Thursday Bucks Notes

Charles Gardner reports Mo Williams is still undecided. Gardner reports Mo is leaning towards a four or five year deal with the Bucks, while Marc Stein said in Chad Ford's podcast yesterday that he was leaning towards Miami. The latest rumor is that the Bucks bumped up their offer slightly to between $40-45 million.

I had guessed that would be the offer a while ago, but figured they wouldn't try to play hardball once the Mo-to-Miami rumors picked up steam. I think the longer this stretches out the better it is for the Bucks' chances of bringing Mo back. If he really wanted to take less to go to Miami he could have already done that, as their offer isn't changing, and I really doubt the Bucks and Heat can work out a sign-and-trade. It would be something of a PR disaster to lose Mo even if he's not the perfect fit for the team. To keep their cap space the Bucks cannot publicly announce the terms of the deal, though they could say that a deal had been reached and then hope Mark Bartelstein doesn't leak the terms. In all likelihood it won't matter given the major free agents are now off the market.

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The Bucks' summer league team took down the Durant-less Sonics 92-85, as Lynn Greer went off for 19 and 8 assists and Noel Felix had 27. Felix is a 6'9", 225 lb PF who had a cup of coffee with the Sonics two years ago and is known more for his defensive abilities. He played with Maccabi Tel Aviv last year. And I'd be remiss if I didn't note that the Damir Markota Experience chipped in 14 points on a very tidy 5-6 shooting.

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Yi Jianlian struggled again in China's 80-52 loss to the Celtics. He was just 1-5 from the field with 7 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks. He's shown enough flashes of his offensive potential that I'm not all that concerned with his struggles from the field. The Chinese guards are horrendous so he's rarely getting the ball in good position, and when he does his shot's just not falling. The main thing I've been concerned with is his lack of tenacity on the glass, which has been true of the Chinese team as a whole. They really don't fight for rebounds and frequently get the ball torn out of their hands. I have been very pleased with Yi's ability to challenge shots above the rim--he's had a number of terrific blocks. Which is nice given we had no one who did that last year.