Bogut's new haircut

It's being called
"the worst haircut in the NBA."

Can you really argue with that?

Chen Haitao is the man with the answers...they just don't match

After yesterday causing many online "pundits" to declare that Bucks had no choice but to trade Yi, the manager of his Chinese team is now backing down from his earlier comments. This is from China Weekly:

When asked "What choice should Yi make if the Bucks insist on no trading?" Chen thought for a moment before answering, "the only way out is negotiation. As for final decision, I really have no answer."

However, Chen suggested the media should not oppose Yi's agent team against the Bucks and denied he's in bad relationship with the Bucks.

"The National Basketball Association is a sort of business where people negotiate on set platform with set rules," Chen said. "There's no opposition between us and we respect each other. "Now it's the phase in which everybody express opinions, not like what some people think."

People should stop jumping to conclusions on this. The Bucks hold ALL the bargaining chips here: Yi wants to play in the NBA, he needs to play next year to get ready for the Olympics, and if he does play in China they continue to hold his rights. The Bucks aren't rushing this.

The soap opera continues

Good thing Chris is on his honeymoon and won't see this for awhile. After a long stretch of good news, we get this new report:

The Milwaukee Bucks' campaign to secure the services of reluctant power forward Yi Jianlian has suffered a blow after the player's Chinese club said it would block his move to the United States.

Yi, taken by Milwaukee with the sixth selection in the NBA draft last month, would "definitely not" play for Milwaukee, Tuesday's Beijing News quoted Guangdong Tigers chief, Chen Haitao, as saying.

"This is not -- as media reports have said -- because Milwaukee, as a city with very few Chinese people, is not good for Yi's commercial development," Chen said.

"Rather we want to find a team suitable for Yi's growth. That's the root of the problem," he added.

I'm not really sure why exactly the Bucks wouldn't be suitable for his growth, and hopefully this is just more posturing. Larry Harris is planning to visit China soon, so stay tuned.

China loves the Bucks!

An Associated Press story says that the majority of Chinese basketball fans want Yi to sign with the Bucks quickly.

"Fegan will hamper Yi's future," former national team coach Qian Chenghai was quoted as saying in Tuesday's edition of the state-run China Daily newspaper. "I don't think Yi refused to join the Bucks, it is Fegan who doesn't want him to join.

"We don't want to see Yi destroy his reputation in the NBA and return to the Chinese Basketball Association. That's horrible," the coach said.

Results of an online poll published in China Daily showed 68 percent of 9,000 respondents want Yi to play for the Bucks.

"Yi, stand up and speak for yourself," China Daily said, citing an article in the Beijing Evening Post. "Don't hesitate anymore and don't let anybody control your life."

David Stern to the rescue?

According to Marty Burns of SI, David Stern may intervene to get the Yi situation resolved.

"The consensus among GMs seemed to be that Yi would end up in Milwaukee since both sides had too much at stake for any other outcome. The NBA has an obvious interest in protecting smaller-market teams from being shunned by draft picks. The Chinese government needs their young star in the NBA so that he's more ready to help his national team compete at the '08 Beijing Olympics."

Watch ee tonight online

NBA.com is webcasting the games (not sure if some are dependant on your location) for FREE here: http://www.nba.com/summerleague2007/scoreboard.jsp Yi is playing later tonight.

SWO UPDATE: Tonight (Saturday) at 6:30, team China vs. the Kings. Last night, ee had 23 points and apparently looked quite good (other than the 7 fouls in the first half (yes 7 fouls)).

Also, if you get a chance, goto espn.com and click on the video stuff on the right. Goto basketball and watch the highlights of the Trailblazers v. Celtics game. Even though the espn anchor makes a terrible call of it, watch as Allen Ray? takes a 20 footer that Oden blocks - at the basket. It's the funniest damn thing. Almost like he was unaware that there is a rule called 'goaltending'.

Yi catching flak in China?

I'm not really familiar with the Chinese sports blogs, but this is a report from a reader of Woelfel's column named Xiao Chen:

Yi will play in Milwaukee. He will create a national outrage in China if he does not. The Chinese media has launched an offensive targeting Yi's agent Dan Fegan as a selfish greedy man and sort of sparing Yi at this moment. But based on fan opinions on sports forums in China, they are all on Milwaukee's side and many
fans have officially announced their resignation as a Yi fan because they think Yi is being an embarrassment for the Chinese people.

Could there be a backlash from the mainland?

Yi can't re-enter the draft next year

Thanks to Henry Abbott for foraging out this bit of info about the Collective Bargaining Agreement: since Yi is currently under contract to a non-NBA team (the Guangdong Tigers), he's already ineligible to go back into next year's draft. He'd have to spend a year without the Tigers contract first, and it's too late to do that for next year.

