Milwaukee Bucks Blog - The Bob Boozer Jinx : Eric Gordon

Pot busts and other NBA goings on, some of them Bucks related

J.D. Mo — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:29:00 GMT

This was some mighty fine police work down in Gainesville, Florida:

"Do ya think the tall kid with the crazy hair is holdin?"

"Prolly. And look, he's violatin our municipal open container law. The gall of it awl. I bet he's one of them stoned NBA-ers."

"He is too. Ain't that that Noah kid who won us two straight titles?"

"Shore is. We could just write him a ticket for the open container. He ain't doin' nuthin', just drinking a beer."

"Nahh, let's run him down to the station. I don't want to stay out here 'til shift change."

"Alright. You got yer game on?"

"Let's git 'er done."

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The Charlie Villanueva damage patrol: With half of Ohio clamoring for the Cleveland Cavs to trade for Michael Redd and Racine Journal Times' Gery Woelfel reporting that, yes, John Hammond is scouting around for trades with Redd's name featured prominently, what does the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel do?

The daily floats Charlie Villanueva trade talk in its Saturday edition (Friday online).

True, Charlie's was the other name mentioned in the "Woelfel World of Sports" report on Hammond's trade discussions, but how can the big name in Woelfel's story be ignored? It should be noted that Charlie's name came up as a player "other teams were interested in" not as a player Hammond was dangling out there, though by telling Woelfel Hammond might as well have dangled him out there.

Here's where I make excuses for the daily and wonder why Charlie V gave JS reporter Charles Gardner this story. With the team in flux this offseason and only Andrew Bogut and Yi Jianlian on the virtually "untouchable" keeper list, Redd has been smart enough not to talk to reporters. In fact, he's been media silent since fired coach Larry Krystkowiak went public about Redd's season-long disregard for his team -- in story that appeared on JSOnline the day before the Bucks announced the hiring of Scott Skiles (pay no attention to Krystkowiak's pal, Skiles, pulling strings behind the curtain to make that story happen).

Charlie V? Not so smart -- although he did take the opportunity to give JS the obligatory kiss-up-to-the-new-coach quotes. Charlie played at UConn with two of Skiles' Bulls players, Ben Gordon and Luol Deng, who've given Charlie the skinny on his new coach: "They say he's a good coach. I think he's a very defensive-minded coach; he's a tough coach. It's exciting [for Charlie] for [Skiles] to be with the Bucks. He has won before, and we'll see what he can do this year." Get a media coach, Charlie.

Fans, though not surprised, have been somewhat caught off guard by the Charlie trade talk. How could we not be? Charlie will be a free agent after next season -- unless Hammond offers him an extension -- and his trade value is weirdly undefined at this point in his career. In response to this, Brett at the Bratwurst blog has proposed a number of impossible "dumb" Charlie V trades.

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October 2006, Gordon commits to Indiana ... And all heck broke loose on the Chicago Sun Times fanblogs. I don't pay too much attention to college basketball unless a Badger or Marquette game is on the toob, or during tournament time, and stories like the Eric Gordon recruitment story are part of the reason.

The fuss between Illinois and Indiana over Gordon, who would only play one year at Indiana before entering the NBA draft, painted the NCAA and the schools in shade after shade of ridiculous. The Alice in Wonderland set-up that the NCAA and the NBA has created for the best young players (the one-year rule) leaves everyone involved looking foolish, including the fans for caring too much about too little.

Gordon reversed his verbal commitment to Illinois to play for Bucks assistant Kelvin Sampson, who had taken the Indiana job in March 2006. Gordon's change of schools occurred when Sampson was barred from leaving the university on recruiting trips or making recruiting calls, sanctions that stemmed from Sampson's "impermissable phone call" violations while coaching at Oklahoma. Investigators later charged that Sampson had made 100 calls during this initial year of sanctions. One has to wonder how many were calls from/to Gordon or Gordon's father.

