Why We Believed in the Michael Redd rumor
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010Even in deceit, lessons can be learned.
That’s what I’m taking out of the 20 minutes madness earlier today on Twitter when, for those precious 20 minutes, everyone thought Michael Redd may be heading out of town to make room for local boy Devin Harris. The trade (the supposed specifics of it aren’t worth mentioning anymore) turned out to be a hoax perpetrated by someone claiming to be New Jersey Nets reporter Dave D’Alessandro. As frustrating as this type of shenanigan is, it does further paint a picture in Milwaukee.
Any significant transformation of the Bucks roster this season will be coming in the form of a trade. And that trade would probably involve Michael Redd.
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s very likely that Michael Redd will get traded this off-season. Teams rarely engage in salary dumps after the draft and before their next season. What kind of message is it to send to your fans if you’re organization is giving up on a season that has yet to start? The most likely scenario, is a team is looking to unload some contracts and free up future cap space by snagging Redd from the Bucks sometime after January next season. That’s how I envision the trade of Redd going down. But even more unlikely than Redd being traded this off season, is the thought that the Bucks will attempt to find another starter in the free agent market.
Despite some information that relied on the ultra unlikely scenario that Michael Redd opts out of his $18.3 million contract in ESPN’s Free Agent Dime, the Bucks won’t be getting a max free agent. If this point needed to be pounded in even further, the Bucks did that today when they picked up Carlos Delfino’s second year option. If the Bucks were interested in freeing up even more space to try and sign a free agent whose value suggests he would earn more than the mid-level exception, dropping Delfino and his $3.5 million contract would have been the way to go. That would have left Milwaukee with over $6 million to play with this off season before making offers to John Salmons and Luke Ridnour. The Bucks apparently felt Delfino was a better fit at the three for their current roster than anyone else they could have found on the open market.
As things stand now, Milwaukee’s biggest hole in their roster is at the shooting guard position. With Salmons in flux, Michael Redd seemingly on the way out or to the inactive list and not-so-perfect fits in Delfino and Chris Douglas-Roberts, the Bucks would probably be well served to find a way to bring in a two guard if Salmons doesn’t return. But if they’re looking for anyone who is more of a long term piece rather than a stop gap until more cap room opens up in 2011, look for it to be done via trade, rather than as a free agent signing.
The arrival of free agency and what it means for the Milwaukee Bucks
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010Beginning at 12:01 AM Thursday morning, NBA teams will be doing all kinds of embarrassing things in an attempt to lure free agents of varying talents to come spend their next three to five years with a brand new team. Email accounts for fans to write in saying how much they wish Player A would come to their team will be set up. Lavish airport ceremonies will be held. Expense accounts will explode. And in the end, a few guys will get overpaid and everyone will wish they could undo the whole thing before the player demands a trade and the organization laments the fact that they’ve made said player untradeable.
Good times. (more…)
In Defense of Corey Maggette
Monday, June 28th, 2010There’s rarely a question about whether or not Corey Maggette is a competent offensive player. Debate will likely always rage on about how selfish of a player he is and if Maggette “getting his” necessarily amounts to positive team production, but it’s hard to say that Maggette isn’t skilled at scoring points. He does that in bunches and very efficiently year after year. The big knock on Maggette though, is that he lacks awareness of what’s going on around him. Maggette may bull his way to the hoop and end up scoring or at the free throw line, but more often than not, you won’t be seeing Maggette knifing through the lane and dropping the ball off to an open shooter on the weak side.
Teams and fans alike have more or less learned to accept this as Maggette’s offensive game. The pluses seem to outweigh the minuses, so Maggette continues to collect paychecks and find ample playing time. But that awareness bugaboo rears its ugly head on the defensive end as well and it’s there that the concern that Corey Maggette may destroy everything that was good and fun about the Milwaukee Bucks last year as soon as he steps on the court.
Within seconds of the finalization of the trade that brought him over from Golden State, Maggette was being labeled the Bucks weak link defensively. His poor defensive rating, offensive mindset and the checkered success of the teams he’s played on make him an easy target for those worried about the Bucks messing with the good thing that was last season’s team. Immediately after the trade, I noted that Maggette’s field goal percentage against and defensive rating both were considerably worse than Carlos Delfino, the Bucks primary small forward last season. But it’s possible the change of scenery may do wonders for Maggette the defender and that I underestimated just how damaging playing in Golden State’s system was for him, his lack of awareness be damned. (more…)
Filling Out the Bucks Summer Roster
Saturday, June 26th, 2010UPDATE: Chris Douglas-Roberts tweets to Frank Madden of Brewhoop he won’t be playing in summer league.
