Now that Payton has announced he will not be back with Milwaukee...I understand even less what the hell they were thinking when they made the deal with the Sonics...basically, they gave Ray Allen away for far less than his value. Actually, the Cassell deal also looks to me like they got the short end of the stick...not sure what they are thinking. First they let their GM dismantle the team together with George Karl, then they let him go. Makes no sense at all (well, maybe to let him go, after he made those trades, but...). Or do you actually think the Bucks did well in these trades?
I thought the Gary Payton and Desmond Mason trade was great. They got one of the game's great young players in D-mase...and a HOFer in payton. unfortunate they couldn't resign him, but mason is no consolation prize. Ray Allen and the Bucks had no future, so it was time to rebuild. The Cassell trade was weak however. They have TJ waiting in the wings, which is great...and they did need size. However, they ended up getting Joe Smith for gods sake. that guy is the softest PF this side of eddie griffin and mo taylor. TJ, Desmond Mason, Michael Redd make for a solid PG, SF, and SG tandem for the future. Now if they can improve upon tim thomas and joe smith up front, they could be leastern conference contenders.
They got rid of all their big contracts and have a great base from which to rebuild at the guard positions with TJ, Mason, Redd, and Thomas.
Well they will suck for a while. Who knows.... Maybe TJ Ford will lead them to victory! They still have Desmond Mason, Tim Thomas, Michael Redd, Marcus Haislip, and Toni Kukoc. BASICALLY, they are screwed! GP announced that? Hmm...
They still have Anthony Mason's and Thomas's big contracts, which are the hardest on the to move imo. The bucks suck ass, and they're going to be losing badly for a long time.
The current Bucks owner wants to sell the franchise. He got rid of those big contracts to avoid possible luxury tax to make the franchise more salesble.
It would have made more sense to draft a big guy or low post presence and keep cassell since he's so cheap anyway. They had no plan to speak of and now they will be in the lotto for a long time. They overpaid for Thomas, traded Robinson,Allen and Casselland have really nothing to show. They're screwed and now they'll just have basically the same kind of team they had before. A small jump shooting no inside game type of squad. They're really screwed.
Cassell makes a little more than 5 m and comes off the books in 2 yrs. Joe Smith will be on the books for that same 5 mil for another 5 yrs, it really makes no sense.
Not really. He could've sold it to MJ, and decided not to sell. I said the Bucks jumped the gun with the Cassell move without having Payton in hand, and that definitely seems to be the case. As others said, Ford, Redd, Mason, and then perhaps Thomas and Haislip is a decent start. P-Billa....haha. Milwaukee better hope that it's Portland GP chooses, and that they can pull a S/T- see if they can finangle Q Woods or Zach Randolph out of it. They're gonna be a lotto team this year, and there's not much way around it. They should stockpile young talent, see if they can move Mase, and then hope to land in position to nab Emeka Okafor next year. That'd be kinda cool for Okafor and Ford to end up on the same team.
The Payton trade was made to avoid the luxury tax. Basically the Sonics decided they would rather have Ray Allen at the max than the cap space to go after FA's like Brand, O'Neal, Arenas, etc. The 2nd part of the deal (Mason for #1) is pretty fair IMO. As far as the Bucks trading of Cassell, they basically did it to save 4 mill, Peeler is now a FA. They didn't view Cassell (33 yrs old) to be part of their future. They still have some bad contracts, but may have avoided the luxury tax and saved the Senator alot of money. I don't know that the move is that bad, I somewhat admire that they are willing to rebuild rather than simply be mediocre for the next 5 years.
They took a chance by letting Cassell go that Payton would sign with them. In any case, they saved on the luxury tax bite they would've taken with both Payton and Cassell's weighty contracts and avoiding having two high dollar point guards on the roster in the decline of their careers. It opens up time for T.J. Ford to learn the job on the fly and allows Milwaukee some chance of getting out of salary cap hell while discarding some questionable personalities as well. I don't think the Bucks are stupid, I just think that fiscal issues overtook their judgement. Now if they managed to trade away Tim Thomas for expiring contracts, all of these moves would be a stroke of genius, allowing them to retool with some new free agents.
The one player they made a big mistake on was Tim Thomas. He is the poster boy for potential. He had a good season going inot a contract yr coming off the bench under no pressure. Seattle gave him near max money even though they had a 20ppg player in Glenn Robinson ahead of him. The thinking was that he was a better player at 26 than Robinson was at 30. What they found out is that potential is what will land your team in lotto land. Toni ,the throw in wind up playing more significant minutes than Thomas. After that mistake, they compounded it by getting rid of one of the true pro's in Ray Allen. Some call him soft or whatever, but he's very productive and was one of their better playoff performers. Next , they give away one of the most underrated pg's since Derek Harper and Rod Strickland in Sam Cassell. All the guy does is run the offense, make big shots and stay out of trouble, not to mention he makes about 6m a yr. In return from the big 3 being broken up was Desmond Mason,Toni Kukoc,Joe Smith, and the draft pick Ford. This team was in the eastern conference final in 2000 and 3 yrs later, none of their leading scorer's or assist men are here.
I don't think this was about luxury tax, which some respected posters are saying won't be a concern this next season anyway. I think they decided the whole team was crap and they had to blow it up and start over. They were very competitive not long ago and then suddenly -- in midseason and with the same players who once played so well -- they completely bombed. So, I think they decided the whole team needed to be broken up and rebuilt. But, I think trading away Ray Allen was a regrettable decision, much like Dallas trading away Jason Kidd when they were breaking up the 3 Js. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.
I agree Juan, but like most teams, they didn't have a real plan after their visit to the ecf. Instead of keeping at least 2 of the big 3 then adding frontcourt help, they basically gave everyone away. For all their faults and Karl should take some blame also, Cassell,Robinson, and Allen were very effective together. Instead of trading some of their assets for frontcourt help, they traded them away for more guards. When they knew they wanted to get rid of Allen, why didn't they call Portland and offer a clean cut guylike Allen for frontline help like Wallace? How does a team of Cassell,Redd,Thomas and Wallace look in the east? The team basically gave away Cassell, but why not call GS who have a log jam and offer Cassell for Dampier and his contract which comes off the books after this season? That same 5m for Cassell, could have gotten you Kurt Thomas of NY. They're basically a rudderless ship with no cap room. In other words, thats one team you don't have to worry about making the playoffs next season in the east.
I predict a S&T with Payton for Fisher, #1 and another player (like Medvenko, Rush). Fisher isn't great, but he could help TJ as he gets adjusted is is probably better than other FA PGs for that level of money. The other part of the deal isn't great either--but put it all together and it is better than losing Payton for nothing. From the Lakers perspective they can then take their MCE and go for Malone, Brown, or Howard. I am not a huge Tim Thomas fan, especially at his price, but I'd still be very tempted to package like Cato and Mooch for him. To me it makes a lot of sense for both teams--then all we have to do this offseason resign Posey, find a back-up center and back-up two for a mil or two each (Mark Blount, Voskahl, Ward, etc).
Basically, Milwaukee knew that it was time to start over from scratch. They built a team around the Big 3, and added pieces such as Anthony Mason to contend for the Eastern Conference title. What they ended up with was a soft, overpaid, shoot-first team that doesn't play any defense. That team was going nowhere, and they decided to start all over. They've already got their franchise PG in TJ Ford, who will start next year. TJ is the type of player that creates off the dribble, and makes other players better.