The only reason I'm recounting all this is to wonder whether Sampson would still be at Indiana if Gordon hadn't changed his mind -- which was completely within his rights, obviously, as long as his dad said it was OK. The indignation spewed over Eric Gordon's one year of basketball (led by Illinois coach Bruce Weber) was not only an embarassment, it probably put Indiana on edge about Sampson. It certainly didn't help the coach's situation.

There's something very wrong about all of it, but nothing moreso than the realization that the shame felt by the parties involved was probably minimal. Why be embarassed by the ridiculousness of it all when you can just fire the coach?

The Bucks and Gordon? Sampson being a Milwaukee assistant does have some bearing on whether the Bucks draft Gordon. How could it not? Sampson's not likely keeping his high opinion of Gordon to himself, and Milwaukee becomes the place to be for Gordon -- if he's still available when the Bucks pick 8th. Almost every mock draft out there has Gordon going no later than the Bucks pick. If the Bucks are lucky, Gordon'll be the best player available when the Bucks pick.

The driving factor on whether Gordon becomes a Buck, however, will be what Hammond finds on the trade market. The pick itself and/or the player the Bucks select is on the table and could be in motion -- even if the player in motion is Eric Gordon.

Rumor central: Redd is on the trading block; Eric Gordon's the pick apparent

J.D. Mo — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:34:00 GMT

No question about it -- as you read here last week -- Michael Redd is officially on the trading block. And with that realization this week, national sports media scrapped its conventional wisdom on what the Bucks will do with their lottery pick.

Bucks GM John Hammond has been contacting other GMs to scout out trade interest, with Redd featured prominently in those discussions, reported Racine Journal Times Bucks writer Gery Woelfel in his Tuesday column. Woelfel also reported that Charlie Villanueva is a focus of interest from the GMs Hammond has talked to. Hammond's search for a small forward is on.

"In a recent interview with The Journal Times, Bucks general manager John Hammond said the one position he would like to 'address’ is small forward. Desmond Mason and Bobby Simmons are the Bucks’ current small forwards and both are coming off pedestrian seasons," Woelfel wrote.

"Hammond could find a potentially good forward in the draft with the team’s eighth overall pick. There is also increasing speculation small forward Ersan Ilyasova, whom the Bucks selected in the second round of the 2005 draft and who spent this season playing for FC Barcelona in Spain, will return to the Bucks next season.

Hammond could also acquire a veteran small forward via a trade. There are a surprising glut of talented small forwards who could be dealt, including Denver’s Carmelo Anthony, Miami’s Shawn Marion, the Clippers Corey Maggette, Sacramento’s Ron Artest, Washington’s Antawn Jamison and Chicago’s Andres Nocioni."

Add to that list Dallas SF Josh Howard, Utah's Andrei Kirkilenko and the Nets' Richard Jefferson. Most of these forwards have contracts comparable to Redd's, making the trades viable.

The CNN-Sports Illustrated NBA site has the Woelfel story linked in its rumor section. Join the discussion about it here on the Sportsbubbler fan forum.

ESPN's NBA Rumor Central got into the action, featuring Michael Redd trade talks today. It's an Insider story - a pay feature - and this is not an endorsement. If you're not in the mood to give ESPN money, wildly speculate as I do.

As of Tuesday, it was assumed the Bucks were looking for a point guard in the draft (which they're not). Many mock draft sites, ESPN and SI included, had the Bucks taking Texas point guard D.J. Augustin with the #7 pick.

I wildly speculate that national sports media doesn't pay that much attention to the Bucks unless the team is trying to acquire a coach or player that the NY Knicks want. But then Woelfel's column hit the rumor mills, Bucks GM John Hammond, I'm sure, had a few conversations when he was in NY/NJ for the lottery, sources were called, some journalism got done and suddenly the national sports media realized what the Bucks and Hammond are up to this summer.

By Wednesday, Indiana shooting guard Eric Gordon was the consensus pick, Augustin was out of the picture and Redd was on the trading block, with Hammond scouting for a small forward and willing to trade Redd to get one. What a difference a few hours makes.

Sports Illustrated:

"[Gordon]'s the best player available here, an explosive scorer with a solid family background. His arrival may allow the Bucks to move Michael Redd's enormous salary if they're so disposed."

