When I saw DIME’s juicy headline, “Michael Redd Wants Out of Milwaukee, and I Don’t Care ” I was surprised. Redd has always been a class act and it’s not like him to go to the press demanding a trade. As it turns out, he didn’t. Not even close.

DIME pounced on this quote:

“I do feel like I have to figure out where I fit with this team now,” Redd tells HOOPSWORLD. “My thing is, I want to win. I want to win regardless of anything else. I want to win, to play on a contender, and I feel like we had our chance earlier in the season when we went 8-3, but we’ve slipped since then. We’ve got to get back to where we were at the beginning of the season and keep fighting.”

DIME writer Aron Phillips then went on to question Redd’s decision-making skills…

After the 2004–05 NBA season, Redd had a chance to “win regardless of anything else” and “play on a contender.” But rather than sign for less money to play for his hometown team (and with some guy named LeBron), he decided to re-up with the Bucks to the tune of six years and $91 million. Not exactly a smart move if you ask me.

But hey, who am I to tell a guy to pass up millions of dollars. (I’m not.) But I am the guy to tell you to keep your mouth shut when things aren’t exactly going your way. You knew what you were getting yourself into when you stayed in Milwaukee, so sleep in the bed that you made yourself.

Phillips has a point about Redd’s opportunity in 2005 to play with LeBron James, and if Redd were complaining about his situation, I’d agree with the writer that he should “sleep in the bed” that he made. But if you read the original interview with Hoopsworld, he’s not complaining…

Redd admits that he, too, has to get to 100% before the Bucks can really be at their best.

“It’s huge, it’s huge,” says Redd. “I’ve got to get going for our team to start winning. That’s the bottom line. We need Andrew to contribute, we need Brandon to keep playing well, but I have to play better for us to win.”

“Obviously, you want to win every game, and at this point in my career I know there are more games behind than there are ahead. We’re still in playoff contention, and feel like we can make it if we continue to fight and get back to what we were doing earlier in the season. I’d like it to happen for me here. I’ve been here for ten years and this organization deserves a winner and I’d like to be here for it. I don’t pay much attention to trade rumors. We all know that’s part of the business. I just focus on doing my job and keep playing. Whatever happens, happens. I have a great relationship with management, they know I’m still coming back from injury, and we’ve just got to keep working hard.”

Does this sound like a guy who is shirking responsibility or “wants out”? He said flat out that for the Bucks to win, he has to play better, and that he wants to stay in Milwaukee. He did say he wants “to play on a contender,” but unlike most NBA fans, he hasn’t written the Bucks off.

There are only a handful of “franchise” players in the league, and Redd is not (and never was) one of them. He has/had the ability to carry a mediocre team for a season or two. Like most stars, he is/was better suited to be the second-best player on a good playoff team. I understand Phillips’ criticism of a guy who chooses money over winning and then complains about not winning, but that’s not Michael Redd. He’s frustrated with his injuries and with the way he’s playing, and he’s taking responsibility for it. Nowhere in that interview did Redd say that he “wants out.”

The bottom line is that even if Redd wanted out (which he doesn’t), it would be tough for the Bucks to move him. He’s making $17.0 million this season and has another season at the tune of $18.3 million. While he has shown some signs of his old self, no team is going to take on that contract until he starts playing consistently like the Redd of old. And if that happens, the Bucks will be a playoff team. It’s not like Brandon Jennings is a shooting guard; Milwaukee has a need at that position, so if Redd starts to play well, there are plenty of minutes available.

If the Bucks were able to move Redd for expiring contracts, they’d have $18 million in cap space summer. The Bucks haven’t closed the door on Redd, but they can’t afford to build around him anymore. His age and injury history has made that impossible. This is the Brandon Jennings and Andrew Bogut show now. Everyone — Redd, the Bucks — needs Redd to get back to his old self. If he does, he’ll once again be tradeable, but more importantly, the Bucks will be a playoff team. And that’s the next step.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Memphis GM Gerald Wallace took a lot of heat for trading Pau Gasol to the Lakers. But if we’ve learned anything in the past few days, it’s that Wallace was simply a man ahead of his time.

On Tuesday, we learned that the Bucks agreed to trade Richard Jefferson to the Spurs for Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas and Amir Johnson. (Fabricio Oberto was part of the original deal, but San Antonio sent him to Detroit for Johnson, who was then sent to Milwaukee.)

Regular readers know I’m a Bucks fan, and I spent the last couple of days grumbling on the Sports Bubbler message boards about how we didn’t get anything in return for Jefferson, who is still a pretty good player. When Wallace traded away Gasol, at least he got Javaris Crittenton (who was considered a prospect with upside at the time) and Pau’s brother, Marc, who turned out to be a productive center for the Grizzlies.

Then I wake up today to see that the Cavs and Suns have agreed to go through with that long-rumored trade that will send Shaq to Cleveland for salary cap relief. Who do the Suns get in return? A retiree (Ben Wallace), a bench player with a partially guaranteed contract (Sasha Pavlovic), some cash and a second round pick.

This is the going rate for a Third Team All-NBA center these days.

We knew that this summer had the potential to be a rough one for free agents, but it’s a little surprising to see that good players like O’Neal and Jefferson could be had for virtually nothing. Bucks owner Herb Kohl and Suns owner Robert Sarver realize that their clubs aren’t legitimate contenders, so they don’t see the point in paying the luxury tax just for the privilege of being knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. What kind of an effect these moves have on season ticket purchases remains to be seen.

The bottom line is that if a team is willing to spend, there has never been a better time to acquire talent. You’re not going to get someone like Caron Butler, who plays for a (pretend) contender and has a reasonable contract, but you can get Jefferson, who is overpaid and is on a mediocre team that is up against the luxury tax. And the older the player, the more likely he’s available. Teams aren’t going to give up good players that are in their early- or mid-twenties because the plan is to rebuild before they’re over the hill.

So who might be on the move for a bag of peanuts and some salary cap flexibility? How about Tracy McGrady, Baron Davis, Chris Kaman, Marcus Camby, Vince Carter, Tyson Chandler, Amare Stoudemire, Jermaine O’Neal, Michael Redd, Ray Allen or Rip Hamilton?

Truth be told, a team like the Suns isn’t going to give the youngish Stoudemire away for cap flexibility alone. But as the price of a star goes down, the price of superstar goes down as well.

It promises to be an interesting summer.