Toni Kukoc is reportedly telling friends he intends to play another year, and that his choice is between the Bulls and Bucks, with a strong leaning toward returning to his first NBA team.

The Bulls have one more guaranteed roster spot available and could decide to use it on Kukoc instead of a player deemed to be a project.

There is no consensus on a long-term solution for the Bucks, whose arena lease expires in 2008. The franchise has been burdened with small-market status and an arena that is among the oldest in the NBA.

Timothy Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, said Thursday that the Milwaukee business community was not "pushing the panic button" in terms of finding ways to support the Bucks and, perhaps, find and finance a new home for the team.

"It's on the radar screen in the business community, but it's a distant blip," he said.

While the Bucks have extended their lease at the Bradley Center through 2008, there still is no long-term venue solution for the franchise.

Timothy Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, said Thursday that the Milwaukee business community was not "pushing the panic button" in terms of finding ways to support the Bucks and, perhaps, find and finance a new home for the team.

"It's on the radar screen in the business community, but it's a distant blip," he said.

Ruben Patterson was introduced as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday and is ready to play his first games in the Eastern Conference.

"When they see me working hard, it's going to get them (teammates) motivated to do the same thing," said Patterson.

"I can tell you there are guys in the East who don't like playing against me. Richard Hamilton (Detroit Pistons guard) is one of them. He just don't like it when I guard him. Guys like that who can score, you've got to play physical and don't let them touch the basketball."

A tugboat managed to free former NBA star Latrell Sprewell's yacht on Thursday afternoon.

The boat had been grounded since the previous night.

Milwaukee's Best, a 68-foot vessel owned and operated by Sprewell, of River Hills, was spotted in trouble Wednesday about 8 p.m., when police were notified the boat had drifted from its anchor and lodged in about 3 feet of water close to shore, said Sgt. Don Jensen from the city's Harbor Patrol.

"Our guys worked on it for about three or four hours," Jensen said. Although the police had joined forces with Coast Guard crews, they never got the yacht to budge.

The Nuggets and Bucks officially completed a trade of two veteran forwards on Thursday.

Denver sent Ruben Patterson to Milwaukee in exchange for Joe Smith.

"It just came about that the numbers matched, the salaries matched and both of them were in the last years of their deal," Harris said at the Cousins Center. "We get a small forward who is a tough-minded defensive person that also has the ability to score, and has playoff experience."

Patterson has a troubled past, including a guilty plea for allegedly forcing the nanny of his children to perfom a sex act.

"We're comfortable with all of the information we've gathered and he understands that in coming to Milwaukee, talent is important and character is important," Harris said. "The past is one thing that I think he's grown from and he certainly has grown from those experiences and matured."

Former first-round draft pick Jiri Welsch will leave the Milwaukee Bucks after signing with a professional team in Spain, his agent said Monday.

Agent Sam Goldfeder said that while the Bucks did not try to re-sign Welsch, several NBA teams expressed interest in him. But by choosing instead to play for the Malaga team in Spain, Goldfeder said Welsch hopes to earn more significant playing time and eventually return to the NBA in a more prominent role.

Brian Skinner says he's comfortable being back in Milwaukee after getting more than his share of rainy weather and "contagious" apathy in Portland at the end of last season.

Skinner, who was traded to the Bucks in a four-player deal July 31, sounded happy to be free from teammates in Portland who he said simply stopped trying.

"It's contagious, and it carried like wildfire throughout the whole team," Skinner said Monday. "Even players that were really dedicated and really wanted to be there, just made it seem like it was for naught."

"It's everything," Skinner said. "From the way you just sit down at the dinner table, to how you walk, you can just tell when a player [has] not really lost their passion, but just lost their initiative to go out and try to win. And it just goes through everything. It goes through everything and completely destroys a team."

Steve Blake was driving in Portland on Saturday when his agent, Joel Bell, called his cell phone.

The news: The Trail Blazers had traded Blake to Milwaukee along with teammates Brian Skinner and Ha Seung Jin for former All-Star center Jamaal Magloire.

"As soon as he said it, my jaw came down," Blake said Monday, when the deal became official. "I was like, 'Wow. I can't believe it.' I was just silent for a couple of minutes."

A day earlier, he said, the Blazers had assured Blake's agent that his client wasn't being shopped around and that the team already had rebuffed other offers.

Blake said he also was taken aback because he felt he had done everything the team asked of him -- setting roots in Portland, working out in the offseason at the Blazers' facility, and playing well enough to start 57 games last season.

"When I first got here, coach (Nate) McMillan was talking about wanting guys who want to be here, and who live here in the offseason and who work hard for the organization," Blake said. "Those are things I did. I moved here, bought a house, worked out at the facility . . . It just hurts that I did all that and they still felt that someone else would be better."