ESPN Insider Chad Ford

"Milwaukee could go in a lot of different directions. Its biggest need is at small forward, but this may be too high to draft Joe Alexander or Donte Greene. With the Bucks expected to be active on the trade market this summer, they can draft the best available player and then work things out later. Gordon is a dynamic scorer who could free up the Bucks to trade Michael Redd."

A pitfall to this scenario is that Gordon could be gone when the Bucks pick, unless Hammond is able to trade up, which doesn't seem likely. The culprit would be the L.A. Clippers, drafting ahead of the Bucks at #7. The concensus seems to be that Gordon would be the best player available at #7, but that the Clippers need a point guard and seem likely to draft for need rather than go into next season with Dan Dickau as the starting point guard.

If the Clippers take "the best player available" route and draft Gordon, the Bucks would be looking at a couple of small point guards, "project" forwards Anthony Randolph and Donte Green, maybe UCLA's Kevin Love, who would only crowd the power forward position further for the Bucks. Italian small forward Danilo Gallinari's stock is rising, and it seems unlikely he'll be availavle at #8.

If Gordon is gone, the Bucks would do well to swap the pick for a lower pick to trigger any number of trades, especially when dealing with Western Conference playoff teams.

Brewhoop's take on the Woelfel column notes that it may be tricky putting the pick in play in trades involving some key players because of the NBA's base year compensation (BYC) rules. For example, the Bucks can't trade the pick to Dallas with Michael Redd in a deal for Josh Howard because Dallas can't do a Redd-Howard deal until after July 1. (Bucks would have to draft on behalf of Dallas or swap picks with the Mavs for future considerations). Howard received a big raise last summer, so for trading purposes, his salary doesn't yet count fully against Redd's, and is still tied to his base year salary of 2006-07.

In an NBA trade, the salaries going out have to match the salaries coming in, give or take 25 percent. The base year rule prevents a team from giving a player a big raise simply to make the salaries in a trade work. A team giving a big raise to a player is forced to wait a year before trading that player to ensure against salary shenanigans. Any trade involving Mo Williams would have to wait as well, Brew Hoop points out. (Mo got a $5.8 million raise last summer).

This is important because the Dallas Mavericks are a good possibilty for a Redd trade, given the Mavs stable of aging shooting guards and an early exit from the playoffs at the hands of the Hornets. Howard fits the bill as a small forward Hammond will likely be inquiring about. This trade is also known as Brewhoop's favorite Michael Redd trade.

Bucks Diary doesn't think too highly of this year's lottery talent. His verdict: "It stinks!" Now, if you invert it ... BD makes a good argument for there being more NBA-ready players projected to go in the lower half of the first round. Richard Hendrix, Joe Alexander, Mo Spaights, Ryan Anderson, et al. "The Bucks have to trade out of the lottery. The gold is all down stream!"

Trading down: Bucks #8 pick will sweeten offseason deals

J.D. Mo — Wed, 21 May 2008 08:54:00 GMT

Bucks GM John Hammond says he's open to trading the Bucks draft pick, now set at #8. I say, let it dangle.

The Bucks needed to lottery-up into a top three pick to really be in control of how this draft would impact their roster. So ... what's that supposed to mean?

The top two picks, Michael Beasely and Derrick Rose, are real impact players, obviously. The rest is in flux. The Bucks would not have been expected to draft center Brook Lopez, the projected #3 pick, unless for trade purposes, but the #3 would have provided the luxury of choice. At #8, the Bucks will choose from leftovers, especially when looking at the guards in this draft.

The Bucks will have their pick of whichever of these five -- O.J. Mayo, Jarryd Bayless, Eric Gordon, D.J. Augustin, Russell Westbrook -- are unwanted by the teams drafting ahead of them. The Bucks need to control how their roster changes and improves, and the #8 pick doesn't put them in that position, not in this mediocre draft. Mediocre may be an overstatement. This draft is just not good enough, and the prognosticators are moving players up and down the board as a result.