The dust has settled and the first stage of the off season is complete. With that, the Bucks summer league roster begins to take shape.
SG: Alando Tucker
Tucker was confirmed some time ago.
SF: Darington Hobson
The Bucks first pick of the second round should be in attendance.
PF: Tiny Gallon
The Bucks second pick of the second round should be in attendance.
PF: Larry Sanders
Summer league presents a great opportunity for first round picks like Sanders to make a good impression on coaching staffs and fan bases en route to a successful season. Sanders athleticism should do him well come mid-July.
PF: Darnell Jackson
Jackson has the leg up on every other member of the squad in terms of experience with the Bucks, but will have his hands full in vying for one of the final bench spots come training camp. A productive summer league stint would be helpful for him.
After those six, nothing is official at the moment yet for Milwaukee. I’d expect to see Trevon Hughes be added to the roster eventually, but that has yet to be confirmed. So who else might Milwaukee be looking to take along to Vegas? Here’s a list of players Milwaukee brought in for workouts that went undrafted and as of now, remain unsigned. This isn’t the complete list, but what I feel represents the more talented members of the group or players that have worked out twice (Ricky Franklin and Jerry Smith).
PF – Charles Garcia
C – A.J. Ogilvy
SF – Anthony Mason Jr.
SG – Aubrey Coleman
PG – Nic Wise
SG – Jerry Smith
SG – Ricky Franklin
Of that particular group, I’d say Smith, Garcia and Coleman probably are the most likely to at least get an invitation to try out for the team. Milwaukee may fill a couple slots with some journeymen looking to stick or players coming back over from Europe for the summer. More on this when updates become available.
Tiny Gallon: A “Big” Get at 47 (You see what I did there?)
Friday, June 25th, 2010Brandon Jennings wanted him at number 15.
I’m sure he was just as happy with his friend Keith “Tiny” Gallon falling to the Bucks at number 47.
Don’t get caught up in the name though, Gallon is no more a “Tiny” than Glen Davis is a “Baby”. At 6-foot-9, 302 pounds, Gallon certainly meets the power part of the power forward requirement and then some. But that isn’t why Gallon may soon be a fan favorite in the Bradley Center. The colorful, backboard breaking 19-year-old could sweep Milwaukee off it’s feet. After all, who doesn’t love to see a giant shooting 3-pointers?
“You talk about him, you talk about imagination,” said John Hammond when asked to delve deeper into Gallon. “He’s a guy who likes to do all kinds of things on the floor. He thinks he can shoot an NBA three. And the problem is, he really can.”
Half the Bucks fans that read that last sentence probably got a little sick, but the other half probably got a little giddy. Having equal parts doubters and supporters has been par for the course for the big man with the word “Misunderstood” tatooed on himself. The “misunderstanding” of Tiny Gallon is what left him available for the Bucks at 47 and they wasted no time in scooping him up, but not before talking to his ex-high school teammate Brandon Jennings.
“We talked to Brandon as the pick was getting near,” said Coach Scott Skiles. “I talked to Brandon right after, they have a relationship and that’s great. Tiny can learn a lot from Brandon. Brandon’s in the gym every day, he’s serious about the game, he loves the game and he’s got a great approach. It’ll be good that there’s somebody here that Tiny can look to and good for Brandon to start to take on more of a leadership role.”
Hammond said that Gallon’s skills were too much to pass on as they came up to their 47th pick with him on the board.
“He’s capable of posting, he’s an excellent passer. As far as rating players, we had him rated so much higher than where we picked him. We had options at 47. Do we keep the pick? Do we move it for the future, something like that? But we thought, if he’s getting close to 47, there’s no way we can move it. He’s way way too talented.”
Gallon’s freshman season at Oklahoma was at times turbulent. The kind of turbulence a plane suffers minutes before it crashes and is never found again that is. Clashes with the coaching staff, a late season suspension and ultimately the tale of the money that suddenly appeared in his mother’s hands that was the John Hancock on his declaration to go pro all dogged him. But when Gallon was playing, his numbers actually weren’t all that bad.
He was 25th nationally in defensive rebound percentage, grabbing 25.2% of available defensive boards. In just 24 minutes per game, Gallon averaged 10.3 points on 54.7% shooting while grabbing 7.9 rebounds per game. As a freshman. The indication from his numbers is that he actually used his size fairly effectively, Hammond’s earlier comment about his love for the jump-shot not withstanding. As far as upside picks go, the Bucks could have done a lot worse at 47 than the “Misunderstood” Gallon. And hey, he’s trying to make nice already. So maybe drafting him will suffice just fine.
Oh, and when a team can make their star player happy at the same time, well, that’s just all the better.
