2/22 pregame sponser party at BC

[jeremyd236]

1. Ignorance of Ersan? Because what, he's tearing up the Euro league? Look I'm not denying his potential, but I'm not going to fret about keeping RJ because we could lose Ersan. He's the least of my worries.

2. You don't get the whole pick thing do you? By trading RJ for "nothing" there's no chance in hell we could have made the playoffs, thereby GOING UP 2-3 spots. Do you get that?

Besides, that's not the point. The point is whoever we get at the middle of this crap draft won't be worth it, at least to me, of not making the playoffs. I want to see a playoff game at the BC more then I want to see us get another lottery pick.

CV is the argument for trading RJ, that's just my point. Just not buying the whole Ersan/pick thing.

[Ayt]

Do you understand that basically it was keep RJ and have no 1st rounder versus trading RJ and having our 1st? It was never about trading RJ so we could move up a couple spots in the draft. It was about having a 1st rounder period, because we can't afford to pay the salary of our pick right now.

If you think picks in the mid teens have no value, RJ himself was the 13th pick in one of the worst drafts ever. Good players are available in the middle of the 1st in every draft.

[blueedwards]

A cheap move we could make is deal this years first and move down to a very low first round slot with Thunder and get one of the number 25 or 26 slot and swap second rounders. There might be a few dollars saved. Or give them a player in the deal to. Or trade this years pick for a future pick. Save some money this year.

[itstheiryear]

1. Ignorance of Ersan? Because what, he's tearing up the Euro league? Look I'm not denying his potential, but I'm not going to fret about keeping RJ because we could lose Ersan. He's the least of my worries.

2. You don't get the whole pick thing do you? By trading RJ for "nothing" there's no chance in hell we could have made the playoffs, thereby GOING UP 2-3 spots. Do you get that?

Besides, that's not the point. The point is whoever we get at the middle of this crap draft won't be worth it, at least to me, of not making the playoffs. I want to see a playoff game at the BC more then I want to see us get another lottery pick.

CV is the argument for trading RJ, that's just my point. Just not buying the whole Ersan/pick thing.

What they mean is that we won't have enough money to pay our first round pick, and thus will either have to sell it or trade it. It has nothing to do with draft order.

[GrandAdmiralDan]

we definately will keep Sessions and hopefully we can find a way to also keep C.V.

That information has already been shared with this board of course, but I'm glad Hammond has now said this in a public setting.

As I've said, Sessions will be retained. No need to worry about that. It's not THAT hard to make that happen without breaking the lux tax threshold. Villanueva is another story...

[drew881]

I was thinking the following idea. If we make no moves or small moves in the offseason, we limit ourselves to signing CV and Sessions to MLE deals (I'm seeing this as a positive if done correctly).

If we did trade RJ, we would have had money to sign one to a larger deal beyond the MLE that they possibly weren't worth (another Gadzuric contract at 7-8 mil).

Here is what I am thinking. The current situation is bad of course because we would have to pay the tax to sign both players, but on the other hand, it limits the players from signing large deals with us (they can't hold out and say you have more cap room). Assuming other teams with cap room like Memphis don't offer big time deals, the Bucks can claim they have X amount of money and can try to sign CV and Sessions to fair deals that could end up being bargains down the road.

This is possibly wishful thinking, but given the market and lack of teams wanting to throw up money in this years FA (waiting for next), we could obtain both at reasonable contracts if we are willing to pay some tax this year. Perhaps Hammond could sell that in the long term, Kohl saves money.

[Bernman]

Do you understand that basically it was keep RJ and have no 1st rounder versus trading RJ and having our 1st? It was never about trading RJ so we could move up a couple spots in the draft. It was about having a 1st rounder period, because we can't afford to pay the salary of our pick right now.

If you think picks in the mid teens have no value, RJ himself was the 13th pick in one of the worst drafts ever. Good players are available in the middle of the 1st in every draft.

I agree with the main point you were making, but to call the 2001 draft one of the worst ever in order to make it stronger was unnecessary.

2001 produced: Pau Gasol, Joe Johnson, Tony Parker, Gilbert Arenas, Jason Richardson, Gerald Wallace, RJ, Shane Battier, Mehmet Okur, Sam Dalembert, Zach Randolph, Troy Murphy, Jamaal Tinsley, Brendan Haywood, Vladster, Tyson Chandler, Bobby Simmons, Eddy Curry, etc.

Maybe no superstars, but it was pretty deep. 7 all-stars to borderline all-stars in the group and a bunch of starters.

If 2001 was one of the worst drafts ever, what was 2000? Michael Redd, Hedo, K-Mart, Jamaal Magloire, Mike Miller, Jamal Crawford, Mo Peterson, Joel Przybilla, Quentin Richardson, Desmond Mason, DeShawn Stevenson, Speedy Claxton, Stromile Swift, Darius Miles, Keyon Dooling, Chris Mihm, Brian Cardinal, Eddie House

1 borderline all-star in Redd, and how many of those players were even legit starters at their best? 8-9?

Now THAT'S an example of a crappy draft.

But to further your main point even that draft had a solid run of decent picks in the middle rounds- 16-21: Hedo, Cowboy, Q, Magloire, Speedy, Mo Pete

Arguably Hedo (non-arguable), Mo Pete, Magloire, and maybe more would have greater real value to the Bucks in their current situation than RJ. RJ only has 2 years left on his contract, during which, the Bucks have no remotely realistic hope of contending. Hypothetically the 3 draftees would be on contract for about 3-4 times longer (if we desired), which would carry them into seasons at which point we potentially could be contending.

To just dump 1 pick, let alone 2, for RJ's sake, would be seriously damaging, and worthy of major criticism for Hammond, IMO.

[Ayt]

You are right, Bern. I had the 2000 draft and the 2001 draft mixed up in my mind. All in all, 2001 was solid. 2000 was horrendous.

[thakfu]

My god that 2000 draft list plays like the Milwaukee Bucks "All-Decade 2000's Team"

Which is sad on so many levels.