Milwaukee Bucks Links: Budding Offseason Edition

Apr 28, 2013; Milwaukee, WI, USA; The Milwaukee Bucks watch the final minutes of game four in the first round against the Miami Heat of the 2013 NBA playoffs at the BMO Harris Bradley Center. The Heat beat the Bucks 88-77 to complete a four game sweep. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

RealGM:  Despite a limited role in the rotation and earlier reports that he was eyeing a return to Spain, Gustavo Ayon’s agent, Emilio Duran, now says that Ayon is looking forward to the Bucks picking up his player option.

“Gustavo likes Milwaukee, he just really wants to help the team and as far as we’ve been indicated he will be with the Bucks next season,” Duran said. “He wants to keep getting better there and help out.”

The Bucks must decide whether or not to pick up Ayon’s $1.5 million dollar option for next season.  If they do, Ayon would be a restricted free agent the following summer.

Even though he’s only in his second season, Ayon older than most NBA sophomores: 28 years old.  Given that he’s skilled on offense, and a big-bodied alternative to Milwaukee’s thinner, younger bigs, and cheap, it would be surprising if the Bucks let him walk for nothing.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

YouTube: Old friend Carlos Delfino had the play of the night when he stripped Kevin Martin and finished a dunk over/through Kevin Durant. Oh Cabeza.

Finishing second and third, respectively, to the dunk itself were the post-posterization face that Delfino shot Durant after the dunk and the realization that Carlos looks exactly like Stony Curtis from The Flintstones.

How was this missed in Milwaukee?!? (Or was I the only one who missed it?)

Twitter: Andrew Gruman of Fox Sports Wisconsin tweeted interesting details of the Bucks as they finished their exit interviews and headed off for their summers.  Among them:

Mbah a Moute played his most engaged defense of the season in the series against Miami (though it ultimately didn’t slow LeBron much at all), but is playing 12 months of basketball per year really the best idea for Luc’s knee? This injury isn’t a shoulder rehab or a surgically repaired tendon. It’s a knee injury that goes back to his playing days at UCLA. Egad.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: J.J. Redick supported Jason Collins of the Washington Wizards, who yesterday became the first active player in the four major U.S. professional sports to come out as gay.

“I’m proud of him,” Redick said. “I know it’s not an easy thing to do, obviously. He showed a lot of courage to come out in the sporting world, in this environment is a very difficult thing. Props to him.

“It doesn’t change in any way how I view him or feel about him. If anything, it’s a really good thing for our culture.”

A Royal Pain:  Yesterday, the NBA’s committee on relocation and finance issues met via conference call and unanimously voted to keep to reject a Seattle-based bid to buy the Sacramento Kings.  Given that Seattle has an NBA-ready arena on the way, this matter is of utmost importance to the Bucks.  Chris Hansen and the rest of the Seattle group rejected in the Sacramento deal will likely turn their attention Milwaukee’s way soon, as noted by Seattle Times editor David Boardman a few weeks ago.

The hope of expansion filling Seattle’s need is also unlikely.  NBA Commissioner David Stern put the kibosh on that idea yesterday, downplaying the likelihood of any expansion teams joining the league for the immediate future.

“You know, all I can say is that discussion will have to wait for [future] commissioner [Adam] Silver to oversee. Right now, expansion is not on the agenda. I would never say never. It doesn’t make a lot of sense unless we know what the new TV deal is.”

Fortunately, Senator Kohl has demonstrated a resolve to keeping the Bucks in Milwaukee. But that stance could quickly erode if a new city arena deal isn’t put into action soon. The suitors from Seattle will be much easier to fend off if they don’t have the one thing Milwaukee lacks: a new building.