The Bratwurst – Milwaukee Bucks Blog

A couple of stories floating around the newswires this weekend suggest that the Bucks may be on the verge of making a trade, with the Boston Globe saying that other teams have shown interest in Charlie Villanueva and Ramon Sessions, with the Memphis Commercial Appeal saying that the Bucks have talked with the Grizzlies about a Mike Conley for Sessions and Joe Alexander trade.

In the Commercial Appeal, Ronald Tillery writes that the Bucks would be willing to do the trade because “Some” think that Alexander is a bust and that the Bucks won’t be able to resign Sessions when he is an unrestricted free agent this offseason. Meanwhile, he seems to think the Bucks would want Conley despite the fact that he sucks and apparently doesn’t care that he lost his starting job. Personally, I’ve never thought much about Conley’s game. Think TJ Ford without the instincts, Mo Williams without the jump shot and Ramon Sessions without the ability to get to the line. That about sums it up. Plus, he’s a horrible shooter who for some reason shoots lefty despite not being left handed. How can he possibly improve his shot if he insists on using his off hand?

Once again, Tillery proves that apparently the main requirement for being an NBA beat writer is to not know anything about the game.

Sessions will not be an unrestricted free agent. Under the Gilbert Arenas clause (the simple explanation), teams offering Sessions a deal will have to structure it so that the first year’s salary is equal to the midlevel exception, before ballooning to the full value of the contract in later seasons. This means that as long as the team holding the players’ rights has not already used its midlevel they will retain the ability to match regardless of whether or not they are over the cap.

However, Tillery does have a point — the Bucks do need to do something or they might be screwed by the luxury tax next year whether they retain Sessions and Villanueva or not.

The salary cap this year is $58.68 million and the luxury tax level this season is $71.15 million. The Bucks are currently hard up against that at $70.61 million. The Bucks currently have $63.5 million committed to 9 players next year (assuming Malik Allen and Francisco Elson activate their player options), plus the Bucks have to allow for a first round pick and hold a $4.6 million qualifying offer on Charlie V. This also doesn’t include the terms of Mbah a Moute’s second year, but one would assume that is about 800K. So if they don’t do anything at all the Bucks would be right at $70 million already for next year, and that doesn’t include Sessions.

That’s no problem if the salary cap and luxury tax go up by their typical 5% next year. But what if the cap stays the same or even goes down next year?

The cap is set as a percentage of the previous seasons’ basketball related income (currently 51%). Attendance and TV ratings have slid this year, and with the state of the economy, one has to assume that things like luxury box revenues and season ticket rolls are down. I would not be surprised at all to see the cap drop next year. Meaning the Bucks may already be looking at themselves as a tax paying team next year.

This situation is all Larry Harris’ fault. Why? Dan Gadzuric and Charlie Bell.

This illustrates perfectly why you should never sign guys who are not going to be starters for you to long term deals. Backup centers and swing men are a dime a dozen. Signing them to long deals ruins your roster and cap flexibility, and if you found those guys for cheap in the first place then there are more players like them out there. I pounded the Bell contract at the time and now, just one year later, here it is hurting them.

What do the Bucks do now? It’s tricky. And trading Sessions might be the only answer.

Villanueva is very difficult to trade because he is eligible for a contract extension next season, meaning that the team that gets him has to either be ready to win now and/or really want him for the long term.

The only teams that I could see wanting to take on Gadzuric in exchange for getting Villanueva and sending back expiring deals would be a team that thinks they can win a title right now. And that means Cleveland, Boston or the Lakers.

Boston might actually be interested in getting an offensive boost from Villanueva and some extra fouls to give in Gadzuric, but they don’t have any contracts to send back.

Villanueva, Gadzuric and either Elson or Allen for Wally Sczcerbiak would also work and would make some sense for Cleveland, but they are rolling along so well right now that they probably don’t need to make a trade like that.

Lamar Odom has been a complete enigma for the Lakers, who cannot figure out where or how to use him alongside Gasol and Bynum. Odom has an expiring $11.4 million contract, so Gadzuric and Villanueva would work, but that would actually add salary to the Bucks and would push them into the luxury tax this season. Also, there is no guarantee that the Lakers would have any less trouble fitting Villanueva into the system as they do Odom.

