If Bucks are offering a five-year, $40 million contract to J.J. Redick, it's news to him

If you've heard the rumor that the Milwaukee Bucks have verbally offered J.J. Redick a five-year, $40 million contract, you're at least a half-step ahead of Redick on the news. On Friday morning, Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times suggested that the Bucks made an offer to Redick that's similar to the deal Ersan Ilyasova signed last summer. About 20 minutes later, he apparently followed up with Redick and received the following response: "That's news to me."

Some NBA officials say the Bucks have verbally made J.J. Redick a 5-yr, $40 offer... Similar to Ilyasova's contract.

— Gery Woelfel (@GeryWoelfel) March 15, 2013

Redick on supposed Bucks offer: "That's news to me."

— Gery Woelfel (@GeryWoelfel) March 15, 2013

Now let's calm down and make sense of this news before somebody says something crazy. Recall that Ilyasova's five-year, $40 million contract actually only had four years and $32 million guaranteed, with $7.9 million as a base salary in each of the first four years and only $400k of the $8.4 million guaranteed in 2016-17. It's been a solid deal so far, despite my initial concerns. But maybe it doesn't matter here.

It could be argued that Woelfel's second tweet was a way to retreat from his initial report, but it could also be argued that Redick is too wise to comment on a potential deal before the ink hits the paper. In other words, I'm not saying J.J. Redick looks like a dark-haired Richie Rich, but I'm also not saying that J.J. Redick doesn't look like a dark-haired Richie Rich. Also keep in mind that Redick isn't eligible for an extension to the three-year, $21 million deal he signed with Orlando back in 2010--only guys whose original deals were for four years or longer can get one of those. So there's no way for the Bucks to officially sign Redick until he becomes an unrestricted free agent in July anyway.

However, if we put aside the specific contract numbers, should it come as a surprise that the Bucks are looking into making Redick rich? Breaking news: the Milwaukee Bucks are interested in signing the guy the they worked hard to acquire at the trade deadline. I'm shocked.

Redick is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, so the Bucks will have to put in a competitive bid if they want him to stay off the open market, where he could possibliy become the subject of a bidding war. For now the numbers don't mean much to me. The team obviously knows more than we do about what may happen with Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis this summer, so if the news on Redick is that they are taking advantage of the extended negotiating window they created through the trade, I'm cool with that. There's no sense in getting worked up about a reported offer that Redick won't even acknowledge, but if they do reach a deal we'll be ready to break it down.

Enjoy the playoff push and carry on with your day. Nothing (much) to see here.