So, if he doesn't want to play in Milwaukee they can hold out until the 2009 draft. Would he be willing to do the same?

Leverage

From Rotoworld:

"Though the final result of the negotiations and communications are uncertain, I can guarantee that whatever the outcome is, it could not be so bad that Yi will be back to play in the CBA (Chinese Basketball Association)," said Liu HongJiang, deputy general manager of the Guangdong Hongyuan Basketball Club.

Update: Liu HongJiang has been relieved of his duties as PR director for the Guangdong Hongyuan Basketball Club.

You've got to love Larry Harris

Some great LH quotes this morning.

From Charles Gardner's story in the JS:

"He's our property. He put his name in the draft and we took him. So we certainly plan on him being here and being in uniform next year."

From Gery Woelfel's article:

While some observers feel the Bucks are taking a major gamble on Yi, Krystkowiak strongly disagreed. “You tell me which player we should have drafted who wasn’t a gamble,” Krystkowiak said. “And then, I’ll be in agreement. This whole deal is a gamble. “I’ve been watching past drafts and all the experts talking about ‘can’t miss’ prospects who are now unemployed and all these mistakes who end up being great players. “So, it’s not a gamble in that we just flipped a coin and made a decision. We had a staff of people for months traveling to Asia and all over the place. We made what was an educated guess on what was available to us.“I think he has a tremendous upside.”

Jack McCallum on Yi

From Sports Illustrated:

He [Yi] looked shocked and saddened. He said he didn't know much about the Bucks because he hadn't seen a lot of them on television in Chinca. He said the Bucks hadn't even worked him out. Well, this isn't college. The NBA knows about you; there aren't a lot of secrets here. Teams don't have to come to your house, talk to your mother and father and ask you what you want to major in. He was the best player available, and the Bucks looked at it like a fortuitous thing that he was still there. They want to keep him.

In my mind the Bucks were the underachieving team of the NBA last season. I think they have a lot of talent. I really like their team, especially if they can re-sign point guard Mo Williams. Whether they're going to better, I don't know. But I just think he's going to a better team than he thinks he is.

It's the shoes

Chris Sheridan's chat today included an interesting bit of info on part of the reason why Yi's camp wanted him in a large market:

One aspect of the story that I feel may be impacting the whole Yi thing more than people realize thus far is the wishes of Nike, which has Yi under a shoe contract for several more years and pushes him as hard in Asia as they push LeBron over here. They wanted him in a big market as much as the Chinese Federation did.

The results keep rolling in

Two new mocks today, SI and Bill Simmons. You've gotta check out Simmons', including his ridiculously complex 3-way trade for the Bulls to get Kobe.


The Bucks now have the momentum: 3 straight projections of Brandan Wright slipping right into their hands. Here's Simmons:

6. Milwaukee Bucks
Here's the Eastern team that could make a quantum leap next season: The Bucks only have to re-sign Mo Williams, get Bobby Simmons healthy and use this sixth pick on Brandan Wright and they're good to go. Stick those three with Charlie Villanueva, Andrew Bogut and Michael Redd and that's a pretty sweet nucleus on paper, although they definitely need to sign a crazy Australian 12th man who calls everyone "Mate" and gives Bogut someone to drink with. I'm not a huge Wright fan, but he's a shifty inside scorer with deceivingly long arms (well, when he's trying) and the Bucks desperately need inside scoring, as well as someone who won't make Villanueva feel so bad for mailing in every fourth game. Also, Wright is so damned long that Jay Bilas might start flogging himself in delight during the draft. Man, is Brandan Wright long. That is one long dude.

The VP's verdict: Take Wright, re-sign Williams and pursue Gasol for Bogut and a 2008 No. 1.

Could the guy who's been the consensus #3 for months suddenly fall into their laps at 6? Wow. This draft is getting more and more interesting with each day.

And how about the idea of Bogut and next year's #1 for Gasol? With that team (Gasol, Redd, Wright, Mo, etc.) the pick shouldn't be worth all that much.

Why the Bucks will take Conley

Again, who am I to judge who has the most talent among the top draft prospects? What I can judge, however, is which prospect is the most boring. Barring someone like Jeff Green, the pick that most depresses me is Conley, only in that it doesn't do much to progress the team.

So why do I get the feeling that he's the guy? It's the scenario that best fits if Herb is thinking about selling. It's the best pick for keeping the bottom line as low as possible. They won't catch any flack for not re-signing Mo, because Conley will be their PG of the future. So they get a bargain exchange.

I could be wrong, and this could be a setup for taking that same money and paying Gerald Wallace (a player who Charlotte won't be letting go, but why not dream?), but they don't give the appearance of a franchise about to make a big push.

Does it matter? If the Bulls could actually pull off a trade for Kobe, I might be able to put aside my hatred for all things Skiles.

