The Milwaukee Bucks had a relatively quiet offseason, but that doesn’t mean they stood still. How should their moves this summer be graded?
Some teams enter the NBA offseason with wide open spaces and a vast array of possibilities before them. Whether armed with cap space, draft capital or open roster positions, these teams spend the summer months hard at work to take advantage while the window of opportunity is before them.
The Milwaukee Bucks were not one of those teams in 2017. Moves made over the past two offseasons — and especially the lottery-payout atmosphere of 2016 — left the organization with relatively few options this summer. No cap space and few open roster spots meant the Bucks were never going to dominate the offseason headlines.
But every team has to make decisions during each and every offseason to stay relevant. Whether building for the future or arming for the present, limited options still come with a responsibility to make moves. And the Bucks did not stand still — they made a number of moves that will have a lasting effect on this organization, for positive or for negative.
Were those decisions the right moves to make? With a small amount of objectivity sprinkled in with some perspective and a dash of hindsight, we will look back on the Milwaukee Bucks’ offseason and grade each move in turn. Things begin before even the NBA Draft, with the search for a general manager.
Hired John Horst as general manager
Prior to free agency, and prior to the NBA Draft, the Bucks made their first and perhaps most important offseason move. Filling the most crucial position in an NBA organization, the team hired Jon Horst to serve as general manager.
John Hammond steered the Milwaukee ship for the past few seasons, and was acclaimed league-wide for his foresight in drafting and developing talent. While many of his free agent moves were suspect, overall his reviews from both peers and analysts were positive.
But with his contract nearing its end, Hammond took advantage of an opportunity to earn a longer contract and title promotion with the Orlando Magic. That left a void in the Milwaukee front office after the conclusion of the season, with the draft and free agency fast approaching.
Despite the window of time, the Bucks seemed to take their time surveying the landscape and analyzing various candidates. While assistant general manager Justin Zanik was considered the overwhelming favorite, the team announced it would spend the time necessary to make the best decision.
In the end, the team decided Zanik was not that best decision, and they let him go. Instead they promoted former director of basketball operations Jon Horst to the role. A surprise selection, Horst won the team over with something other than pedigree.
Shortly after Horst was in place, the Cleveland Cavaliers announced that their general manager, David Griffin, was walking away. Whether Milwaukee would have strongly considered Griffin, he was a bigger name with a more proven track record.
Instead the Bucks tabbed Horst, and he will be their guy for the foreseeable future. Learning from John Hammond should give him the first step he needs; what happens next — this summer and beyond — will be proven out through his actions. Horst could be an excellent general manager, but if he is not this team will be criticized for taking a relative unknown instead of the better names around.
Grade: C+
No. 17 overall draft pick
Every other season the Bucks have found themselves in the same place in the first round, hovering just outside of the lottery. Four years ago they made the absolute most of it, drafting Greek forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and watching him blossom into a superstar.
Two years ago the pendulum swung the other way, as shooting guard Rashad Vaughn out of UNLV has failed to develop. While a strong showing at Las Vegas Summer League has cracked open the door to a bright future, through two seasons he has failed to demonstrate he is an NBA player worthy of a spot in a rotation.
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With pick 17 this season, the Bucks are hoping the pendulum makes a complete return to the side of star potential. They used the pick on Michigan big D.J. Wilson, a late bloomer who earned national fame during Michigan’s exciting run through the Big Ten tournament and into the NCAA Tournament.
Wilson is a versatile big with a variety of skills, and the athleticism to back them up. While not elite in any one area, he offers the package of a modern big, complete with rim protection and an outside jumper.
There were other options available to the Bucks at No. 17, and a few picks that would have been either a better fit or a better play for upside than the Wilson pick. He is not a perfect player, and there is a chance he fails to develop at all. But having made the pick, they were able to conduct the remainder of their draft and free agency with that in mind.
The pressure is off of Wilson for his rookie season, as the Bucks have plenty of other options at the 4 and are aimed for the playoffs without depending on Wilson for help. Anything he can give them is gravy. Reasonably he should strive for versatile development and a spot in the rotation in his rookie season; bigger goals can wait for later years.
Milwaukee did not blow the pick, as they took a gifted modern big man to slot into their future. But they also didn’t knock it out of the park, as they did with Antetokounmpo. Where the pendulum falls between the two will be discovered in the weeks and years to come.
Grade: B
Trade around and draft Sterling Brown
Last season the Milwaukee Bucks struck gold in the second round — or at least silver — in drafting Virginia point guard Malcolm Brogdon. In his rookie season Brogdon worked his way into the starting lineup and was a key part of the team qualifying for the postseason and pushing the favored Toronto Raptors to six games.
Milwaukee hopes to have repeated that feat this season, taking another long, skilled player in former SMU guard Sterling Brown. To acquire the pick, Milwaukee did a little draft dance, paying cash to the Philadelphia 76ers in order to take Brown at No. 46, then selling off pick No. 48 to the Los Angeles Clippers for cash in return.
