2014-2015 Finish: 48-34

Season Highlight

Keeping a young and developing core together en route to a 9 win improvement only yielded a one seed improvement in the tough Eastern Conference. Russell Westbrook fought through a few injuries somehow not missing a single game and was capable of running the team without his co-star DeMarcus Cousins for nearly half of the season.

Season Lowlight

13 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 assists are great numbers for a promising rookie to put up. The problem is that those are the combined totals averaged by Milwaukee’s 2014 draft haul of Jusuf Nurkic, Noah Vonleh, Aaron Gordon, and Zach LaVine. They were all top 20 picks that still have a ton of upside and have even shown some great flashes of being good players in the long run. The problem is that they’re slated to play significantly larger roles in the coming season and haven’t shown that they can handle that burden on an NLL court to date.

Best Trade

The Houston Rockets send Aaron Gordon to the Milwaukee Bucks. The Milwaukee Bucks send Jrue Holiday to the Houston Rockets.

This was really a pretty even deal, but it was both good for the Bucks and also unwound the point guard dilemma they had been dealing with for quite a while. It’s certainly not surprising to see badwolf chasing after a promising prospect and Aaron Gordon certainly fits the bill. What they were able to do was extract the value they saw in Jrue and it was the right thing to do because Westbrook was poised for an amazing season and Holiday just wasn’t going to be able to shine playing next to or behind him.

Worst Trade

The Orlando Magic send Thanasis Antetokounmpo and Alessandro Gentile to the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Orlando Magic send a 2nd-Rounder (Orl) to the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Milwaukee Bucks trade -25 GM points.The Orlando Magic receive 25 GM points.

Badwolf has obviously had a great eye for talent over the years and doesn’t get enough credit for the number of prospects he’s developed into big time players. However, the team is all set on the youth side of things and was really setup to take the next step behind Boogie, Russ, Giannis and a hoard of other talented youngsters. Leading up to and for the first few weeks of the season, the Bucks were like a man possessed over getting second round picks. In the end they spent north of 50 points to bring in a slew of seconds. It’s not that they were awful investments, but at some point you quit rolling the dice on 2^nd round prospects and guys that may never come over and invest in the here and now.

 

Other Notable Trades

The Toronto Raptors send Cameron Payne to the Milwaukee Bucks. The Milwaukee Bucks send the 25^th pick, 35^th pick, and 25 GM points to the Toronto Raptors

I liked this deal for the Bucks. They gave up a good amount of points, but they were able to consolidate some of their later picks into a guy that looks like a better prospect.

The Milwaukee Bucks send DeMarcus Cousins to the Brooklyn Nets.

The Brooklyn Nets send a 1st-Rounder (Bkn) to the Milwaukee Bucks. The Milwaukee Bucks send a 2nd-Rounder (Was) to the Brooklyn Nets.

Obviously this writer is a little biased on this deal... Towns is a tremendous prospect and in all likelihood will be playing in all-star games at some point. Without trying to sound like a broken record, the issue I have is that the Bucks are already in position to compete at the next level. Cousins is probably the best center in the entire league, is still young enough to be considered “young”, and gives you an amazing pair with Russ. On the other side, Towns becomes one of 9 first round picks on the roster from the last two drafts. I don’t think the deal was awful, and it doesn’t set Milwaukee back in the long term, but it probably costs them a shot at competing with the best in the East this coming season.

The LA Lakers send Marco Belinelli and Noah Vonleh to the Milwaukee Bucks. The LA Lakers send Mario Chalmers to the Orlando Magic. The Milwaukee Bucks send Jarrett Jack to the LA Lakers. The Milwaukee Bucks send Dorell Wright to the Orlando Magic. The Orlando Magic send Gerald Henderson to the LA Lakers. The Orlando Magic send Festus Ezeli to the Milwaukee Bucks.

The LA Lakers send a 2nd-Rounder (LAL) to the Orlando Magic.

I really liked this one for the Bucks. They gave up a couple of quality vets in Jack and Wright but also brought back similar level players in Belinelli and Ezeli. Even if they do have plenty of prospects, pulling in Vonleh for what isn’t too much of a downgrade in veteran role players was a good yield. Wright followed up 2013 with a dismal 2014 but Jack was a big part of the World Champion Lakers’ run to the title.

Best/Worst FA Signing

Bursting at the seams with solid players, they didn’t have space to sign a single free agent. They spent most of their offseason prep time picking up team options, and seeking DeMarcus Cousins’s signature on a very cap-friendly deal.

 

Star

Russell Westbrook – Surprised? Yeah right… This guy was phenomenal and then some! He averaged 31/4/6 with over 2 steals/game. Shot 47% from the field and 94% from the line! He somehow didn’t miss a game despite a few different injuries including literally having a dent in his face after taking a knee to the cheek from a teammate.

Surprise

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – KCP took a huge step up in 2014. He went from a role player in his rookie year to a solid 3^rd option behind Westbrook and Cousins. While all eyes were on Tobias or Giannis to make a huge leap this season, it was the third guy with a weird name ending in ‘S’ that did just that. He’ll have a lot of competition from Tobias and Giannis as well as Gordon, LaVine, Rashad Vaughn, and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson for minutes on the wing.

Goat

Giannis Antetokounmpo – None of the rookies really impressed, but this season Giannis was supposed to come in and look like a player at the cusp of superstardom. Instead he looked like any one of the countless other prospects with length and athleticism for days but that don’t know what to do when they hit the court. He seems to have all of the tools and abilities to figure it out, so maybe 2015 will be a new year for the Greek Freak.

Draft Report Card

There’s almost too much here to grade… they walked out the door with one sixth (!?) of the first round prospects, so I guess by quantity it was a huge success. I love how Towns and Payne look and am a lot less excited for Vaughn, RHJ, and Delon Wright. The mission seemed to be load up with potential at every position and that is what they did, coming away with a 5 man squad in just this draft alone.

Looking to the Future

I don’t think there is a team in the league you can look at and get more excited about that combination of players in 3-5 years. With 11 of the 16 guys they’re taking into training cap still on rookie contracts, they’re going to have some bills to pay in the next couple of years. The story here is all going to be about how they cycle this team forward? Will they trade Giannis, LaVine, and KCP for the next crop of lottery picks? Or will they allow this very promising mix of players to grow together? Outside of Gortat, Russ is the old man on the block, and at only 26, that is pretty crazy. He’s 4-5 years older than most of their core and looks primed to lead them further than ever before.

Upcoming Free Agents

Tobias Harris – He’s restricted, only 23, and should be a fixture in their rotation if they feel like they can afford him. They’ll at least look to use his restricted status to swing a sign and trade… Badwolf is too cunning of a GM to let him walk away for nothing.

Marco Belinelli – Belinelli is way older than the core and has a bevy of younger, faster, and frankly more talented prospects sitting in front of him. If everybody comes back and all of the draft picks are signed up, they’ll be sitting at 16, my money is on Marco being the odd man out.

Brandan Wright – Wright will probably look to bolt for somewhere he can find more of a consistent role. He got decent minutes during his time in Wisconsin last year… but they’ve got even more guys to compete with this season and I don’t see him beating out any one of Gordon, Harris, Towns or Gortat for minutes. Even Vonleh may give him a run for his money to syphon off the few remaining minutes.