Life as a middling, small-market franchise in the NBA can be strange sometimes. Twenty-four-year-old forward Ersan Ilyasova put together a stunningly efficient and effective career-year during 2011-12 that would normally inspire unbridled enthusiasm and elation among the fan base, but in this case it really didn't. There is a good reason why, too. Without a superstar in sight and just two winning seasons in the past 11, the Milwaukee Bucks can't afford to make any mistakes if they hope to rise out of this rut.

That's why the timing of Ilyasova's sudden surge is a cruel joke for Bucks fans. In the odd tradition of other professional athletes around the world and throughout the FA ages, Ersan somehow managed to set career-highs in multiple categories during a "contract year." I refuse to cast doubt on his effort and motivation during any previous campaigns with the Bucks -- and for anyone to do so would be overly cynical and undeniably unfair to a young, developing player -- but the franchise is left to deal with the clear fact that Ilyasova executed his role as a spot-up shooter and garbage man far better during the last 28 of the season than he has in the other 241 games of his four-year NBA career.

Is the latest 28-game sample an appropriate justification for a contract that could push upwards of $8 million annually? There is an easy narrative here. You can expect to hear it for several months, and it goes something like this: "Ersan Ilyasova is a young NBA role player that finally hit is stride and there's nowhere to go from here but up! He's entering his prime, and if you just extrapolate the trend set in 2011-12 it's clear he's on his way to becoming a productive full-time starter and possible all-star."

In an unrestricted free agent market where talent goes to the highest bidder, that narrative will carry weight. Somebody is going to pay a fairly steep price ($7-9M annually) for Ilyasova. His interview with Stephen Brotherston of HoopsWorld back in February is evidence enough that the Bucks certainly won't be getting a discount:

"When I look at it I have to remember that it's a business," said Ilyasova. "Some teams overseas wanted to buyout my contract but I wanted to finish this season in the NBA. This is where I want to be right now, but we will see what happens in the future. Financially, whoever pays me more will be the team that I decide to sign with."

Let's examine where that leaves a team like the Milwaukee Bucks, and then discuss how high they should be willing to go when the bidding starts.

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On Friday morning, Milwaukee Bucks owner Sen. Herb Kohl and general manager John Hammond addressed media at the team's training center in St. Francis regarding a number of compelling issues.

Topics of conversation ranged from the contract status of head coach Scott Skiles, to a potential contract extension for Brandon Jennings, to the quest for a "quality big man," to the need for a new basketball arena in the near future. In other words, pretty much everything was on the table, leaving fans plenty of material to work through as we enter what could be another very busy summer.

On the other side of the jump I've assembled a brief summary of the most important points, and all the most relevant quotes. Moreover, we have the full 55 minutes of video and audio for you to check out for yourself. Let's get to it...

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The Orlando Magic scheduled a press conference 1:30 pm EST today. As CBSSports's Matt Moore puts it, this time of year press conferences typically mean "a coach hiring, a coach firing, or an award." For the Magic, it's the third option, as Brian Schmidt of the Orlando Sentinel reports that Magic PF Ryan Anderson will be named the NBA's Most Improved Player for the 2011-2012 season.

In kind and simple terms, this is totally bogus.

From last season, Ryan Anderson improved his scoring by 5.5 points and his rebounding by 2.2. Ersan's scoring improved 3.3 points and he grabbed 2.8 more rebounds. The difference? I've used Anderson's per-game numbers and Ersan's numbers per-36 minutes. Because you know what stat Ryan Anderson improved the most in?

Minutes per game.

Ersan was robbed.

Update: Ersan Ilyasova finished second in voting. The final tally for the award breaks down as follows, according to NBA.com (first-place votes in parentheses): Ryan Anderson - 260 points (33), Ersan Ilyasova - 159 points (21), Nikola Pekovic - 104 points (10).

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Are you one of those Milwaukee Bucks fans that is secretly wishing the team would have made the 2012 NBA Playoffs now that the Chicago Bulls lost star point guard Derrick Rose to an ACL tear? If so, Steve von Horn has something to say to you right off the bat in this edition of the Brew Hoop podcast. Frank Madden and Steve discuss the parallel universe where the Bucks would have been the No. 8 seed, but the real analysis goes far beyond that basic hypothetical. From how the harsher, gone fishin' reality has shaped the offseason plans of John Hammond and company to where things went wrong and how to make them better, this podcast touches on a bit of everything before we go deeper on each aspect throughout the summer.

