The Milwaukee Bucks announced on Monday, July 31 that they had traded Jamaal Magloire to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for guard Steve Blake, forward Brian Skinner and center Ha Sueng-Jin. General Manager Larry Harris spoke to the Milwaukee media that afternoon.

With the signing of Blake, is it open competition at the guard position?
I think that when we made the trade for T.J., we were in a position where we felt very comfortable with Mo. With the addition of Steve Blake, Steve’s going to have the opportunity to earn as many minutes as he can get. And I think it’s going to be a very solid position where we feel very good about where we’re going. But when the trade was made for T.J. Ford, certainly we were in a position where you had Mo Williams who started in the past – he had been in that position … I think Steve, in speaking with him today, he knows that he has an opportunity here to earn minutes, to play minutes and to be a significant part of what we’re doing.

Does Mo Williams go into training camp as your starting point guard?
At this point, like I said, when we traded T.J. Ford, Mo was given that opportunity that, if we don’t do anything, it was his position to take. Now that we’ve been able to add a guy that has started for another team, I think it just really bolsters that team where we feel good about where we’re going there.

Would you agree that it’s very important to have two reliable point guards?
I agree with that. If you go back and look at the history of the point guard position since Sam (Cassell) left, when we drafted T.J., you had T.J. and he was the best. We brought in Damon Jones, but it was clear cut that T.J. was the guy. But then you look at the next year, and we had signed Mike James and we figured that he had been with Detroit and he was going to be the guy – and Mo beat him out … And then this next year, we had T.J. coming back and Mo had started the year before. It was a competition in a sense, but T.J. was the one that had it. Mo has always been in the part of how it goes along. But I really think that what we have done more than anything is we’ve really solidified that position. We have a started in Mo and we were able to go out and get a starter for another team that is going to earn significant minutes on this team.

Was Blake the key to this deal?
Yes. Absolutely.

What about Charlie Bell?
I spoke to him today as well. The one thing that I find … whenever you make a trade, it doesn’t matter if it’s the guy you may have picked up as a free agent a day ago, you have to inform him of what your plan is. And especially when it’s going to affect the rotations of all of the players. And I told Charlie the same thing. Ironically, he was like, “How does that affect me?” We see Charlie playing both spots. And again, we’re going to give him the opportunity to earn some minutes. And where that ends up happening, he’ll make that happen for himself. He has established himself as an NBA player. And he has played significant minutes in significant games. To me, it’s just another piece to the puzzle. The good thing about him is that he’ll be able to play both spots. He probably can play with Steve. And Steve can play alongside Mo. There are some things we can do. I feel very fortunate now that Michael has got to feel very good that when he comes off of the bench, there are significant people behind him … that we can do a lot of different things and use a lot of different variations.

Is Simmons the one spot where you don’t have a solid back-up?
If you look at our roster, it’s got fifteen guys. The one thing we said we were looking for Magloire – once we were able to trade T.J. and get Charlie, we were in a position where we felt we could use a five, a three and a one. In the deals that were presented to me, none of them really, we felt, addresses all three. They addresses a couple, but some of them didn’t address some flexibility, which is important to what we’re trying to do. The one thing I like about this as well, is that, as we go into next summer, we’ve identified the guys that are making the money are the ones we want. Those are the ones that are established players. And the ones that are free agents, we hope are going to be guys that we’re going to have to want back on this team. And I think we will, but that flexibility was important as well. Once we had Charlie and we felt we needed a power forward, we didn’t feel like we then had to spend a lot of money on a center, or a forward or a point guard … But if you look at our roster, you can say, “Who’s backing up Bobby Simmons?” And really, it’s a legitimate question. But now, if you look at the depth of our guys, outside of the young guys, (Damir) Markota, (Ersan) Ilyasova and David Noel, we really have ten guys ……. But that’s not to say that between now and October 1, if something comes about, I may end up signing a small forward or I may end up trading for one. We’re not through yet, but it could be that we are.

Are you done making moves?
You know what, I don’t think so. Only in the sense that I think we’ll be looking. Will we pull the trigger on something else? I don’t know that. But I can tell you that I am observing that small forward spot and understanding that, if you look at the depth, you may have taken care of everything but (that) …. But I think we can manufacture that because we have a good backcourt and I think we have five quality bigs at the four/five spot that we may be able to manufacture that small forward position.

How appealing was Blake’s assist-to-turnover ratio?
When we lost T.J. Ford, I felt one of the things we needed to get back, if we were going to get another point guard, was someone that was a distributor in the sense of “give the ball up and just run a team”. Mo can do that, but Mo also has an offensive game to him, as Charlie (Bell) does as well. And to be able to get someone 6-3, that’s bigger than Mo and then a guy that has shown the ability, even with Portland, that he was able to be top three in the league (in assist-to-turnover ratio) and to shoot a high percentage, which means if they leave him alone, he’s going to make open shots. So all of a sudden, we’ve added another weapon offensively to our team as well, and a bigger guard which I think is helpful for us.

Was Portland reluctant to give up Blake?
Yes, I think in the beginning. Portland was one of those teams that was interested in (Jamaal) Magloire early on. But that was before the draft. Then it kind of died and then it came back up again. And when we went back into that, we went through some revelations of different guys, but Blake was always the guy that we felt we needed to have in the deal is we were going to do something. We liked Brian (Skinner) because we at least knew who he was …. Steve certainly was a key component of this whole deal. Had he not been in it, we probably would not have done the trade, no.

Is Blake more of a consistent type of player?
I think, yes. What you see is what you get. He’s pretty consistent in what he does. He’s not an up-and-down player. He’s a gym rat. What you see is what you get. But he can make shots and he really knows how to run a team. And I think that, with his size, he gives Terry (Stotts) more of that flexibility that, like I said, he can play with Charlie B., he can play with Mo and obviously with Michael. The one thing is, when we had T.J. and Mo, those guys are (very much) the same. And while we got away with is early on, those guys playing one and two, it’s kind of fool’s gold to think that you’re going to really successful playing those guys together. And this helps.

Do you see Skinner as more of an offensive threat or as a defensive player?
He was always injured prior to coming to us (in 2003-04). But when he got here, he was able to be consistent all year long. What we’re looking for from him is to be able to, if Andrew (Bogut) is foul trouble or if it’s not happening for him, or if it’s not happening for Charlie (Villanueva) or Joe (Smith), Brian came play both spots, he can face the basket a little bit and score. And he has the ability to run, he’s not afraid and he can rebound. Whatever minutes he earns, I hope he’s able to at least get into that area where he’s rebounding every three-and-a-half, four minutes a game. And I think that we’re going to be an unselfish team that he’ll be able to find his way with some baskets.