Milwaukee Bucks Blog - The Bob Boozer Jinx : Desmond Mason

VIDEO: Brandon Jennings 1st practice... NBA cuts tax limit... Free and unfree agency ramble on

J.D. Mo — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:21:00 GMT

Bucks summer league workouts are under way!!

Either the Bucks need to hire a new cameraman or rookie Brandon Jennings is too quick for video.

Watch snippets of Jennings' first practice here. The link also takes you to video of 2nd round pick Jodie Meeks, who today signed a three-year deal (numbers anyone?).

Encouraging commentary from Bucks assistant Kelvin Sampson after Jennings finished off a 2-on-1 break:

"That's more exciting; fans want to see that. They want to be entertained, and this kid is going to entertain them."

NBA sets cap and tax levels: As league officials forecast last winter, the NBA cut salary cap and luxury tax levels for the 2009-10 season. This squeezes the Bucks budget just a little bit more as the team negotiates with restricted free agents Ramon Sessions and Ersan Ilyasova. Bucks owner, Sen. Herb Kohl, has indicated he will not allow the payroll to rise into tax territory. Teams over the luxury tax threshold pay $1 to the league for every dollar over the limit.

The luxury tax threshold was reduced from $71.15 million to $69.92m, a cut of 1.7%. The salary "cap" went from $58.68m down to $57.7m.

This doesn't necessarily mean that the Bucks cannot or will not slightly exceed the limit to sign Sessions and Ilyasova. The tax is levied after the close of the regular season, April 2010, so the Bucks could start the season over the limit and have until the February trade deadline to make a move or two to get under.

Only half of forward-guard Bruce Bowen's $4.1m contract is guaranteed, so the Bucks could secure $2m in wiggle room by releasing Bowen. The veteran defensive menace was acquired from the Spurs in the Richard Jefferson trade, and very likely would prefer to return to the Spurs for another playoff run this season. Bowen is also reportedly considering retiring, so there seems little point (other than making me happy) in keeping Bowen around.

It's really too bad. It would be nice to see Bowen, Luc Mbah a Moute and Charlie Bell playing together next season, sticking some nasty team D on Bucks opponents.

The $884,000 contract of shooting guard Salim Stoudamire, all 6'1" of him, is also not fully guaranteed. Not sure, however, how much would count against the salary cap if the Bucks release him. You have to assume GM John Hammond has had additional payroll shaving moves/trades in mind since the end of the 2009 season -- otherwise, the addition of Stoudamire doesn't make much sense.

Shamsports' very useful guide to 2009 NBA free agents: The Bucks may be talking to Hawks small forward Josh Childress, who jumped ship to Europe last season, but that doesn't mean he's available. The term free agent gets used pretty loosely when discussing NBA players, and Childress isn't "free" -- the Hawks, if they choose, can match any offer for him.

I know this because Sham over at Shamsports.com has put his madness over minutia to good use and provided a handy dandy guide to 2009-10 free agents. It's open season as of today (July 8) and Sham's provided a team-by-team breakdown of who opted out of their contracts, who opted in, who's restricted and who's truly free and unrestricted.

Perusing the list, we also learn that:

There are so many scrub ex-Bucks on the list that it's gotta be a joke on ex-GM Larry Harris. Desmond Mason, David Ruffin, Jake Voskuhl .. c'mon. Also: Joe Smith, Brian Skinner, Royal Ivey.

Like Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess is jumping off the Pistons ship. McDyess will join the Spurs, who are loading up on forwards this offseason (RJ, DuJuan Blair, and now McDyess). Actually that's hot off the presses and hasn't made Sham's list yet.

Hedo Turkoglu's signing with the Raptors. Why Hedo, why?

Shawn Marion's headed for Dallas, which is gearing up for one more run with Jason and Dirk. Can't say owner Mark Cuban is not the committed sort.

Does this make Josh Howard expendable? And might Cuban and the Mavs be interested in Michael Redd, if fully recuperated from knee surgery?

