has a near-$70 million payroll and won about 30 games last year. Risks are necessary!

The true impact of this signing will only be seen if there is another move made behind it. If Hammond pulls off a big deal for a power player (such as the Rasheed Wallace-Desmond Mason, Charlie V and Bell trade I’ve mentioned in the past) then it makes sense. But if they go into the season with this backcourt then I’m not so sure.

I’ve never thought much about the rumors that are posted in the Sacramento Bee, especially after that rag once claimed that Yi Jianlian’s camp was trying to get the Chinese Man of Mystery traded to the Kings because they are so close to the Chinese population of San Francisco. Never mind the fact that Sacramento is exactly the same distance from San Fran as Milwaukee is from Chinatown on the south side of Chicago.

Anyway, they are claiming that Miami wants Ron Artest and is dangling Shawn Marion to make it happen.

So while I’m sure that rumor is complete hogwash, I started thinking: how can the Bucks get involved in a deal like that? Everyone loves to go on about Joe Alexander as the next Marion so how about going for the real thing?

Here’s the deal I was able to come up with:

Sacramento sends Artest to Miami and receives Desmond Mason, Charlie Villanueva and the Bucks’ 09 first round pick.

Milwaukee recieves Shawn Marion and Mario Chalmers and sends Mo Williams to Miami (plus the aforementioned Mason, Villanueva and a pick to Sacto).

Miami receives Artest and Mo Williams in exchange for Marion and Chalmers.

(One way to mix up the draft picks — Sacramento receives the better of the Bucks or Heat’s 09 first round pick, and if they take the Heat’s pick then Miami receives the Bucks’ pick. This is to offset Chalmers coming to the Bucks.)

The results of this trade:

Sacramento receives an expiring contract, a young power forward who is better than anyone they already have and a pick for the expiring contract of a guy who is completely nuts and who they don’t really want. Should they let Villanueva walk after the season then it turns into two expiring contracts, so no extra salary commitments.

Miami rebuilds their team with a starting four of Williams, Wade, Artest, Beasley and rounded out by either Mark Blount or Udonis Haslem.

The Bucks roll out a starting lineup of Bogut, Marion, Jefferson, Redd and (uh oh); but save $12.5 million next offseason which drops them under the cap and eases the burden of adding Bogut’s extension and Jefferson’s $15 million 10/11 salary.

Honestly, the major problem with a deal like this is from the Bucks’ perspective. They would be going into the season with a point guard rotation of Charlie Bell, Ramon Sessions and Mario Chalmers. Chalmers was an absolute and utter steal at #34 in my book (typical Kevin McHale to then trade him away) — I had him rated as the #8 prospect in the draft. But you can’t depend on any rookie point guard to step in and run a team. Since Ramon Sessions is still a total enigma, that means Charlie Bell would have to be up to the task as the starter. Would that work? Maybe so — he is big for a point guard and tries hard on defense, so that should work just fine for Scott Skiles (who used Chris Duhon in that role for three years).

I wouldn’t worry about losing a first round pick — that Bucks lineup would be built to win this year, and Chalmers would be a better prospect than anyone the Bucks would get in next years’ weak draft.

In reality Sacramento would probably shoot that down because they would want either Kenny Thomas or Shareef Abdur-Rahim to be included in an Artest trade so they can clear out part of their power forward logjam (and they did just draft Jason Thompson as well). But considering that Thompson probably wont do much this year, and if they do this trade and play out the next two years they would be set to fall $35 million under the cap in the 09/10 offseason, it’s not a bad deal for them.

I think it’s a cool idea. We all know it would never happen, but it’s worth dreaming about.

I start this post in the same way that I start most of them, it seems: sorry I haven’t been writing more often. You know: job, kids, etc…

Anyway, there are a few things that I wanted to touch on:

Andrew Bogut’s extension: 5 years and $72.5 million ($60 guaranteed) is fair value for a big man. Among his peers — 25 to 30 year old big men – $12.5 mil a year is the going rate. Whether or not that’s an obscene amount of money for fairly pedestrian numbers is a whole other issue, but good bigs don’t come along all that often. In March I wrote that fair value for Bogut would be 5 year/$65 million, and that’s what he got.

What are they going to do about power forward? Much to my dismay, John Hammond is talking more and more about using Joe Alexander at power forward, which I doubt will work. You can make all the comparisons to Shawn Marion you want, but the guy hasn’t played a single NBA game, and Marion is a pretty unique player. If you had an overweight 6′4″ guy would you stick him at power forward and say he reminds you of Charles Barkley? I think not.

Whether or not Alexander at power forward works, though, the team still needs three more big men, which will be tough to do given that they have 12 players and are only $4 mil under the luxury tax. I get the feeling that Hammond is trying to make a move for Rasheed Wallace (something like Mason, Villanueva, Bell and next years’ first), which would add a huge expiring contract and really solidify the starting five. Would Detroit make a trade like that? Ehhh….I’m not holding my breath.

The Clippers fiasco: On one hand you have to think that Elton Brand really screwed the Clippers over by leaving for Philly after they signed Baron Davis. On the other, Brand has been around the Clippers for long enough to probably realize what a screwed up organization that is. My guess is that Brand had enough of the Donald Sterling circus and felt that the front office would never let them succeed — even a team headlined by him and Davis.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia is all set to get really good really quick (Thaddeus Young is a future star) as long as they can find some shooting. And Corey Maggette will fit in well in Golden State (he can score and doesn’t work hard on defense. Perfect.)

What is Orlando’s deal? Mickael Pietrus? To a team with Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis and no power forward of note? Really? Not only is Pietrus totally overrated but he plays the same position as two of the Magic’s top three players. They are honestly going into the season with Tony Battie and Brian Cook as the only big guys behind Dwight Howard? They really want another season of Rashard Lewis as the starting power forward?

How much does Seattle moving to Oklahoma City bother me? A lot. It’s absolutely shameful that David Stern would allow teams to move so easily. If it is so easy for Seattle to pick up and move then every fan in Sacramento, Memphis, New Orleans and Milwaukee has to worry about what might happen to their team. The good part is that Herb Kohl recently made comments about it being in his will that should he pass on then his estate could only sell the team to someone who will keep it here, but for how long can something like that stay in force?