So you see? There probably isn’t much of a market for Charlie V right now considering that the Bucks would likely insist that the contract of Gadzuric be included in the deal.

So maybe the only answer is to trade Sessions.

The Darius Miles saga has been running in the background this NBA season, but it has some major implications for the league over the next couple of year. Basically, Miles is under contract to the Trail Blazers for two more seasons at $9 million per. Miles had not played for a couple of years, both because he was battling back from a major knee injury and because the Blazers didn’t want him around.

Since Portland couldn’t get out from under his contract by trading him while he was hurt, they instead tried to claim that he was retired due to his medical condition. This way, even though he would still get paid his money, his contract would fall off of the Blazer’s salary cap, pushing them well under the cap after this season.

The problem here is that Miles can play. Maybe he’s not good enough to actually play a significant role in the NBA any more, but he is healthy enough to get on the court. He played 6 preseason games with Boston and 2 games with Memphis. He only played 9 regular season minutes total, but registered two blocked shots and made no trips to the hospital, showing that his knee is at least healthy enough to allow him to play in a game. Unlike the conditions of, say, Sean Elliott or Alonzo Mourning a few years back, where the exertion of playing in a basketball game with their kidney conditions could have caused a potentially fatal complication.

NBA rules state that the Blazers will be able to claim the medical retirement clause on Miles if he plays fewer than 10 games this year. It turns out that the rule includes both preseason and regular season games, so Miles is now only 2 games away from having his salary go back on the Blazers’ books.

The Trail Blazers’ front office doesn’t like that, and so they have decided to try and keep Miles off of the court in the true American Way: by threatening litigation.

According to Yahoo! Sports and other media outlets, the Blazers sent an email to the front offices of the other NBA teams, stating:

Team Presidents and General Managers,

The Portland Trail Blazers are aware that certain teams may be contemplating signing Darius Miles to a contract for the purpose of adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers Salary Cap and tax positions. Such conduct from a team would violate its fiduciary duty as an NBA joint venturer. In addition, persons or entities involved in such conduct may be individually liable to the Portland Trail Blazers for tortuously interfering with the Portland Trail Blazers’ contract rights and perspective economic opportunities.

Please be aware that if a team engages in such conduct, the Portland Trail Blazers will take all necessary steps to safeguard its rights, including, without limitation, litigation.

Needless to say, the NBA is already not very happy about one team trying to strong-arm the others into shunning a player, and if I was Darius Miles’ agent, I would have been calling labor law lawyers first thing this morning. in fact, the Blazers are already backing off on their stance, sending out another statement saying that Miles has cleared waivers and can sign with another team.

Now, what should the Bucks do about this? What would I have done if I was in John Hammond’s shoes?

Simple. I would have immediately sent out an email to the other teams, telling them all that if the Bucks lose another game this season then Herb Kohl would crush them all like a bug:

Dear (NBA GM or Owner, especially you, Paul Allen):

The Milwaukee Bucks are aware that certain teams are spending the duration of most games against us in a systematic effort to score more points than us, adversely impacting our ability to win games. The addition of losses to our record has a significant negative impact on our financial standing through revenue loss from such sources including but not limited to playoff ticket sales, arena signage during national television appearances, and local television and radio ratings. Such conduct from said opponents violates their fiduciary duty as an NBA joint venturer. In addition, persons or entities involved in such conduct may be individually liable to the Milwaukee Bucks for tortuously interfering with the Milwaukee Bucks’ contract rights and perspective economic opportunities.

Please be aware that if a team engages in such conduct that results in a Milwaukee Bucks opponent scoring more points than the Milwaukee Bucks and the Milwaukee Bucks incurring a loss, the Milwaukee Bucks will take all necessary steps to safeguard its rights, including, without limitation, litigation, and our owner, who is only a freaking Senator, making sure that whatever business your teams’ primary owner is involved in is legislated out of existence.

Starting today, that’s how the Milwaukee Bucks roll.