<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Charlie Bell still has hopes of playing in the National Basketball Association this season but he no longer wants to play for the Milwaukee Bucks.</p> That was the word Thursday night from Bell's Chicago-based agent, Mark Bartelstein.</p> The 6-foot-3 Bell and the Bucks have reached an impasse on negotiations for a multiyear contract, and with the start of training camp approaching in less than three weeks, the restricted free agent is ready to move on to a European club or another NBA team.</p> "A lot of frustration has built up throughout the summer," Bartelstein said. "The Bucks are certainly entitled to do what's in the best interest of the franchise.</p> "He feels the Bucks have sent him a message about how important he is to them. The waters have become poisoned at this point, and he doesn't want to be in Milwaukee any more."</p> Bell recently visited Greece and received a substantial contract offer from Olympiakos, one of the top clubs in Europe. Bartelstein said a number of NBA teams were interested in Bell, although the Bucks retain the right to match any offer sheet he will receive.</p> The Bucks are thought to have offered $3 million per year in a multiyear deal.</p> Bartelstein declined to discuss contract figures but said "we believe our (request) was extremely fair."</p> Bucks officials were unavailable for comment Thursday night.</p> Bell was the only Bucks player to appear in all 82 games last season, and he made 64 starts while playing a valuable role in the backcourt.</p> The former Michigan State star played at both guard spots and averaged 13.5 points and 3.0 assists in 34.7 minutes per game.</p> "Charlie Bell exudes professionalism and class," Bartelstein said.</p> Other NBA restricted free agents who remain unsigned include Golden State's Mickael Pietrus and Cleveland's Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao.</p> "We're not sure what we're going to do, but he will not sign a contract with the Bucks," Bartelstein said. "Charlie has a lot of pride, and he has to do what's best for him and his family.</p> "Charlie wants to feel wanted and appreciated, and I don't see any way to repair it at this point."</div></p> Source: JS Online</p> </p>
So Bell wants more than 3 million per and is a restricted FA. Looks like the only way he is going to another NBA team is in an S&T.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan)</div><div class='quotemain'>So Bell wants more than 3 million per and is a restricted FA. Looks like the only way he is going to another NBA team is in an S&T.</div> </p> S&T to the nets? (took me 5 minutes to find that smiley)</p> i wouldn't mind seeing him on the nuggets. that'd be pretty cool, he could probably help them out.</p>
http://bucksfans.blogspot.com/2007/09/char...space-page.html</p> </p> A RealGM poster found Charlie Bell's MySpace page, and it's got some interesting entries suggesting a decision about Bell's future should come in the next day or so. First off, you immediately wonder whether it's real or not, but judging by the massive amount of effort that's gone into it (785 friends, all the personal pictures) and the fact that other NBA players have MySpace pages as well, I'd guess it's legit. Either that or someone has been expending massive amounts of time trying to make people think they're a rather random NBA player on the internet. Anyway, he posted a couple entries in his blog yesterday that are worth looking at. The first one about visiting Greek club Olympiakos: <span style="font-style: italic"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic">I have a very difficult decision to make today. Olympiakos is easily the best team in Europe and the fans are the best. The city is beautiful and you have the best owner in all of Europe. Thank you Olympiakos fans for all the support and emails. I know I will be happy if I choose to come to your team. If I don't, It would only be because my opportunities right now are better here in the United States. If I choose Olympiakos, it will be because the Bucks are mistreating me, and at Olympiakos we can win a championship this year. No matter what, if I do come back to Europe to play this year, or any year after, it will be with Olympiakos, as long as they will have me. I will talk with my family and friends tonight for one last time, and I will decide. Thank you again!!</span> </blockquote>The second one is also from yesterday, claiming the Bucks gave him an ultimatum. <blockquote><span style="font-style: italic">The Bucks gave me an ultimatum today to either take the deal that they are offering me with absolutely no negotiating any parts of it, or they will sign another player immediately. They gave me 24 hours. I don't know what to do because it is not a fair offer in my opinion, but time is ticking... gotta make a decision. I'll be praying for an answer.