Milwaukee Bucks: $15 Million for Zaza Pachulia? Really?
In what continues to be an extremely perplexing offseason for the Milwaukee Bucks, general manager John Hammond has elected to pay former Atlanta Hawk Zaza Pachulia $15 million over the next three seasons.
Read that sentence again.
Zaza Pachulia is a backup center who averaged 5.9 points and 6.5 rebounds in less than 22 minutes per game last season. He has never averaged in excess of eight rebounds a night in his entire career and he hasn’t been a double figure scorer since 2007. He does not block shots or even shoot an exceptionally high percentage from the floor considering how close to the rim he usually plays and how little his usage generally is. Pachulia’s player efficiency rating in 2012-13 was 13.1. League average? 15.
It isn’t just the fact that Zaza is not a positive impact player that makes this contract so maddening. The real question is: Where does he fit? Pachulia has never spent big minutes at power forward and Milwaukee already has two promising, talented young centers on the roster in Larry Sanders and John Henson. Barring injury, it isn’t clear exactly where Zaza will get minutes on this team next season. What exactly was the point of overbidding for a guy who really doesn’t fit a need? And who were the other suitors ready and willing to give Pachulia even HALF of what Milwaukee decided to pay?
It’s pretty clear that in some warped, alternate reality, Hammond is indeed trying to get closer to competing for a title. Carlos Delfino was also added to the fold, although on a much more reasonable three-year deal worth $3.5 million. Next on the agenda is what to do with Brandon Jennings, who is demanding a contract that will pay him $12 million annually. If the Bucks do indeed cave and give Jennings his money, they’ll then be over the salary cap the next two seasons. At that point, will their be a team in the NBA in a worse situation than Milwaukee? The Bucks will be a bottom-tier Eastern Conference playoff team that lacks the flexibility to sign free agents and isn’t bad enough to land a franchise player in the draft. The “above all else, put a competitive team on the floor” mantra Milwaukee continues to display may be noble, but noble doesn’t get you where you need to be in the NBA.
The Milwaukee Bucks are a franchise so lost, not even a GPS could save them at this point. Thanks to the fact that half of the Eastern Conference is headed into the tank, they’ll be able to sneak into the playoffs in 2013-14 with the roster they’ve put together. But clearly, the front office doesn’t feel they have a franchise player in the fold (as evidenced by the reluctance to pay Jennings, maybe the closest facsimile to a franchise-type on the roster). In a league dominated by superstars, it is extremely difficult to win a title unless you have one of the top 10 or 15 players in the NBA on your team. Nobody in Milwaukee is on that level and thanks to the decision made by the front office to overpay for guys like O.J. Mayo and Zaza Pachulia, the Bucks will not have the cap space over the next few seasons to pursue a truly elite talent and they won’t be bad enough to land one through the draft. Again, it’s been beaten to death by people who follow this league, but it bears repeating. The worst place to be in the NBA is the middle. Worse than even that? In the middle with no cap space after signing the likes of Zaza Freakin’ Pachulia.
It’s been a bizarre offseason. The Los Angeles Clippers and Brooklyn Nets make leaps into contention while the Lakers get spurned in free agency isn’t exactly a narrative you’ll here all the time during the NBA’s summer months. But the one constant that has remained? Many NBA general managers still don’t get it. John Hammond is one of those general managers. Constructing a roster the way he has this offseason will cripple a franchise and either this year or next, it may cost him his job in Milwaukee.