Unrestricted Mike Bibby and former Buck Zaza Pachulia will resign with the Hawks.

The Celtics have left Stephon Marbury (takers?) and big men Leon Powe and Miki Moore free and unrestricted.

Trevor Ariza will sign with Houston (as good as Ron Artest can be, whose getting better in the Artest-Ariza swa, the Lakers or the Rockets? Looking ahead, I'd rather have Ariza.)

The Sixers have five restricted free agents, headed by Andre Miller, who could be good pickups. Former Buck Royal Ivey is among them (don't worry, I'll stifle the Royal Ivey rant this time.)

Paul Millsap, the Jazz' up and coming, young big forward, a favorite of many Bucks fans, is restricted. (Don't expect the Jazz to let him slip away).

Anderson Varejao from the Cavs and the Lakers Lamar Odom look to be the big prizes on the unrestricted front.

(Day after I wrote this, Varejao got a new deal from the Cavs - 5 yrs, $50million, which is what he wanted two years ago when he was a restricted holdout. Can't help but figure that the 5 yrs, $37.5m ($7.5m/yr) Charlie Villanueva got from Detroit bumped Varejao's stock up.)

PF Chris Wilcox from the Thunder and Rodney Carney from the T-Wolves might be interesting targets.

Suns forwards Matt Barnes and Grant Hill are free and unrestricted. (Hill resigned with the Suns.)

Could the Bucks pick up Brandon Bass from the Mavs for the mid-level exception? Is Bass worth it ($5.85m)?

Yahoo's Johnny Ludden ranks his Top 20 NBA free agents, complete with deals and signings as they come.

Speaking of the Bucks very real need for tough power forward play, why are the Bucks talking to restricted small forward Josh Childress? Shouldn't the Bucks leave the SF position to our young and developing forwards (Luc and Joe) and get some rugged help in the paint? Brandon Bass certainly matches that description. Wilcox maybe less so, but he does qualify as paint-help.

Let's face it -- Kurt Thomas, Malik Allen, Francisco Elson and Dan Gadzuric aren't going to help the Bucks get anywhere.

In any case, there just aren't really any good small forwards out there in the free and unrestricted market. Would Matt Barnes be all that big of a help? Probably not. So what about a PF like Boston's Leon Powe, a guy who, moreso than Wilcox or Bass, would be less of a mid-level risk.

So goes my brainstorm for now. More later (consider that a warning if you like). I think the Bucks have a shot to improve if they play their mid-level exception right in this market.

Food for thought: Who in the market is worth the Bucks $5.85 exception?

Ramble on ...

Mo Williams trade: Cavaliers get their shooter - but how did the Bucks do?

J.D. Mo — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:56:00 GMT

Photo Illustration: Jeremy Jannene

Mo Williams had to be one happy-go-shooting point guard Wednesday after the Bucks, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City finalized a trade that sent Mo to the Cavs and brought point guard Luke Ridnour from OK City to the Bucks.

To make the trade happen, the Bucks sent forward Desmond Mason to OK City and accepted the final year of former Buck Damon Jones' contract at $4.5 million.

Also coming to Milwaukee is 34-year-old journeyman forward Adrian Griffin from OK City (still nameless out of Seattle). In addition to Mason, OK City receives Cavs forward-center Joe Smith, a Bucks fan favorite (2003-06) many had hoped would be coming back to Milwaukee in this trade.

Why is Mo happy? The Bucks best shooter last season leaves a lottery team where his growth as an offensive player caused rifts, and goes to a title-contending team where pushing the ball and shooting jumpshots will be a big part of his job description playing with Lebron James.

That the Bucks had to add more than Mo into this trade (Mason) and take Jones off the Cavs hands was no surprise.(See yesterday's post). The Cavs had balked at taking on Mo's 5-year $43 million contract and $8.35M salary, and needed more incentive. This trade had to get bigger in order to happen, and Bucks GM John Hammond stepped up to absorb the messy side of it, all but guaranteeing that the Bucks would be viewed as the team that got the worst end of this deal.

