The Bratwurst – Milwaukee Bucks Blog

The Bucks are giving away free seats to college students for the preseason game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on October 17th.

If you’re in that crowd and want to see a preseason NBA basketball, visit http://www.ticketmaster.com/promo/l6e8zt and use the password “COLLEGE”.

ESPN is reporting that Ramon Sessions has agreed to a 4 year, $16 million deal with Minnesota, a deal that the Bucks are almost certain not to match as it would put them over the luxury tax this year.

It’s tough for the Bucks to lose Sessions, but I’m not altogether unconvinced that it wasn’t part of the master plan all along. I never thought Scott Skiles thought much of Sessions’ game, considering he only managed to average 27.5 minutes per game despite being the only player who could handle the ball and get into the lane for much of the season. Maybe Skiles felt Sessions freelanced too much on offense, maybe his defense was lacking. Either way, I got the feeling that Skiles would prefer a different guy to handle the ball. I’m sure the Bucks were hoping to work out a sign-and-trade rather than lose him for nothing, but keeping him wasn’t part of the plan, especially with Ridnour under contract for one year and then the reins obviously about to be passed to Brandon Jennings.

But Minnesota … what are they thinking?

The TWolves have been lambasted for the way the whole Ricky Rubio situation has come down, but I feel they did the right thing in the process. They refused to be bullied with the whole “small market” thing and drafted a good plan B in Jonny Flynn. If I was David Kahn, I would say this to the media: “My goal is to win an NBA Championship. I feel Ricky Rubio will be one of the best players in the world in a few years, and I managed to ensure that he will either be playing for us or will not be playing against us.” Enough said. There is still a chance that they could lose Rubio if he plays three years overseas, but who knows what rules will be built into the next collective bargaining agreement. He could be their property in perpetuity.

But it still means that Jonny Flynn is their point guard of the future. So why sign a guy who you want to be a backup (Sessions) for more money than Flynn will make over the lifetime of his rookie contract?

I fully understand that rookie point guards almost never succeed. All great point guards, besides Chris Paul, need at least a year (and sometimes 4 or 5) to blossom. They should have signed a veteran point guard (Juan Dixon, Steven Hart or Tyron Lue) to a 1-year deal, because once Flynn steps in as the #1 guy in a year he doesn’t need to be looking over his shoulder at Sessions.