• Check out our summary of 2008 draft prospects and vote for your current favorite.  We'll try to have polls every week or so and keep track of how guys' imaginary stock rises and falls leading up to the draft.
• Sparky Fifer has another good interview with John Hammond over at WSSP, this time focusing on the draft. Hammond didn't sound crazy about Danilo Gallinari when pressed, but then again he also compared him to Tayshaun Prince, which is high praise from Hammond. He also said that the Bucks wouldn't necessarily pass on a player just because they played the same position as Bogut or Yi, which might be significant should a guy like, say, Kevin Love be available.
• Dan Labbe at Cleveland.com is campaigning hard to bring Michael Redd to Cleveland. In response, WaitingForNextYear debates whether the Cavs should go after Redd.  While Cleveland fans might prefer a big-time post-scorer, they're unlikely to find any who are available. That's in contrast to Redd, whom the Bucks have begun to shop in recent weeks. While the number of teams interested in taking on Redd's salary will probably be limited, Cleveland can't offer much more than expiring contracts (Anderson Varejao being the most attractive) and middling draft picks at the moment.  Is Redd really that out of favor?  I'd guess that Dallas, Chicago and Toronto would all be better trade partners at this stage, but none of them are likely to be as interested as Cleveland.
• As noted on BDL, The Dallas Morning News' Tim McMahon reports that while Mark Cuban kind of, sort of defended Josh Howard in a recent radio interview with Dan Patrick, the out-of-favor small forward is still on the block.

  Maybe Howard has said the right things to the Mavs' brass in recent weeks, but he sure didn't sound like he'd learned a lesson the day after the season ended. Cuban, however, insists that the Mavs aren't putting a priority on getting rid of Howard.
  
  "If someone makes me an offer I can't refuse, just like anybody else, you have to consider it," Cuban said.
  
  The hunch here is that the Mavs will work hard to find an offer they can't refuse.

• Chad Ford chatted today and reasserted the availability of Michael Redd, Charlie Villanueva and Mo Williams. Perhaps more intriguingly, he also alluded to the Bucks making an offer for Carmel Anthony.

  There will be lots of interest in Melo ... the Nets obviously have interest. I think the Bucks will too. Knicks for sure. The Nuggets want to cut payroll and obviously get a higher pick in the draft. The Nets have some pieces to make that happen. The Bucks may be in a better position to do it.

  Both Denver and the Bucks would reportedly prefer to lighten their luxury tax load--Denver is already in trouble there, while the Bucks might be close in 2009 if the current roster is maintained. But neither team can help themselves much given neither the Bucks nor Nuggets have expiring deals  (unless Allen Iverson is involved). Then there's the further question of whether the Bucks can put together a package of players and picks compelling enough to make Denver give up on their 23-year old star. Some combination of Redd, Mo Williams, Yi Jianlian, Charlie Villanueva, Ramon Sessions and picks would have to be involved, but whether there's a mutually agreeable combination is another question.
  
  Melo's recent DUI arrest coupled with yet another first-round exit have justifiably raised questions about the validity of his superstar status, but in fairness he's also a 23-year old that has been the best player on a playoff team in each of his five seasons.  He's unquestionably a bigger impact player than Redd, and in a league that revolves around stars, that's important.
• Ersan Ilyasova helped Barcelona surprise DKV Joventut 93-90 in the first game of their best-of-three Spanish semifinals, scoring 16 points and grabbing a season-high 14 for a crucial road win. Check out the video highlights of Ersan here.
• The Big Lead ponders if Michael Beasley could be the next Andrew Bogut.  And like, not in a good way.
• Charles Gardner profiles Wisconsin native and new Bucks' assistant Joe Wolf.

  "To get a call from a guy you have great respect for and have known for a long time, and to get an opportunity with a team in your home state, a team you grew up watching games in the MECCA, it's just a fantastic time in my career," Wolf said on Thursday.

• Tom Enlund reports there's no real news on the assistant coach front.  Still looks like former Bulls assistant/interim coach Jim Boylan , former Indiana coach/telemarketer Kelvin Sampson , former Grizzlies' assistant Lionel Hollins , and D-League coach/Dairy Queen owner Joe Wolf will join development coach/holdover Bill Peterson.
  

  "We’ve come to agreements with everybody," said Hammond. "We just haven’t signed contracts yet. We’re in the process of getting contracts back, basically as we speak. So I would say maybe by tomorrow (it will be done) or if not, then maybe by Monday.

• Chatting over at ESPN, Chad Ford wonders if Dan Fegan may once again try to force Yi Jianlian out of Milwaukee.

  Too early to tell. [Yi] was great at the start of the season and fell off the map in the second half. I wonder if his agent Dan Fegan is going to push for a trade now that John Hammond is on board and the team will be emphasizing toughness. I still think Fegan prefers to get Yi into a market with more Asians.

