Hoop Fest

July 22, 2007 10:18pm CDT

Milwaukee in the summertime is outdoor party central. There is Festa Italiana, Polish Fest, Bastille Days, German Fest, Irish Fest, Mexican Fiesta, Arab World Fest, African World Festival, Indian Summer, the State Fair, and of course, the granddaddy of them all, Summerfest.

But the hustle and bustle in Milwaukee—Algonquin for "the good land," as resident Alice Cooper proclaimed in Wayne's World 2—has not been limited to the outdoors this summer. Herb Kohl and company at the Bradley Center have stirred up a hornets nest (and signed a former hornet—neat) in China of all places causing all sorts of ripple effects on the team and potential fantasy value of everyone involved. The headaches that have resulted probably aren't enough to have the Bucks front office personnel consuming nearly as much booze as the rest of the general populous, but as training camp nears all bets are off. Maybe if Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett had an Asian Fest up and running, all of this trouble could have been avoided.

Alas, cheeseheads and tourists have no weekend to gather along Lake Michigan to drink sake and eat sushi, so fantasy owners are left to deal with the wreckage.

Before the negativity, however, let's check out the good news. The Bucks re-signed Mo Williams this offseason to a multi-year deal, solidifying the point guard position and giving owners a known quantity on Milwaukee's roster. Mo tied or set career highs in virtually every possibly fantasy statistic last season despite dealing with a shoulder sprain that forced him to miss nine games in mid-January and lingered for the rest of the year. His numbers should be the same, if not better, next season.

And, of course, Michael Redd is back and healthy following a bout with torn patellar tendon in his left knee. He will team up with Williams in the backcourt and supply fantasy squads with buckets of points and plenty of threes. From there, things get pretty hairy.

Without getting into the details, No. 6 overall pick Yi Jianlian continues to be a mystery. He is back in China without ever visiting Milwaukee (Asian Fest!) and the Bucks are unsure if they will be able to lure him out Asia. The reasons seem to change and those in Yi's camp have backtracked on more than one statement, but it is still obvious that Yi would rather play elsewhere. This causes some problems in Milwaukee's frontcourt.

If Yi were to end up playing in Milwaukee this season, he would likely be the second or third player off the bench—although a stellar training camp could vault him into the starting lineup. His fantasy value would be somewhat limited as he got used to the pro game (something in the 11-point, five-rebound, one-block per game zip code feels about right), but his presence would have a ripple effect on everyone around him. With no Yi, Andrew Bogut could end up at power forward while Dan Gadzuric and Jake Voskuhl hold down the center spots. In that instance, Gadzuric would be the more productive, but would still only be roster-worthy in deep leagues.

Or Bogut could stay at center, allowing Charlie Villanueva and either Bobby Simmons or Desmond Mason to start at the forward positions. It is unlikely that more than one of free agents Charlie Bell, Ruben Patterson and Brian Skinner will re-sign, and Ersan Ilyasova has already signed with Barcelona (no Spanish Fest, sorry), so at least that group won't have to share major minutes with an extremely deep frontcourt. But Bogut's presence at forward would put the squeeze on that group, likely leaving Simmons, Mason or Villanueva to fall well short of predicted fantasy digits.

Either way it seems that Charlie V. will get the short end of the stick at power forward because either Yi or Bogut will get minutes there, leaving him to fall short of the pace he was on before getting hurt last season.

The ideal situation from a fantasy perspective is to have Bogut at center with Villanueva and Simmons starting at forward. Mason could be first off the bench for Redd or Simmons, with Yi (hopefully) giving Charlie V. a breather. That would give fantasy owners six solid options with Yi providing a seventh in deeper formats.

If Yi does sign with the Bucks, it certainly doesn't put the above lineup in stone. However, it does settle things down quite a bit and allows us and Milwaukee's coaching staff to begin putting together a plan of attack that hopefully ends similarly to what I laid out. If he doesn't sign, it likely means we'll see more of Gadzuric and Voskuhl – neither of which would have the upside of Yi. If Villanueva's time is cut a little because of Yi's presence, I can deal with that. But if Chuck has to lose time to Gadzuric and Voskuhl because Yi's not there, I'm going to have some problems with that.

Yikes! I'm getting a little worked up here. Anyone know where I can get a beer?