</span></blockquote>Sounds like Bell is rather displeased with the way the Bucks' negotiations are going, and isn't too thrilled with the idea of taking the Bucks' reported three-year $9 million offer. Which you can understand given<span style="font-style: italic"> </span>the deals that players like Jason Kapono (five years, $30 million) and Matt Carroll (six years, $27 million)<span style="font-style: italic"> </span>got this offseason. And certainly the fact that the Bucks dished out fairly generous new deals to Mo Williams, Desmond Mason and Jake Voskuhl probably doesn't make Bell feel any better either. <span style="font-style: italic">UPDATE: Over in that same RealGM thread it was noted that Bell put up another post a couple hours ago saying that he was willing to take the Bucks' offer IF they made the final year a player option, but that the Bucks had even refused that. The whole post is in the link above, but it is now gone from his blog. So you wonder if the Bucks might have relented, or if there's some other wrinkle in the negotiations; either way he decided to delete it. Certainly by the sound of it Charlie is not at all pleased with the Bucks' hardball stance. It's also worth noting that Larry Harris supposedly said yesterday on the radio they had given Bell a revised offer, but I'm not sure what that might be--more than three years, $9 million? If a player option is all it's coming down to then there's little reason to haggle any longer. If the Bucks can get Bell for $3-4 million per season for two seasons they've done pretty well for themselves, and at that point the contracts of Lynn Greer and Ramon Sessions will also be expiring, so they could pick from that group who to retain and who to let go. Bell's not a youngster, so locking him up long term isn't as important as assuring that he's around for the near future. And as of now it would be a big blow to replace Bell with a veteran off the street like Dee Brown, Scoonie Penn or Mike Wilks (all of whom worked out recently for the Bucks).</span> </p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan)</div><div class='quotemain'><span style="font-style: italic">And as of now it would be a big blow to replace Bell with a veteran off the street like Dee Brown, Scoonie Penn or Mike Wilks (all of whom worked out recently for the Bucks).</span> </p></div> </p> those three would be a huge downgrade for the bucks. they should just give up, and sign him for 2 years + a player option. Bell's too good to just let go. </p>
Mike Wilks would be the best option of the three, but I'm also amazed the way Milwaukee is handling Charlie Bell. He played well on both sides of the ball for them last season, and showed improvement as the season progressed. I thought he'd be one of their priorities to re-sign over the summer. A lot of teams could benefit from Bell on their roster. Miami or Cleveland should try to pry him away, I think they both still have the MLE available.
I look at it this way. I expect players to try to get every dollar they can from teams and I expect teams to try to pay their players as little as possible.</p> In this case, the Bucks held all the cards. Sure, they'd pay Bell MLE money if another team offered it for them to match, but they weren't going to offer it to him directly. </p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan)</div><div class='quotemain'> I look at it this way. I expect players to try to get every dollar they can from teams and I expect teams to try to pay their players as little as possible.</p> In this case, the Bucks held all the cards. Sure, they'd pay Bell MLE money if another team offered it for them to match, but they weren't going to offer it to him directly. </p></div> Bell's agent needs to get his client an offer sheet signed for the terms Bell is looking for and then put the pressure on Milwaukee to match it. </p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (shapecity)</div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan)</div><div class='quotemain'> I look at it this way. I expect players to try to get every dollar they can from teams and I expect teams to try to pay their players as little as possible.