ESPN's Chad Ford has Eric Gordon falling to the Bucks at #8. Wait a minute. Wasn't Ford forecasting on lottery day that Gordon would be going to the Clippers at the #6 spot? What changed? D.J. Augustin has fallen to #11 in Ford's mock draft. Ford had the Bucks taking Augustin with the #7 for weeks. I realize part of the reason this is all so fluid is that Rose is the only guard who stands out from the rest, and the others are too young and undistinguished for the so-called experts to make evaluations that stick. But c'mon.

It is possible that the national media, which doesn't look too closely at the Bucks, has realized that the Bucks may not be looking for a point guard. Certainly not any old point guard who happens to be available at #8 in the draft.

The Bucks are high on Ramon Sessions potential, which I wrote about in yesterday's BBJ. There is no savior in this draft after Rose, and, as such, no guarantee that a rookie point guard from this draft would be an improvement over Sessions and Mo. ... No guarantee of improvement? What am I talking about? I'm starting to sound like one of those tired old sports columnists so used to couching everything they write that nothing gets written. With a rookie point guard (Augustin or Westbrook) the Bucks would be almost guaranteed to fare worse than if they left itt to Sessions/Mo.

Remember the TJ Ford years? Those years set the Bucks back, leading to where they find themselves today. Prior to T.J., when had the Bucks ever gone with a rookie point guard? Quinn Buckner in 1976, when the Bucks were rebuilding and "Green and Growing" was the slogan. These Bucks are not in full rebuilding mode, and need to step forward, not back. The Bucks will likely stick with Sessions and keep working on his development. As it stands, Mo Williams has probably already lost the starting point guard job to Ramon.

So the so-called experts have sent the Bucks back to Gordon, the shooting guard, and, lo and behold, Ford and other national NBA wags suddenly realize that Michael Redd is on the trading block.

Gordon "is a dynamic scorer who could free up the Bucks to trade Michael Redd," Ford wrote.

Sports Illustrated also has Gordon falling to the Bucks at #8:

"He's the best player available here, an explosive scorer with a solid family background. His arrival may allow the Bucks to move Michael Redd's enormous salary if they're so disposed."

GM Hammond has identified small forward as an area of need but this draft is light on small forwards. Italian Danilo Gallinardi ranks at the top of the class. Draft Express, which has rated Gallinari highly throughout this perpetual season of draft speculation, has the Bucks taking Danilo with the #8.

But Gallinari's stock has been on the rise, seemingly in the last 24 hours. ESPN and Sports Illustrated both have Gallinari going to the Knicks at #6. That's OK, because there are some great, proven small forwards who could be on the move in offseason trades, ranging from Carmelo Anthony (would George Karl trade him?) to Andrei Kirilenko, Josh Howard and Richard Jefferson are other possibilities, and there's always Ron Artest. To a man their salaries are a nice match for Michael Redd's salary. The Bucks #8 pick would be the trade sweetener, with the Bucks taking the lower first round pick of the other team in exchange.

If the Bucks are in the small forward market (and Hammond says they are), the best pick for the Bucks would be an SF (Danilo, Donte Greene, maybe Anthony Randolph) to help fill another team's roster hole, let's say Dallas, a hole the Mavs would create by trading Josh Howard to the Bucks. Let's face it, Dez Mason and Bobby Simmons are just not the sort of players who are big trade enticements. Hammond'll have better luck if he dangles the pick.

The pick could also be used to entice a Bobby Simmons or Dan Gadzuric trade. How else could the Bucks move their $16 million duo? Future salary cap flexibility is at a premium for the Bucks, and may be worth dumping a pick to get. Maybe.

No saviors for the Bucks in this draft, but the chances of picking up a decent player with a lower pick are fair. The #8 pick is just good enough to sweeten any number of trade opportunities that might come along. Let it dangle.

My sleeper pick in this draft: DeAndre Jordan. The seven-footer is extremely athletic and more active in the paint than most centers. But he's raw. He'll likely play in the NBA for a long time. I predict that the team that picks Jordan and develops him will be happier in the long run than the team that picks Brook Lopez.