Mike Conley

Chad Ford's new mock draft (Insider) has Atlanta selecting Brandan Wright, bucking the conventional wisdom that they need to take the best PG since they passed the past 2 years (missing out on both Chris Paul and Deron Williams). This leaves the Bucks as the logical place for Mike Conley.

I'm not going to comment on how good Conley may be, since that's all speculation. But I think that in the short run this would be among the least advantageous results. If they pick a PG they obviously let Mo leave in free agency. So how much do their playoff chances go up from last year? Trading a proven, yet non-traditional, PG for a rookie, how much does it improve the team? It's doubtful this will help their defense, which is the biggest need.

This is the dark results of their lottery luck. Instead of having their pick of the bigs, especially Brandon Wright and Tito Jr., they now will likely be picking from the riskier selections. In Ford's projection, I prefer a player like Noah who's been devalued but could be a major sleeper. He provides the type of defensive specialist who could improve the team immediately off the bench.

Then again, the workouts haven't even started. I'm sure there'll be some major shuffling in the coming weeks.

Dave Babcock on pick #6

J/S has an audio interview with Bucks Director of Player Personnel Dave Babcock. He says that he sees Brandon Wright as the 3rd best player in the draft. When asked about Yi, he compared him to Tony Kukoc, and expected him to go anywhere from 3-8. He doubted, however, that he would last to 6. He also included Noah in the group with Horford and Wright. Not one mention of Conley. (I don't know who the interviewer is, but he sure does like to repeat what Babcock says. It'll drive you crazy now that you're listening for it.)

Speaking of crazy, it's insane how much variation there is between projections on the top 10 picks. It's impossible to get any real idea of who might be there at 6 at this time. I guess it's fun, but I'd be happier if the Bucks were back at 3 and could make the decision themselves instead of having it forced upon them.

My Fearless Lottery Projection

While they all have opinions, none of the NBA "experts" have the guts to make the ultimate projection: how will the lottery balls fall tomorrow night? I don't understand -- they have no problem making projections about other events that they have just as much chance of predicting correctly.

Well, I'm not chicken. Here's how I see the lottery order ending up:

1. Milwaukee Bucks - you have to go by history here. The last time Larry Harris was in this position he scored, and had much greater odds against him.
   Greg Oden + Michael Redd? GO MILWAUKEE BUCKEYES!!
   


2. Memphis Grizzlies - sometimes you have to go with the safe choice, so I'll stick with the numbers here.
   


3. Charlotte Bobcats - you've got to expect one longshot, and who can deny Michael Jordan? My earlier projection had Atlanta landing here, but that shuts Phoenix out of the lottery. I just can't do that to them after they gave me so much the past few weeks. Message to Suns: draft Corey Brewer!

Remember, you read it here first.

BTW, Sam Smith has a great article about Oden supposedly demanding that the team that drafts him must also somehow acquire Mike Conley! This would be a simple matter if the Hawks happen to land #1, since they also would have #11, but other teams would be in a bind.

The Bucks might be in a good position for this, however. They could trade Bogut for a top ten pick, and then allow Mo to go in free agency. That's crazy talk, but interesting to think about. Read Mr. Smith's wisdom here:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/basketball/bulls/cs-070520smith,1,15197.column?coll=chi-sportstop-hed

[Editor's Note: Not even Doc has the balls to make a lottery projection - you are fearless Scott]

Ruben Patterson

From JSOnline.com:

A misdemeanor warrant was issued earlier this week after he failed to register as a convicted sex offender when he moved into a new house in the Cincinnati suburb of Indian Hill.

Patterson, who surrendered late Tuesday, was ordered to make a future court appearance. He faces a misdemeanor complaint that carries a possible six-month jail term.

Ohio law enforcement officials became aware of Patterson's failure to register in that state after a complaint about a party at his house on May 5, authorities said.

A certified letter was sent to Patterson's house on May 8, according to published reports, and when he did not respond within the required five days, a warrant was issued for his arrest.

In November of last year, Patterson purchased a $3.4 million house in Hamilton County but failed to register his new address with the sheriff's department.

Patterson is required to register under Ohio law, due to a sentencing in May 2001 in the state of Washington.

Ouch for Patterson. However, is it possible this is good for the Bucks?

Here is my thought process: When the Bucks got Patterson, they knew he was a sex offender. He stayed clean while he was a Buck. Failing to register as a sex offender, in my opinion, does not make one a trouble maker (that might be the leap that is too far for some, but...). He is an unrestricted free agent. This may cause him to get less offers or to have the offers go down, leaving him more of a chance of returning to the Bucks for a reasonable sum of money. I think this is a good thing because he was very good last year and is exactly the kind of tough player the team needs.