Frank had to deal with some bandwidth issues at his hotel in California, so the voice quality is a bit more variable than you might be used to, but his analysis is as clear as ever so don't be too concerned. As always, you can listen or subscribe on iTunes, click here to Listen to this episode on your smartphone or listen on your computer by using the flash player below:

A busy few days in Bucks Land. After much speculation as to the fate of head coach Scott Skiles, many of us caught wind of some substantial rumors suggesting Skiles would be moving on to new things. Discussion quickly shifted to a combination of reflection on his time here, plus ideas on who could be next. Then, suddenly, "official" news broke. Skiles was coming back. Chaos ensued.

BUT OF COURSE, we'll have plenty of time to discuss that story later! For now, we're continuing to turn our eyes towards the brighter days of the Milwaukee Bucks' 2011-2012 season, highlighting players whose performances stood out among the rest.

We've already covered Newcomer of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, and Sixth Man of the Year, with the Brew Hoop staff making their cases and readers chiming in via votes and comments.

Today we're looking at Milwaukee's Most Improved Player. Lots of guys made strides this season, even if that individual progress was belied by the team's failure to reach the playoffs. As always, cast your vote for the award after the jump!

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According to a tweet from Charles Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Scott Skiles will return as the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks for the 2012-2013 season. Skiles met this week with team owner Herb Kohl to discuss his future with the organization, and was expected by many to reach a buyout agreement with the team to leave his position as head coach. Instead, Skiles confirmed to the Journal-Sentinel today that he will remain with the team for the final year of his contract, which will pay him roughly $5 million. Gardner reports:

"We want to hit the ground running," Skiles said. "With a full camp and a full season we have reason to be optimistic."

This comes as a bit of a surprise given the rumors that had been swirling over the situation. ESPN's Chris Broussard had suggested last week that Skiles himself was frustrated in Milwaukee and wished to arrange buyout. Two of Milwaukee's prominent players--Brandon Jennings and Mike Dunleavy--voiced their support for the coach just days ago.

Assuming Skiles is back, the obvious follow-up question is for how long. With just a year remaining on his deal, Skiles' credibility won't be helped by his lame duck status and there's been no word yet from the organization on what happens next.

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We're turning our eyes to the bright spots from an otherwise gloomy season. It's easy to get wrapped up in the bad news--there was plenty of it. But we'll have more than enough time to discuss all that over the summer.

To keep hope alive, we're handing out player awards to the most deserving candidates from this season's team. Despite underachieving as a whole, many of the Bucks' prominent players made significant progress this year, and there were performances deserving of praise.

We've already covered a few major awards. Reader voting favored Mike Dunleavy or Monta Ellis as Newcomer of the Year, while the staff made cases for Stephen Jackson (no, really!) and Ersan Ilyasova (Frank was confused).

Defensive Player of the Year was a three-man race in the voting, with Luc Mbah a Moute, Larry Sanders, and Andrew Bogut all garnering support despite limited playing time.

Today we're laying out our cases for Sixth Man of the Year. The Bucks' bench was one of the team's relative strengths, so there should be plenty to choose from. Yet I imagine this one might be easiest of all to predict...

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JS: Bucks look to add size
After telling reporters late last week that he "expects" to be back for the coming season, John Hammond began this week talking about the Bucks' roster concerns, a list that begins with getting bigger. It's an obvious issue for a team that traded away its franchise big man two months ago, though the reality is that the Bucks also chose not to sign a legitimate backup center each of the past two offseasons, instead pinning their hopes on the wobbly ankle, elbow and back of Andrew Bogut.

We all know how that worked out.

But with Bogut now out of the picture, the need for additional size and athleticism is all the more pressing, especially after watching the Bucks consistently punished down low by teams such as the Pacers, Bulls and Thunder. After rebounding well on the defensive end the prior two seasons with Bogut, the Bucks crashed to 29th in defensive rebound rate this season and their overall defensive efficiency (16th overall this year) plummeted along with it.

So how exactly do the Bucks get a legitimate inside presence?

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