Monday Bucks Notes

• Dime has a cool interview with Charlie Bell. Nothing new on his contract situation, and from what I've heard the contract numbers they're quoting are wrong--it's $5 million total, not per season, for two years. Either way it's interesting to see Bell's take on his previous adventures in Europe.

  “When I was in Treviso, we were looked at as celebrities, but we weren’t as big as the soccer team there. When I was in Spain and leading the league in scoring, I was really popular there. People would come up to me like, ‘Charlie Bell, you’re the greatest.’ Everybody called me ‘Santo Dios,’ which is like a saint. I was the Michael Jordan of Spain at the time. I’d go downtown and have crowd of kids following me around.

• The Michael Redd Foundation is holding a two-day basketball tournament in Columbus.
• Former Wolves combo guard Troy Hudson claims he's talking to the Spurs and Bucks.

  Point guard Troy Hudson, who received a $10 million contract buyout from the Timberwolves this summer, is talking with the San Antonio Spurs and Milwaukee Bucks but wants his role defined before he'll sign.

  I suppose it's worth putting in a call to Hudson given the ongoing Charlie Bell saga, as Hudson's one of the few experienced guards still left who is available for the minimum. But let's be clear, the Bucks would surely prefer to lock up Bell than settle for the oft-injured Hudson even at the minimum. It's been five years since Hudson's career season (14 ppg/6 apg in 02/03), and at this point the 31-year old might stands a good chance of not even being in the NBA next season. At this stage of his career Hudson is a one-dimensional, shoot-first PG who isn't even very good at shooting anymore.
• Bob Wolfley at the JS adds some logic to the discussion about Yi's minutes. I've always liked Wolfley a lot--he's not a beat guy so he doesn't seem to mind expressing his opinion (good or bad), but he also isn't a columnist who has to slap together a big, contrived column once a week.
  

  If the report is literally the truth - if it was something given to Yi beyond assurances - that's bad precedent.

  But the issue of a guarantee is a moot one given what players taken in Yi's slot have averaged in playing time.

  Over the last 15 seasons, No. 6 draft choices have averaged 28.2 minutes, three minutes over the maximum Kohl allegedly guaranteed. Of those 15 players, only three averaged less than 20 minutes, 11 averaged more than 25 minutes and six of them averaged over 30 minutes.