Thursday Bucks Notes

Mo didn't have a good time in Denver. AP Photo/David Zalubowski

• The Bucks take on the Bulls tonight at 7:30 CT in Chicago. Listen to the game free on NBA.com. This game is also supposed to be broadcast in China, so watch this space for live Sopcast streams.
• Bogut is listed as day-to-day with the wrist injury he sustained in Denver on Tuesday, but don't read too much into that. X-rays were negative in Denver but an MRI was done yesterday. Charles Gardner writes:

  Bogut underwent a magnetic resonance imaging exam on Wednesday in Chicago, following the Bucks' practice session at Attack Athletics. He did not practice with the team but shot some free throws and did conditioning work on the side. Results of the MRI were not immediately available, and Bucks general manager Larry Harris said Wednesday night that he expected to have the results today.

• Gardner also writes that Dan Gadzuric practiced after missing the Denver game.

  "He's had a couple dings and bruises," Bucks coach Larry Krystkowiak said of Gadzuric. "He played three or four days with a sore knee but didn't complain about it. But it swelled up on him, and he hasn't been completely healthy."

• Sports Illustrated projects the Bucks to finish 11th in the East, but don't expect them to give much explanation as to why. Their preview is mostly just has a write-up on Andrew Bogut
• SI also has a scout's take on the Bucks. Most of it's very reasonable, but if I were to nitpick I'd have to highlight the part about Mo Williams' defense:

  A lot of teams had interest in Mo Williams last summer. He probably isn't worth all of the money he got [six-year deal worth more than $50 million], but he fills a difficult position and he was one of the better free agents available. He's become more of a scorer than a point guard, a shoot-first, pass-second guy. In the long run, that's another reason why Milwaukee is probably not a playoff team, because he looks to score more than to set up the other guys. But Williams also does a good job of keeping opposing point guards out of the paint from half-court. He's very athletic and strong, and he can guard the ball ...

Saturday Notes

• Charles Gardner scraped together some more quotes from Larry Harris on the Bell situation. LH really wants us to believe the Bucks will be better defensively, though in fairness it'd be hard for the Bucks to be worse defensively than they were in 06/07. It sounds as though the Bucks are placing a high (and perhaps misplaced) value on Desmond Mason's defensive abilities, given the team otherwise really didn't do much to improve its defense. Either that or they think Larry Krystkowiak can simply get them to play much harder than previously.
  

  "He got an offer sheet, and we matched it," Harris said at a news conference at the Cousins Center. "That's the way restricted free agency works.

  "We never devalued what he did as a player. Never equate what we thought his production was by the amount of money we offered him. It's just the way the business is done today.

  "There was another team that said, 'Hey, he's valuable to us.' We always felt we were going to match (an offer). You get into a war of words, and that's not uncommon. It's something we can move forward from."
  

  "We have a lot of versatility," Harris said. "We can score, but now we have some defensive components that we didn't have last year

  I know there's a little skepticism, 'We've heard the story about defense the last three or four years, and are we going to see it?' I truly do believe it; it's not lip service."

• Gardner also reports Yi is scheduled to arrive in Milwaukee October 4th. However, Larry Harris is hoping it might be possible for him to skip the Chinese national team's end of September games in order to arrive in Milwaukee in time for the opening of training camp October 2nd.
• Yi had a quiet, foul-plagued night in the Chinese national team's 93-92 exhibition loss to the Australian Brisbane Bullets yesterday. He scored just 9 points along with three rebounds and two blocks in 24 minutes. Yao Ming had 28 to lead China.
• Marc Stein ranks the Bucks' offseason as the fourth-best in the East.

  Yet you can understand why the Bucks feel victorious no matter what skeptics say. For awhile there, it looked as though they were going to get neither of their top two offseason targets, with Williams threatening to bolt for Miami because the Bucks' initial offer wasn't close to where it ended up ... and with Yi seemingly determined to hold out well into the season in an attempt to force Milwaukee to trade him.

  To have secured both signatures by Sept. 1? A dream double for Milwaukee.

  I think it's been a solid offseason: we re-signed our own key guys, got the best player available at six in the draft, but mostly tread water in free agency, opting to let Patterson, Skinner and Ilyasova go while replacing them with Mason and Voskuhl. Not that I was expecting the Bucks to throw a ton of money at one of the big free agent names, but they could have. Still the biggest plus of the offseason has been the encouraging injury news on Charlie Villanueva and Bobby Simmons, which didn't require any effort from the front office. Alex at Boeder Bucks weighs in as well.
  

Bucks Sign Royal Ivey

Charles Gardner at the JS just broke that the Bucks have signed former Hawks guard Royal Ivey to a one-year deal.

Ivey played in 53 games with the Hawks last season, making 18 starts, and averaged 3.1 points and 1.0 rebounds. He scored 16 points in a late-season game against the Bucks at the Bradley Center.

During the 2005-'06 season, Ivey started 66 times in 73 games played and averaged 3.6 points and 1.3 rebounds. He led all NBA guards in fewest turnovers per 48 minutes (1.1).

"It's a new start for me, a great opportunity," Ivey said.

In other words, the Bucks are probably not going to match the Heat's offer sheet for Charlie Bell. Unlike Dee Brown, the 25-year old Ivey has enough size (6'4" / 215 lbs) to play the 2 in a pinch, though he's more of a 1 and he's not terribly good at that either. Still, Ivey's calling card is his willingness to play defense, something the Bucks would be losing if (read: when) Bell ends up in Miami. So given the defensive limitations of Mo Williams and Lynn Greer, you can see why Ivey might be viewed as a better fit than a player like Dee Brown (who foreshadowed the Bucks' signing in his blog).