Brown has the look of a 3-and-D player to him, and that will the primary hope for him. With ball-handling and playmaking at a premium in the league, the Bucks not only have a star who is dynamic with the ball in his hands in Giannis Antetokounmpo, but center Greg Monroe was a focal point of bench offense handling the ball himself.
That left Milwaukee free to draft a player off-the-ball who could guard either backcourt position. That isn’t to say Brown cannot handle the ball, as he showed himself to be skilled in a number of areas at SMU. But his strong suit will be shooting, and he can spot up off the ball in Milwaukee.
At that point in the draft, the other options are slim and subjective. Time will tell whether Milwaukee eventually wishes they had chosen Brown or gone with other available players such as Sindarius Thornwell or Kadeem Allen. For now, the pick seems to fit and be a solid value.
Grade: A-
Re-signing Tony Snell in restricted free agency
Moving past the 2017 NBA Draft, the Milwaukee Bucks had most of their decisions in free agency taken away from them. First, by spending freely in the summer of 2016 on players such as Matthew Dellavedova and Mirza Teletovic, the Bucks filled their roster and cap sheet with bench players making significant sums of money.
Secondly, centers Greg Monroe and Spencer Hawes each declined their player option, sticking with the Bucks for another season at their current salaries. That not only crammed full the center rotation, it evaporated what small amount of cap space the team could have had. Therefore their sights were turned inwards at the start of the free agency period.
Wiz of Awes
After acquiring Tony Snell in a trade prior to the start of last season, Milwaukee intended to deploy him as “Khris Middleton lite” to fill in while Middleton recovered from a hamstring tear. But Snell proved to be more than just a fill-in, shooting 40.6 percent from behind the arc and fitting into the defensive scheme like a glove.
Once July 1 hit, Snell became a restricted free agent. He could have signed an offer sheet with any team, but the Bucks retained the right to match that contract. Therefore his market elsewhere was depressed, as teams did not want to tie up their own cap space waiting for Milwaukee to decide whether to match.
From Milwaukee’s point of view, they would rather lock Snell up at their number and for longer than deal with the potential shenanigans of an RFA contract. Learning from the spending mistakes of last summer, the Bucks gave Snell life-changing money without breaking the bank.
Tony Snell and the Bucks agreed to a four-year, $46 million contract on the very first day of free agency, saving Snell the trouble of shopping around and the Bucks the trouble of matching. The pairing last season worked for both parties, and they quickly came to an agreement to extend it.
It’s possible that as the market cooled, the Bucks could have squeezed money out of Snell. It’s also possible a team looking for a 3-and-D wing could have rolled the dice with a Snell offer sheet, and the Bucks instead found themselves matching a contract that doesn’t fit their terms.
In all, re-signing Snell was a no-brainer, and they got the young wing at a solid dollar amount. Milwaukee can now count on his presence alongside Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo on the wing, and Snell can count on significant money after inconsistent seasons in 2014-15 and 2015-16.
Grade: A-
Overall
The Milwaukee Bucks offseason cannot be graded on what came before. They entered the summer with no cap space because of signings and trades from the past few years, and should not be penalized for a lack of moves when anything more than they did would have been cost prohibitive given their current situation.
Similarly, they cannot be graded on what they will do in the future. The Bucks are currently just over the luxury tax line, and will need to make a move during the season to move under. That could include waiving and stretching a player such as Spencer Hawes, or attaching an asset to offload Mirza Teletovic.
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What they could do this summer was hire a general manager, utilize their picks well in the NBA Draft, and re-sign Tony Snell to a fair deal. On the general manager front they alienated their assistant GM, went too slowly to acquire some highly qualified candidates and too quickly for another, and ultimately just elevated someone from within with no prior experience in the role. Not a disaster, but it wasn’t handled well.
The draft went better, as the Bucks stayed true to their ethos in drafting for two-way versatility and long, athletic frames. D.J. Wilson may not have been the best pick available, but he’s not a bad player, and has a role in the modern NBA. Sterling Brown, while less talented, likewise has a role provided he can hit shots at a solid rate.
Finally Snell finds himself returning to the team on a fair contract, one that rewards him for his contributions without further damaging their long-term cap sheet for a middle return. Compared to deals for Teletovic, John Henson and Matthew Dellavdeova, Tony Snell is signed at an incredibly reasonable number.
Milwaukee’s goals this season involve hosting a playoff series and reaching the second round. The only thing the team could have done this offseason to harm their ability to reach those goals was trade a major piece, and they did not do that. Therefore, one of the league’s rising young teams has reason to be optimistic heading into next year.
For now, Milwaukee will continue to make small moves that help move in a positive direction. Another summer they may have more to do, more options, more questions to answer. This year the questions were brief, and the answers briefer. While Milwaukee didn’t make a splash, they held course and true to their organizational beliefs.
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Therefore they ended with a middling, unexciting grade that speaks to a road between exciting heights and depressing lows.
Grade: B