BUCKS: The fact that Hammond was willing give up Mason while taking Jones' contract shouldn't be interpreted as a statement that coach Scott Skiles thinks Luke Ridnour is his answer at point guard. It is, however, a statement that Hammond and Skiles could not foresee moving forward with Mo. It also says fairly loudly that Mason, never the type of game-changing small forward who delivers wins, was expendable on the Richard Jefferson Bucks. Bucks GM Hammond didn't say much in the official Bucks press release, but offered this comment to JSOnline's Charles Gardner when it was suggested that the Lebron-Mo combo could be explosive:

"At the end of the day, you have to evaluate your own situation," Hammond said. "Does it help us, first and foremost? The evaluation was that it did."

How does it help the Bucks?: Gardner didn't ask but I'll fill in.

1) The trade removes a potential headache in Mo. This is not a criticism of Mo as much as it is a recognition of bad blood that exists on the Bucks roster from previous losing seasons. It was apparent at the games that Mo no longer had much tolerance for "the Michael Redd show" and invested part of his final season as a Buck in proving to anyone who cared that he was just as prolific a scorer as Redd. Bucks fans have seen quite enough of the Mo-Redd backcourt, and Hammond and Skiles were wise not to reboot it for one more run. In Brewhoop's estimation, Mo was "the odd man out" when it became clear that Redd was staying after the Jefferson trade.

2) The trade relieves the Bucks of Mo's 5-year, $43 million contract. Ridnour is a two-year, $13M commitment. In trading Mason and Mo, the Bucks cleared out about $14.3M in salary while taking in $12.7M - an immediate $1.6M more in wiggle room under the luxury tax limit, most of which they used to sign Francisco Elson the day of the Mo trade. The Bucks remain about $2M under the luxury tax limit and could free up another $1.7M by cutting Griffin, whose salary is not guaranteed. Next year the Bucks will save $2.36M (the difference between Mo and Ridnour's salaries) but the big benefit comes in 2010, when Ridnour's contract expires and the $9.3M Mo is set to be paid becomes free and clear -- giving the Bucks some room to grow.

3) Acquiring the 27-year-old Ridnour, a point guard in Scott Skiles' image, takes Ramon Sessions out of the fire next season. Sessions, 22, is a focus of Bucks development but has only seven starts under his belt and may need some more time to grow into the starting point guard position. He may not need more time, but that's something for Skiles to sort out in preseason, knowing that he has Ridnour at his disposal and veteran Tyrone Lue behind them. And Jones, if he's allowed to suit up.

4) Ridnour could find an NBA rebirth of sorts in Milwaukee; and in Skiles, he couldn't ask for a better point guard coach. He's not a player Bucks fans have had much of a chance to see (Seattle's national NBA profile having been about as high as Milwaukee's) but Ridnour thrived early in his career as Ray Allen's backcourt mate. He started his second season in the league, as the Sonics won the Northwest Division and routed Sacremento from the playoffs before falling to the eventual champs, the Spurs. Ridnour averaged 11.5 pts, 7 asts that year, and drew comparisons to "a young Steve Nash." But Ridnour lost his starting job to Earl Watson in his fourth year, and last season played 20 minutes per game in a backup role. He was the small (his 6' 2" listing is generous), flashy point guard Sonics fans loved but knew wasn't good enough, or something like that.

Ridnour is a member of the 2006-08 Olympic Senior Men's Basketball program (33 players) and last summer Seattle tried to trade him to Atlanta for the #11 draft pick but the deal fell through (the Hawks eventually traded for Mike Bibby). He reminds me of a smaller version of Scott Skiles, who became an effective NBA point guard with Shaq in Orlando. Ridnour does like to pass and he's fun to watch, even when he's falling down trying to guard Toronto's Jose Calderon (see yesterday's post).

Today we have MiniShaQ's mix, "Lucky Luke Ridnour: Future of the Sonics" ... the "young Steve Nash" interview is at the end.

