Among the myriad disappointments in Milwaukee this season, Charlie Villanueva's relegation to pip status stands out. Per minute, Charlie V. has performed no worse than the last two years, save a drop in his shooting percentages (this is not unique in MKE). But his minutes have been cut from 25 to less than 20 per night. And, as he displays on his NBA.com blog (via Hoopshype), he's upset about it.Looking at my situation overall, I ask myself at times, do I see myself here long-term? I must say the answer to that question doesn't sit to comfortable with me. I don't know what the future holds. Anything can happen in this business. I would really like to make Milwaukee a part of my future, but it doesn't seem realistic at this point in time unless something changes. The moves made by management in the last few months indicate to me that I'm not as important as I once was to this team. I'm not completely sold on my role with the Milwaukee Bucks. ... I don't think I was traded to Milwaukee to be the eighth man coming off the bench.Villanueva absolves Yi Jianlian's presence of blame, but it's clear what has happened: Yi has started 100% of his games this year, Villanueva has started 0%. Despite seven fewer minutes a game than Yi, Charlie's putting up almost identical offensive numbers on almost identical shooting percentages. And if you assume Yi is actually 23 -- the common belief these days -- these two cats are the same age.
Larry Krystowiak should be able to get the two on the floor together (it's not like you're getting star output from your small forwards, and Dan Gadzuric is getting almost 10 minutes a game). If he won't, then clearly Milwaukee's made its choice between the two. It's probably the right choice, but it's not a choice that would needed to be made if the could had any sort of creativity.