  This rumor isn't altogether new, but this is the first time I can recall someone in the media saying it.  Unlike Larry Harris, Hammond doesn't seem the type to advertise whom he wants to trade, but his glowing assessment of Yi last month certainly suggests he would prefer to give Yi a second season in Milwaukee.

  "I absolutely love his game," Hammond said. "I think his upside is off the charts. I don't think he's afraid to stick his nose in there. I think he will rebound the basketball. If you ask him to go in the post, I think he will do that. When you have a big guy like that who can go out on the floor and stretch the defense, those guys are invaluable."

  Combine Hammond's apparent admiration with the organization's obvious investment in the Yi brand, and the only remaining concern (aside from Yi actually "becoming good") is whether Scott Skiles is similarly optimistic.  Skiles has plenty of experience with young bigs, having coached Tyson Chandler, Eddy Curry, Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas--albeit with mixed success--in Chicago.  And while Yi clearly has much work to do if he's going to live up to his advanced billing, his willingness to work on both ends should give him every chance to earn Skiles' trust.  With Charlie Villanueva probably on the way out, the interesting part will be watching whether the Bucks bring in any real competition for Yi at the PF spot.
  
• The Bob Boozer Jinx continues to push for a Redd-to-Cleveland trade. 

  I was (and still am) quite serious about the anatomy of the Michael Redd trade to Cleveland. The Cavaliers get Redd; the Bucks get 21-year-old shooting guard Daniel Gibson and the Wally Szczcerbiak contract (one more year at $12 million). Keep it simple, get it done.

  A few posters on realgm came to similar conclusions - Bucks would have to get Gibson or F/C Anderson Varejao or both; Cleveland would require that the Bucks take Wally's contract, no way around it. The Cavs cannot afford to keep both Redd and Wally at shooting guard. The realgm-ers also added to the mix the Cavs #19 pick in the 2008 draft.

  Various flavors of Redd-to-Cleveland have been mentioned for weeks , but here's the latest discussion, which also talks about a Mo Williams deal. All these ideas are complicated by the fact that Gibson isn't even under contract with Cleveland for 08/09 (he'll be a RFA), which means Gibson would have to agree to a new deal as part of a sign/trade when free agency negotiations start in July.  Moreover, Mo and Varejao are BYC until July 1.  So any deal involving Mo, Gibson or Varejao would have to come after the draft.  The Cavs could then still trade the rights to the player they pick, but you almost never see picks traded during the summer after draft night--in large part because a pick is more valuable to a team when they can use it themselves. 
  
• Varejao especially would be an attractive piece since he's an excellent rebounder, solid man defender of both the 4/5 spots, and also one of the better big defenders of the pick/roll.  Given the Bucks' desperate need for team defenders, Varejao would be a solid option as a starting 4 or (if Yi starts) as a top notch backup to both big spots.  Varejao has a player option for 09/10 at $6.2 million, so he's effectively an expiring deal next year for $5.8 million.  Ironically, Dan Fegan also represents Varejao, and I'm sure he'd be thrilled if two of his clients were competing for minutes.  So in a way the least attractive part of acquiring Varejao might be the excuse it provides Fegan to campaign for Yi's departure.  Either way I'd still take Josh Howard/Jerry Stackhouse for Redd every time if possible.
  
• Mo Williams finally had surgery on his thumb this week, an injury he played with for most of the season. In spite of wearing that wrap across his hand, he established career-highs shooting from the field, three point range, and the line (.480/.385/.856).  He's expected to be fine by camp...whether it's in Milwaukee or elsewhere.
• The Bucky Channel continues its Bucks Survivor series.  If you're not voting for Charlie Villanueva this week I don't really know what to tell you.

Now that we've laid out your summer NBA plans , what's a Bucks fan to do in the meantime? Well, aside from the whole "watching good teams play basketball" option and dreaming of Derrick Rose, there's plenty of time to speculate about trade possibilities. Honestly, I'm not usually big on manufacturing trade ideas--it's easy to get caught up in grass-is-greener speculation and 99% of the time there's nothing to it.  And especially during the season there's almost always something "real" going on which deserves more attention.  Plus, I'm lazy.

But while Alex will be talking a bit more about the Bucks' small forward options in the next day, excuse my offseason boredom for a second and humor me as I discuss my favorite fan-inspired trade of the moment: Josh Howard/Jerry Stackhouse for Mike Redd. The prevailing wisdom is that Redd's contract ($51 million over the next three years) mostly precludes the possibility of getting anything aside from draft picks, middling talent, and expiring contracts back, but the Mavericks could represent the perfect trade partner.  They've been thrown into chaos by their stumbling finish and first round playoff exit, they have an owner who doesn't care about the luxury tax, and Howard has taken a flying leap onto the trade block with his playoff no-show and dubious off-the-court antics.  In other words, we just might have the perfect storm needed to trade Redd for something of value.

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