Want another indicator of how badly the Bucks tried to shed salary at the deadline? Al Iannazzone at NorthJersey.com reports that the Nets turned down the Bucks' offer of Luke Ridnour and Joe Alexander for the expiring deals of Stromile Swift and Maurice Ager. The deal would have shaved $8.083 million off the Bucks' 09/10 cap number, likely clearing enough space under the luxury tax threshold to sign both Ramon Sessions and Charlie Villanueva. This only further underscores the cap problems the Bucks are anticipating this summer and that they're ready to admit defeat on a couple fronts. For one, they would have been better served trying to get Joe Smith or another expiring deal instead of Ridnour in the Mo Williams deal. Not that Ridnour has been a disappointment, but they'd much rather keep Sessions and Villanueva than Ridnour and only one of those guys. And it's obvious by now that Scott Skiles and John Hammond haven't seen enough from Alexander to see him as a future impact player--otherwise you wouldn't expect them to be prepared to give him away for cap relief. Considering they passed on guys like Brook Lopez and Marreese Speights in favor of Joe, that's a bitter pill to swallow. Granted, no one predicted last summer that the economic crisis would force the cap/tax to decline next year, but the Bucks appear to be in a relatively worse position than many of their peers.