A couple of other notes: I don't know, obviously, what the roster plans are for Damon Jones or Adrian Griffin. I assume Jones won't be on the active 12-man roster (barring injury, how he could he be with three point guards already on the roster?) and may be further removed still. Trading Jones, however, may be next to impossible.

With Griffin, it's more difficult to say. The Bucks could send 2nd round draft pick Luc Mbah a Moute to the D-League (and/or Joe Alexander if he struggles) and Griffin could fill a stopgap reserve role at small forward. If they release Griffin, however, the Bucks would have $1.7M more to play with under the luxury tax limit should another trade come along or if free agent help is needed.

Whatever pans out with the Bucks new forward, you should read shamsports Adrian Griffin player bio.

GM Hammond: Redd is not "untouchable" in trade talks

J.D. Mo — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:18:00 GMT

And neither is anybody else, Bucks GM John Hammond told reporter Gery Woelfel in a feature interview that ran in the Racine Journal Times Sunday.

Center Andrew Bogut and big forward Yi Jianlian, however, are "two, very good young pieces ... that you can build around," Hammond qualified. "Bigs are so hard to find. The Boguts and the Yis ... it would be awfully hard to move guys like that."

Bogut and the Bucks are expected to come to terms on a five-year extension this July that would keep the 23-year-old center in a Bucks uniform through his prime and the 2013-14 season. Including his option for next season, the dollar terms would likely be in the neighborhood of six years - $66-72 million. As for Yi, the Bucks have two exhibition games scheduled in China this September; it's difficult to imagine the team showing up without Yi.

Hammond continued to address "the untouchables" issue without prompting from interviewer Woelfel.

“Does that mean Michael Redd can be moved? Or anybody else on this roster? No. But I don’t think it’s fair to use the term untouchables when you are a team that won 26 games this year."

How's that for dancing around the question? It's time to stop the music. Consider Michael Redd officially on the trading block.

Journal Times: It was pretty apparent the Bucks had some significant chemistry issues this season. Is it necessary to weed out some of the malcontents on this team or can Skiles come in and alter the attitude?

Hammond: When you start talking about chemistry issues or evaluating what went wrong with this team ... we’re going to evaluate the situation and, if we can do something to improve our team, we’re going to do that. Does that mean we’re going to make wholesale changes? No. We will not do that. That’s not our thinking going in. Chemistry issues, weeding people out, that kind of terminology ... it’s going to come down to opportunities. We are going to explore the opportunities that are presented by other teams and go from there.”

Bob Boozer Jinx: With the exception of Bogut and Yi, everybody's on the trading block, maybe even Ramon Sessions, one player who could make trades work for the Bucks. The Bobby Simmons, Mo Williams and Dan Gadzuric contracts are difficult to move, unless attached with affordable players like Desmond Mason, Charlie Bell, Charlie Villanueva and Sessions. "The way [Sessions] finished the season ... as we continue to work the phones (in trade talks) I guarantee you his name will come up," Hammond said later in the interview.

Journal Times: There’s a good chance Michael Redd will be playing for the United States Olympic Team this summer. Yet, there are some basketball observers who contend Redd isn’t a franchise player. What’s your take on him?

Hammond: “I think Michael Redd is a great player. When you start using terminology like franchise player ... I think if we sat down and looked at the (NBA team) board together and said which team has a franchise player, we’d see there aren’t many of them in the league. Even if you said Michael Redd isn’t a franchise player, that’s not taking a shot at Michael Redd. Saying Michael Redd is a great NBA player is a great compliment to him.”

Bob Boozer Jinx: Most Bucks fans have become painfully aware over the last five years that Redd is not Kobe, Lebron, or a few All-Star teams of players, from McGrady to Stoudamire to D-Wade to Joe Johnson. Yet somebody forgot to tell Michael who still thinks he's as good as his contract, which, to him, meant that last season he had the right to undermine the team on the court. Redd's "franchise" contract is now a lodestone keeping the Bucks in the Central Division cellar.

JT: I think it’s fair to assume that this summer you’ll be making some trades. What areas would you like to shore up on this team?

