With brand being out for the year, i've heard the clippers are offering maggatte for Yi. for a guy who has'nt proven squat, this Yi guy is acting like a real jerk.
knight cassell conroy (livingston) mobley ross maggette thornton thomas williams davis (brand) kaman they could still compete with this roster but a trade with the rockets would be in their best interest.
I don't think Milwaukee was stupid. Yi was by far the most value on the board at their pick. If they could convince him to sign, they get a great player and access to a source of revenue no other small market team has ever dreamed of. If they can't get him to sign, I suspect they believe the comissioner will work behind the scenes to get them an overvalue trade to avoid an international PR disaster for the NBA. Would Brewer, Wright or Noah made The Bucks a contenter for the title? They wouldn't start over Bogut or Villanueva. More importantly, would they have made more money for the Bucks ownership than they would cost in salary? I don't think any of them influence ticket and merchandise sales (well maybe the sales of Joakim wigs would skyrocket). Sure there is the risk that Yi would sit out, his life wouldn't change much since he lives on some kind of a government stipend. But then again the Bucks can just motor on as a low playoff seed contender with Bogut (not paying #6 pick money to a second teamer); so really not much changes either for them if they lose Yi. But the potential payoff in what all owners really care about, the value of the franchise, is huuuuge. Possibly as much as doubling their investment. I think the risk/reward ratio was worth the *6 pick.
Dubious is correct. The bucks drafted Yi NOT only as a basketball move, it is just a much name recognition and financial. No. of people that have heard of Milwaukee: Before the draft: 28 on a good day. After the draft : 1.3 Billion Milwaukee just saved itself millions worth in free advertising.
I'd go so far as to say that they drafted him MOSTLY for financial reasons. The problem with that is, you can't make financial gains if that player won't sign a contract. I don't think drafting him was the stupid part. Drafting him with the intention of keeping him and not raping some team who desperately wanted him and was willing to overpay to get him is where they made a mistake. Now it's too late. If I was a Milwaukee Bucks fan, I'd boycott them this season. It was a terrible basketball move that will set them back for quite some time.
Are you suggesting Yi would make the Bucks a title contender? If you are, that's madness. I highly doubt Yi would have started over Bogut or Villanueva either. And I just don't understand how you can argue that it wasn't a stupid move because of the potential revenue he'd have brought them. That's WHY it was a stupid move. They allowed their greed to cloud their decision making. All they were seeing was dollar signs and they disregarded the inconvenient little facts like the Fran Vazquez situation or that Yi had said he didn't want to play there. As a result, they have neither a player or those potential revenues to show for it. Meanwhile, if they would have looked at it as a basketball situation rather than a financial one, they could have easily traded Yi to a big market team that would be willing to overpay for him because of the same reasons Milwaukee drafted him. Maybe it wouldn't have made them more money than having a star Chinese player would, but winning tends to help the pocket book too.
No. Again, team ownership is about cash flow (winning influences cash flow and selling jerseys influences cash flow ) but it is more about what the potential sale value of your team is, I.E. if you paid 100 million for the team, can you sell it for 200 million when you want to? And this isn't over till it's over. The Bucks have at least a year to sweat this deal. The commisioner will be involved. And I assume there will be some interpretation required as to whether club play or playing for the national team extends the Bucks draft rights indefinitly. The Bucks used the 6th pick to acheive maximum leverage in a power play where a small market team othewrwise wouldn't have any leverage. Big risks are worth taking for the chance at big rewards. When the downside is just the satus quo, it a no brainer. It is a typical American/captialist concept that might not make sense in the context of another culture....It's called 'playing hardball'.
Makes sense for the Clippers. If they know their season is tanked anyways, might as well get a star attraction to fill up their arena. This trade would also make sense for the Bucks. Hell I'd take a proven near all-star like Magette for an unproven Yi.
It will be a terrible basketball move and a decent financial move if the Bucks refused to trade him and he sits out the year. It would be a wise move if they trade him for decent value ... and on top of that, the entire city of Milwaukee has already earned millions in free advertising.
damn right! if i ever want beer, cheese and german girls, i'll head to Milwaukee. But Yi should really just though it out in Milwaukee for 5 years. I'm sure he'll get plenty of PT there and if he sucks we prob won't hear about it. I'm sure we'll definitely hear about it if he plays well.
there has to be more to it though, for salary purposes. Corey Maggette, Quinton Ross, Will Conroy for Yi, Bobby Simmons throw in a draft pick one way or the other to make it work.
Oh come on! Free advertising? All I knew about Milwaukee before this incident was the following four things: 1. It is the home of the Bucks and Brewers. 2. It is one of the nations fattest cities. 3. LaVerne & Shirley 4. Something about beer. The only thing I have learned about Milwaukee as a result of this incident is that they have an incredibly small Chinese population. Now, I'm sure in China many people had never heard of Milwaukee, but guess what they know now? Milwaukee has an incredibly small Chinese population. I'm sure the tourist dollars are flooding in. Also, as for them trading him for decent value - they could have traded him for far more than he was worth before he announced to the world he had no interest in playing for the Bucks. Anything they do now is merely attempting to partially recoup a loss. The best case scenario is that they get a fraction of what they could have gotten before.
Wow, I just remembered that the Milwaukee Bucks are owned by plumbing magnate AND US Senator Herb Kohl. I don't know where he stands politically on China's manipulation of the the yuan but this story has the potential to be absolutely Machiavellian with political subterfuge and economic considerations. Maybe Mr. Kohl may want to send a political message; maybe Mr. Kohl wants to sell more gold plated shower heads. Yi could be a pawn in much bigger chess game. Basketball could be the least of the factors in play.....certainly compared to international exchange rates. I might be overeaching in my conspiracy theories, who knows; at least it would make a good book. Where's Kelly Dwyer?
Yeah that's really gay what Yi's doing. The point of the draft is for the team to pick you.. not the other way around.
I thought this was funny: The REAL reason why Yi is staying away from Milwaukee http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007...-women-why-yi-jianlian-is-shunning-milwaukee/
