The Bratwurst – Milwaukee Bucks Blog

Acquired in the Mo Williams trade, it wasn’t long before the Bucks and Damon Jones agreed that the “best shooter in the world” would not join the team and would instead work out on his own while the Bucks tried to work out a deal for him.

So what’s happening on that front?

I can’t imagine that it is very much.

Jones is owed $4.46 million this season, and his contract expires after the year. Whether or not he is with the team he is on the roster, so if the Bucks don’t trade him or buy him out then both Matt Freije and TJ Cummings will have to be cut and the Bucks will go into the season with 14 players. No big deal there.

But what sort of trade could be negotiated for Jones?

Lets see, who wants a player who does nothing but shoot 3′s and is fairly good at it (making 42% last year but 38% the previous two)?

What would anyone give up for Jones?

Lets go through the league and toss out some ideas:

Atlanta, if they really like Randolph Morris as Al Horford’s backup, might be willing to swap the expiring $4 million contract of Zaza Pachulia for Jones.

Drew Gooden for Jones and Charlie Villanueva would work.

Denver could save $2 million by trading Steven Hunter for Jones (Hunter has 2 years and $7 million left on his contract). This trade could be a possibility except that Hunter is apparently not recovered from knee surgery that cost him all of last season.

(I can’t figure out how to get Jones to Golden State even though they really need a point guard but I would do Tyronn Lue for Marco Belinieli and Richard Hendrix in a heartbeat. But I’m sure the Warriors would never do that, and Lue can’t be traded until December 15.)

To Orlando for Brian Cook?

To Phoenix for Raja Bell? I could see Phoenix doing that — they save 6 million and 1 year on Bell’s contract, but I don’t think the Bucks would because of the money.

That’s pretty much it for realistic trades, and I don’t think any of them would happen. The Bucks aren’t really in a situation where they would add a long contract unless they are getting a potentially high draft pick back, and no team is going to go out of their way to add Damon Jones unless they save some major money along the way.

So what’s going to happen? Jones is going to get bought out.