Hammond: “If you look at our team, in your backcourt, it is Mo Williams and Michael Redd. Up front, we have Bogut and Yi. Desmond (Mason) is at the small forward position and that might be something you maybe address. You appreciate Desmond for the player he is and the man he is. And you got Bobby (Simmons), so it’s not like the cupboard is bare at that position. But if you say there’s maybe one spot that maybe could be addressed, that would be the small forward position.”

BBJ: The small forward position, a scoring slot for most of Bucks history, has been all but obliterated on the last few Bucks teams. Dez doesn't shoot well enough to be the starter, Simmons' career has floundered in Milwaukee and his rehab from ankle and foot surgery has been slow. Bobby's overpaid, signed on for $20 million over the next two years. Hammond won't get much back in a trade for Simmons alone, but Simmons and Charlie Bell and a draft pick? That could net a player. Hammond could trade Redd for a small forward (say, to Dallas for Josh Howard, BrewHoop's favorite trade) which would leave no space on the bench for both Simmons and Mason. A third option is to trade Redd for guards/expiring contracts/future draft picks, and see what Bobby and Dez look like without Redd, but it doesn't sound as though Hammond is leaning that way.

Hammond could be hinting at the draft, where 19-year-old Danilo Gallinari of Italy is projected to go as high as 6th. Donte Green out of Syracuse and Chase Budinger from Arizona are also ranked in the top 16 picks. There is no room for both Simmons and Dez in this scenario, either. And, as Brewhoop reminds us, there's always Ersan, the Bucks 2005 2nd round pick, who played small forward for Barcelona this season.

Looking at the SF position is also the obvious answer for Hammond; it's a throwaway that keeps other players' names out of the trade market. If Hammond leaks names to be bandied about in trade talks, and the deals fall through, Coach Skiles could be stuck with a situation similar to the one he had last season in Chicago. Bulls GM John Paxson put half the team on the trading block in hopes of acquiring Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant (Kobe's attempt to trade himself), and the resulting bad vibes didn't go away. Simmons' contract ranks as one of the worst in the NBA and every team in the league knows the Bucks would love to get rid of it.

JT: Some Bucks fans believe you should blow up this team, while others believe it just needs to be tweaked. What’s your view on this matter?

Hammond: “Maybe something in between. Maybe more than a tweak, but you sure as heck wouldn’t want to blow up a team with some of the assets that are here.

BBJ: More "maybes." Players are "assets" but are not "untouchable." Wholesale changes won't be made, but only two players are the type to build around. Hammond danced around a lot of questions. The bottom line is that the Bucks have been bogged down the last few seasons with the a group guards and small forwards (Redd, Mo, Charlie Bell, Simmons and Mason) that don't win games and will cost $46 million next season, two-thirds of the luxury tax limit -- not the salary cap, which the Bucks will exceed next season if Hammond does nothing, but the luxury tax (likely to be about $70M). The four bigs (Bogut, Yi, Charlie V and Gadzuric) are young with the exception of Gadz, and will be paid $20 million next season - the last year the group remains a bargain.

So what does Hammond do? Package Simmons and Bell in a trade and hope for the best? No. That's just asking to lose again and give your new head coach a season of headaches dealing with third-tier "stars."

I think the reality is that the evaluation of the team is just getting started. Hammond has been on the job a month; Skiles is in his 4th week and has already hired an impressive staff of assistant coaches. At last report the assistant contracts are still in the process of being signed and triplicated. The Bucks won't know where they're picking in the draft until the lottery May 20.

One of the holdovers from last season who kept his job was Jason Staudt, the video assistant. This is important. Staudt, one would hope, knows the equipment room and where all the tape from last year is, having invented a filing system so confusing that he cannot be replaced. My guess is that Staudt has been working harder than anyone the last few weeks, preparing an entire season's worth of evaluation video. So far, there hasn't been anyone to watch it except Skiles and Hammond. The definitive evaluations won't get started until the assistant coaches arrive to help Skiles go through it all ... and help him drink his beer.

Racine Journal TImes Hammond interview.