"The numbers alone - a 15-3 record and a 19.6 scoring average from a position that wasn't even on the roster before Feb. 17 - tell you that the John Salmons trade has been one of the better deals made by the Bucks in a long time.

It's below the Oscar Robertson move, which won them a championship, and light years beyond the Gary Payton fiasco, which precipitated a long and nasty fall.

Enough to say: not bad.

And despite the heat general manager John Hammond is taking from the four or five teams with cap room to spend because he might have helped the Chicago Bulls muscle in on the bountiful 2010 free-agent crop, the trade could get even better for the Bucks.

Besides the two second-round picks they'll get from the Bulls, the Bucks could wind up with the playoffs, Salmons and a protected lottery pick.

Even against the chance that the Bucks might have helped a division rival sign, say, a Dwyane Wade, the possibility of the playoffs, Salmons and a lottery pick was more than worth the gamble.

For all that to happen, the Bucks would have to hang on in the top eight, which would've been impossible without Salmons.

Salmons, who has a player option for next season, would have to re-sign."