Hammond is a genius

In case you haven't heard, the Bucks have traded Richard Jefferson to the Spurs for Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas and Fabricio Oberto. Their combined age? 108.

Their combined salary that is coming off the books after next year? $11,300,000. Richard Jefferson was due to make 14.2 million this year, so we're already saving 3 million now and 15 million that was due to him the year after. Some folks are already barking about how the Bucks will probably cut one or two of the players they've acquired as well, since their contracts are apparently only partially guaranteed, so we'd end up saving even more cash against the luxury tax this year, but I see that as un-necessary.

Here's what I think the Bucks should do. They can keep any of these 3 players or dump them, who cares really, the only reason they're here is to free up future cap space. I say we pass on both Villanueva and Sessions. Why? They're both mediocre players that are going to get over paid by us or some other team, why put ourselves into another Bobby Simmons type of contract when we can probably get comparable production for much cheaper? Plus there's no way the hairless wonder doesn't go back to dogging it after he gets his contract.

So we just lost RJ and Sessions this year, we might match a CV offer and keep him around one more year, but definitely nothing long term. We would probably draft a PG and have another year of Ridnour starting basketball games for us. Bogut, CV, Mbah a Moute, Redd, Ridnour with Bell, Alexander, and whomever we draft off the bench, plus the nursing home crew and Gadzuric. This team is probably good enough to get 30 wins, so we're gonna have to hope for another injury or two, really. We gotta hope for a shitbomb next year, drop us into a top 3 pick.

After this coming year, if we keep CV for one more year, we're going to be dropping his, Ridnours, and the complete nursing home trio's salary. That's going to be a complete number, minusing Jefferson's contract, Ridnour and CV, of 25 million off the books. Now I'm definitely not saying we're going to get Lebron, or even Melo or Bosh, maybe D-Wade?(ha). But we will have the room and the next year another 25 million comes off with Redd and Gadzuric.

We aren't losing a whole lot of talent, white PG, a probably listless CV after a contract and an unable to defend scoring SG, but we'll clear a cool 50 million off the books in the next two years and if we really bomb next year, which is definitely possible, we'll have a top 3 pick. If we don't get any big name from the 2010 FA class to bite, which I doubt we will, wait it out one more year, bomb again maybe? Back to back top 3 pick opportunities and now we got about 40 million sitting around in cap that we can work with after we evaluate the talent we've drafted onto this team.

I really wanna see what this team looks like in 2-3 years with all these moves. If it's Sessions, Redd, Alexander, CV and Bogut, I'm fucking done with it. If Hammonds uses this money intelligently, we might just have a shot at building something here.

The Morning Dump Vol. 3

- The Brewers playoff chances have fallen to 6.19% by not playing yesterday. No word on whether their chances fell by not firing Neddy yesterday. I have to admit, I got my hopes up. Although he has been brutal, I would have been slightly surprised if the hammer came yesterday. I have fallen short of demanding his head thus far, as he is clearly only part of the problem, but if they don't win 4 of 6 by the end of Sunday I am going to be in full Fire Neddy mode.

- I watched most of the Hornets-Spurs game and was slightly disappointed by the overall game itself. Got pretty good with about 2 minutes left, but the Spurs imposed their will and slowed the game down. Seriously, I might never watch the NBA again (which wouldn't be much less than right now) if the Spurs and Pistons meet in the Finals again.

- I heard the Bucks have a 4.3% chance of getting the number 1 pick tonight at the NBA's Draft Lottery. If they do get it, they will fuck it up somehow and draft Beasley to go with the other 14 SF/PF types they have on their team. And I don't really think Derrick Rose would make me want to watch the Bucks right now. They would need to turn into the Phoenix Suns, which Skiles isn't likely to do.

- I saw Aaron Rodgers on the news last night. He was in some celebrity softball game in GB. His hair is now past his shoulders, and it looks like he hasn't showered in about a month. If he had the 'stache back he would look like he was homeless or a biker. I look for a picture but couldn't find one. Needless to say though, it is ridiculous.

- I bought an Ipod shuffle yesterday because my real Ipod is getting old and malfunctioning when I run with it. It is the size of a postage stamp and fits like 250 songs on it. I am just amazed by it. That being said, I will lose it in the next week.

-Last day on my current job is tomorrow, so as a fair warning, posts are going to be less frequent and at different times starting next week.

CP3 Keeps Me Up at Night

I had the rare opportunity to watch nearly two full NBA playoff games last night. Something that I usually don't have the time or inclination (mostly the latter) to do. The Magic-Pistons game was an accident, but I purposely stayed up past my bedtime to watch the Spurs-Hornets. Chris Paul is a freak. I can't even imagine how fun the Bucks would be to watch if we had him instead of Bogut right now (/smashing my head into a wall). Last night he had 30 points, 12 assists and 1 TO against one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. He generally made the Spurs look foolish. The best way I can describe his play if you haven't watched him, is that he looks like one of the point guards on the original NBA Jam when you use the turbo button and fly past the other guys on the court like they are standing still. He is absolutely playing a different game than everyone else. Really, really fun to watch.