</p> In this case, the Bucks held all the cards. Sure, they'd pay Bell MLE money if another team offered it for them to match, but they weren't going to offer it to him directly. </p></div> Bell's agent needs to get his client an offer sheet signed for the terms Bell is looking for and then put the pressure on Milwaukee to match it. </p> </div> My understanding (based upon a source) is that teams were told by Bell's agent that they'd have to offer the full MLE in order for the Bucks to even think about not matching and that Bell wouldn't sign an offer sheet for a contract starting at 3 million. This was at the beginning of FA.</p> I don't see any team willing to tie up their MLE for a week while the Bucks take their time and then match the offer. Even if Bell is pissed at the Bucks, matching any offer still gets them value because he is a tradable commodity. Plus, if Bell decides to Jim Jackson it and not report, it doesn't cost the Bucks any money.</p>
Sounds like Bell needs a new agent because he's put his client in a bad situation. I understand it's his job to get Bell the most money, but talk about overplaying your hand. No GM is going to take the threat of Bell asking for the MLE to even consider leaving Milwaukee seriously. Especially in a guard heavy free agent class and also a fair amount of quality guards in this year's draft.</p> I don't see any team paying him the entire MLE either because at the end of the day Bell is just a role player. He's probably worth $2.5 to $3.5M at most at this point in his career. The Bucks offer is fair at $3M per season, but I can't blame Bell for wanting an option year.</p> If anything Bartlestein owes them a favor after the contract he got for Bobby Simmons.</p>
Bell is capable of starting and he is arguably as good as Mo Williams. He is "worth" the MLE, especially in a poor free agent market like this one. His agent really did not conduct this negotiation well by telling other teams that any sub-MLE offers were not acceptable. This gives Bell limited options.
Milwaukee is really having a near-disasterous offseason. They overpay for Mo Williams, they draft a player who refused to work out for them and took months to sign, Iyasova bulks up then says he wants to play overseas for now, and now Charlie Bell is a goner. Milwaukee really doesn't have any depth, and if they are hit with the injury bug anywhere close to last year, they're screwed again. If they can stay healthy, however, I see a 30-32 win team.
I'd say they've had a sub-par offseason, but not disasterous. They did go at and acquire Desmond Mason to replace Ruben Patterson. Bringing Yi in now won't hurt his development because he'll be in training camp and get a chance to compete in the pre-season. Missing the summer league games is no big deal since Yi played for his National team against arguably better competition.</p> Mo Williams contract is a lot more than he's worth, but Milwaukee isn't exactly a hot bed for attracting free agents either. In the end keeping Mo Williams was a good signing and it looks in another core player for a team rebuilding.</p> Jake Voskul was also signed for a season, and he'll give them some depth in the frontline. He's a servicable 3rd string center and has no problem using all 6 of his fouls in a 10 minute span. LOL.</p> I think what will hurt Milwaukee the most is the division they're in. You have 3 of the top 5 Eastern powerhouses in the Central, Detroit, Cleveland & Chicago. At best Milwaukee would finish in fourth place in the division which likely means another trip to the lottery.</p>
Maybe "disastrous" wasn't the right word to use, maybe "hectic and unfortunate." I do like the Mason signing, though. Fans love him there, he loves it there, and he played his best basketball there (granted, his best year came in a contract year). He's a nice addition, but losing Charlie Bell takes a huge hit to their bench, especially with their injury concerns. Milwaukee isn't very deep, and guys like Lynn Greer (who I like) is going to have to be prepared to take on a role he may not be ready for. Milwaukee has no reputable backup center (don't say Dan Gadzuric, who seems to only play well against Boston lol), they don't have a backup point guard, and one of their best role players is headed overseas for now (Ersan Ilyasova).</p> Krystowiak has to work some magic in order to get this thing to work, but even then, he's entering his first full season as head coach. I guess there is an upside to this, they will get themselves a very talented player in the deep 08 draft.</p>
Makes sense.</p> They'll start Mo Williams/Michael Redd/Yi Jianlian/CHarlie V/Bogut</p> Then move Bobby Simmons to a backup wing (2/3) instead of just a three. Then if they bring back Earl Boykins, they have their backup point guard.</p>
Every team in the league could use Bell.</p> I'm sure there are teams that think he is worth the full MLE.</p>
