NBA milwaukee Bucks

There were various reasons to believe Josh Childress might be spending only one season in Greece. The forward, who signed with Olympiakos last summer after reaching an impasse with the rights-holding Hawks, is a quality player who belongs in the best league in the world, the NBA. He reportedly got the yips when the Greek league championship game fell victim to an assault of explosives thrown by fans. And all told, he didn't really set Europe on fire as hoped.

So that Childress is back in America talking turkey is not a big surprise. But the particular team he will first visit with -- the Milwaukee Bucks -- registers as a stunner.

The Pistons have been tied to Bulls gunner Ben Gordon for ages, it seems, with pundits constantly bickering about how little or much sense a pairing made. Detroit, after all, traded All-World champ Chauncey Billups precisely to free up time for buckin' Rodney Stuckey while also inking former All-Star Rip Hamilton to an extension.

The assumed pursuit of Charlie Villanueva -- now confirmed by Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski -- makes more immediate sense. Rasheed Wallace is gone, Amir Johnson will vie for Villanueva's old job in Milwaukee, Antonio McDyess can probably find greener pastures.

But regardless of how it looks now, these are two pursuits that make bundles of sense together.

The NBA free-agent pool just got more intriguing when the Milwaukee Bucks announced they would not extend a qualifying offer to forward Charlie Villanueva, making the former UConn standout an unrestricted free agent.

The Bucks can still re-sign Villanueva but cannot match any other offer, as they would have had the right to if he were a restricted free agent. Villanueva is a player who has never been able to stay consistently healthy or find a comfort zone with his previous two teams -- Milwaukee and Toronto.

But a look at Villanueva's numbers tell NBA teams that he has a place somewhere in the league. He averaged 16.7 points and 6.7 rebounds in less than 27 minutes per game. That's 0.6 points per minute, on the same scoring pace as Portland's Brandon Roy, and Villanueva doesn't turn 25 until August.

The weekend Brandon Jennings saga will only gain steam this week as talking heads give us the holy word on how a 19-year-old professional athlete should act. (Because 40-year-old white men know best, right?) In case you missed it, in a phone conversation with rapper Joe Budden, Jennings disparaged the Knicks, Chris Duhon, Ricky Rubio and (depending how you look at it) Luke Ridnour. Budden streamed the conversation on his Web site (apparently unbeknownst to Jennings). In the aftermath, Jennings erased his entire Twitter account and Budden sought to remove an unauthorized recording of his stream that had popped up on YouTube. (The video has popped back up, by the way.)

Responses from the blogosphere have been nuanced -- the FreeDarko sermon is particularly on target (and interesting, considering FD's Shoals helped break the story for The Baseline). But we have been through enough of these episodes before to know that the prevailing sanity will not last. Before the storm, allow me a question. (I think I've killed whatever suspense that line could illicit by posing the question in this post's headline.)

If his late appearance at the NBA Draft wasn't enough, freshly minted Milwaukee Bucks guard Brandon Jennings continued his personal attack of Ricky Rubio and then added the New York Knicks to his hit list. Perhaps it's time for Jennings to keep quiet until he achieves something in the NBA.

Apparently talking with rapper Joe Budden on a blog cam following the draft, a recorded Jennings ripped the Knicks for passing him up in the draft, predicted the Bucks would not re-sign Ramon Sessions, instead spending their money on Charlie Villanueva, and finally that Luke Ridnour would eventually be his backup.

Brandon Jennings was a mystery to those that are in the business of putting together mock drafts. Some had him going somewhere in the top five, while others had him dropping out of the lottery altogether. Because of the apparent uncertainty surrounding his draft position, Jennings turned down his green room invitation and decided to wait things out at a local Manhattan hotel.

As it turned out, Jennings didn't have to wait long to hear his name called -- he was selected 10th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks. He wasn't there to greet David Stern initially. But he did make it down to Madison Square Garden just four picks later, in plenty of time to make a surprise entrance and get that ceremonial handshake from the commissioner.

In the weakest NBA draft in years, sitting out might have been the best thing to do. All the fireworks were done before it even began. The Cavs traded for Shaq. The Magic added Vince Carter. The Wizards snagged Mike Miller instead of the No. 5 pick. Several teams showed little interest in getting involved.

Keep reading after the jump for the Eastern Conference rundown.

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Brandon Jennings got cold feet last minute and decided to hang out in a location more private than Madison Square Garden for the draft proceedings. He would have been fine in the Green Room, though, as Milwaukee made Jennings the No. 10 pick in the draft. (Update: A-ha! After hearing the news, Jennings made his way to MSG after all -- he was introduced by David Stern out of order moments after the Suns drafted Earl Clark with the 14th pick.)

What's the verdict? Did Jennings' Italian sojourn work? I would say so, given that similarly touted high school class of 2008 point guard Jrue Holiday remains on the board. Despite the iffy status leading into draft night, Jennings did exactly what he set out to do in Rome. I won't say "open the floodgates" quite yet, but ... aw, ta' heck with it. Open the floodgates.

FanHouse fixes a decade of draft-day blunders in Revisiting the NBA Draft.

Hard to believe that several NBA general managers can have regrets after two years, but it's true. The results of the 2007 NBA Draft are slowly reaping, which should teach a lesson to their 2009 brethren on Thursday about taking chances on raw college players, international prospects and even those who are allegedly "proven."

The biggest debate two years ago was whether the Portland Trail Blazers should take Greg Oden or Kevin Durant first overall. Oden was a franchise center out of Ohio State while Durant was the smooth scoring swingman from Texas. Durant had the better workout with the Blazers, apparently blowing the mind of coach Nate McMillan. Yet, the Blazers stuck with conventional thinking and took the big man.

Just hours after being traded from the Spurs to the Bucks, Fabricio Oberto is reportedly on the move yet again, this time going to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for Amir Johnson. The deal has yet to be officially announced by either team, but multiple outlets, including Sean Deveney of Sporting News, who broke the story, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, cite unnamed sources within the Bucks organization confirming the deal. (Update: It's official.)

As if being traded twice in one day wasn't enough, Oberto should probably wait by the phone; his contract is only partially guaranteed, meaning the Pistons have the option of waiving him before July 1 and only be on the hook for $1.9 million of the $3.8 million he'd otherwise be owed.