While Ivey's not much of an offensive player, he at least seems to know his limitations, as evidenced by his microscopic turnover rates. All of which was enough to earn him the title of "destitute man's Lindsey Hunter," courtesy of John Hollinger. Which might be a compliment to someone in a rec league, but not so much for someone playing in the NBA. I haven't seen enough of Ramon Sessions to speculate whether he has a chance at getting any burn for the Bucks in 07/08, so at this point I'd guess Lynn Greer and Ivey battle it out for backup minutes at the 1.

UPDATE: The full story in the JS has a quote from Larry Harris claiming the signing is unrelated to the Charlie Bell situation, but that seems hard to believe. Even though Bell has played more SG than PG the last two years, the fact that they signed a big, defensive-oriented PG a day after Bell got his offer sheet sure seems a related move, especially given the Bucks wanted Bell to work on his PG skills this summer. While some have pointed out that Ivey's or Sessions' deals could be completely non-guaranteed, my gut is that with everything that's happened this is a signal of the Bucks' intention not to re-sign Bell. Or maybe they're just toying with Charlie's emotions.

"There's no direct correlation at all," Bucks general manager Larry Harris said of Ivey's signing. "We already had planned to do this, regardless of the Charlie Bell situation."

Bell Gone...?

Charles Gardner reports Charlie Bell's days as a Buck are over, though where he's going hasn't been confirmed.

"A lot of frustration has built up throughout the summer," Bartelstein said. "The Bucks are certainly entitled to do what's in the best interest of the franchise.

"He feels the Bucks have sent him a message about how important he is to them. The waters have become poisoned at this point, and he doesn't want to be in Milwaukee any more."

"We're not sure what we're going to do, but he will not sign a contract with the Bucks," Bartelstein said. "Charlie has a lot of pride, and he has to do what's best for him and his family.

"Charlie wants to feel wanted and appreciated, and I don't see any way to repair it at this point."

Bartelstein said he spoke with Bucks general manager Larry Harris and conveyed Bell's feelings.

"There's no ill will," Bartelstein said. "I have great respect for Larry Harris. Each player wants to feel he's important to that organization's success."

There's no ill will? Actually it sounds like there's only ill will, but you can understand that Bartelstein himself doesn't want to embarrass the Bucks too badly in public given how much money he's made off them. Seemingly Bell's only other option would be to take Olympiakos' offer in Greece, though agent Mark Bartelstein's anywhere-but-Milwaukee stance does leave open the possibility of playing elsewhere in the NBA. The only problem with the latter being that the Bucks can match any offer for Bell, and even now I doubt they'd allow Bell to sign elsewhere just because he was angry at their lowball offers.

Still, that shouldn't obscure how big of a blow this would be. While Bell is likely never going to be a starting-caliber player and his statistics are pretty mediocre, his versatility and willingness to defend are going to be very difficult to replace at this point in the summer with only minimum contracts to offer. [ETA: as discussed in the comments, it's the timing which is the biggest problem in my mind. It's one thing for the Bucks to decide at the beginning of the summer they want a different guy, but doing so now leaves them very few options. The Bucks probably didn't think it would come to this, but at the moment Bell doesn't sound like someone who is simply posturing] But instead of giving Bell a reasonable deal, the Bucks appear to have been burned by overestimating their own leverage. You also wonder if this will leave a bad taste in the mouths of the other Bucks, many of whom openly campaigned for Bell's re-signing.

Not everyone will be sad to see Bell go: Lynn Greer, David Noel and even Awvee Storey just saw their chance for real minutes skyrocket given Bell was a critical part of the backcourt rotation. We'll see if the Bucks make a move for a player like Dee Brown, Mike Wilks or even Troy Hudson in the coming days, or whether it's still possible for the Bucks and Bell to kiss and make up (after Yi and Mason, never say never). Either way, it's hard to imagine the Bucks just helped their chances of returning to the postseason.

UPDATE: Charlie Bell's MySpace page no longer has any of his blog posts. Also, in a breakfast meeting with season ticketholders today, Larry Harris supposedly said the Bell situation is not over. Stay tuned...

Wednesday Bucks Notes

• Charles Gardner with details on the ongoing Charlie Bell discussions.

  "We're still talking and a good dialogue is going on," Bucks general manager Larry Harris said on Tuesday. "I would say progress is being made, and hopefully something will be done soon. "We're trying to financially get to a number where we both can be happy."

  Read: a deal will probably get done soon. The Bucks have brought in some free agents to work out, including former Jazz and Illinois PG Dee Brown, but the bottom line is Bell is far more valuable than anyone they can find on the street right now.
  
• Over at the JS Forum there's a thread detailing two conference calls today with Jim Paschke and Larry Krystkowiak. All the details seem fairly reasonable, save for the part about Andrew Bogut being up to 270 pounds and that being a good thing. Last year Bogut showed up supposedly around 255 but he lost a step and didn't carry the added weight particularly well. Over the course of the season he shed some of those pounds and looked a lot more comfortable, once again being able to face up and beat guys off the dribble, especially to his left. A guy like Bogut needs to build core strength more than pure upper body bulk, so if he is heavier hopefully it's because he's strengthened his base. But I'm not sure how likely that is, especially given he was recovering from his foot injury at the beginning of the summer. Still, some good tidbits in there.
• Word is Damir Markota has signed with Spartak St. Petersburg.