How the Milwaukee Bucks scrapped a contender, refused to rebuild ... then somehow turned out great

- The 2001 Milwaukee Bucks came out of nowhere. Milwaukee hadn't competed seriously in more than a decade and they opened that season looking even worse than usual, going 3-9 around Thanksgiving 2000. Coach George Karl trashed his players in private and in the press. He called them irresponsible crybabies and millionaires. Shortly after, things improved. Because? It wasn't because general manager Ernie Grunfeld made any major midseason moves. He had already invested a lot of money from owner/senator/department store magnate Herb Kohl to cement this core. It was just that these guys clicked. They discovered it. The 2001 Bucks started with Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson, the Bucks' No. 1 pick in 1994.

They overcame some tough seasons in Milwaukee, but led their bounce-back season by scoring more than ever and meeting Karl's challenge of playing a team more complete. game. Robinson had another rising All-Star next to him. Ray Allen, 25, is already among the game's best shooters with the potential to become the NBA's next

great

two-point guard. Veteran point guard Sam Cassell set the table for Milwaukee's top scorers and had the championship experience to take his own big shots with confidence. Around their big three, Milwaukee had a stout, stalwart center in Ervin Johnson, they had a tantalizing young sixth man in Tim Thomas, and they had a fan-favorite glue in Scott Williams, who brought additional championship experience from his days with the MJ Bulls. .

This type will matter later. This Bucks team didn't defend much, but as the 2001 season progressed they shared the ball and scored from downtown, scoring more efficiently than even the NBA's most stellar offenses. The Bucks rode this wave of torrid, beautiful basketball to a first-round win over the Orlando Magic. They survived a surprisingly close second-round series against the Charlotte Hornets and reached the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals against league MVP Allen Iverson and his struggling, worn-out Philadelphia 76ers. With Iverson sick, the Bucks stole a game in Philadelphia and

then

took a two-game lead at home. The Bucks, a franchise that hadn't won a playoff series since the 1980s, that might have left Milwaukee if Herb Kohl hadn't saved them, that didn't make significant noise in the 1990s, were now two wins away from facing to Kobe and Shaq. in the 2001 NBA Finals.

And

then

came a collapse, or rather a dummy of multiple collapses. (ominous music) The 2001 Eastern Conference Finals are still quite controversial. We don't need to re-litigate every detail of the refs' anguish, but we can agree that things fell apart for the Bucks and the refs were part of that story. Milwaukee led two to one against a shattered Sixers lineup. Iverson in particular suffered an injury to basically every part of his body. But Philadelphia took games four and five. Iverson was available but not efficient, Dikembe Mutombo overwhelmed Ervin Johnson down low, and the decisive moments tilted toward Philadelphia.

In Game 4, it was Iverson scrambling to get to the rim and the free throw line to hold off a late Bucks rally. Late in Game 5, Philadelphia's Aaron McKie gifted Milwaukee two thick bricks at the free throw line. And then on defense, he lost track of Glenn Robinson. But Big Dog botched his winning open play and Ray Allen wrote down this tip before ringing the bell. - And the Sixers win to take a 3-2 lead! - Three to two, Sixers. Then there is the sixth game. On paper, it looks like a decisive shift in momentum toward the Bucks.

Ray Allen went into laser mode: nine three-pointers, 41 points and a personal 0-for-17 run in the first half of a double-digit victory for the Bucks, but it wasn't that simple. Milwaukee had been seething about calls throughout the series. Robinson attacked the referees after being ejected in the fourth game. Well, in the process of winning the sixth game, the Bucks broke out. They were angry because the Sixers almost came back with a bunch of Iverson free throws in the fourth quarter. They were angry that senior forward Scott Williams was ejected for a flagrant foul, which then got him suspended for the seventh game.

So the Bucks entered their decisive game without their starting forward, and also very, very grumpy. Grumpy and so loud in public that both Allen and coach Karl were fined for accusing the NBA of conspiring to get the uber-popular Iverson to the Finals. In any case, without Williams, with Iverson finding an unwavering rhythm, with Mutombo bullying Johnson from deep and without much scoring outside of their big three, Milwaukee fell pretty easily in game seven, but don't let that conclusion overshadow a fantastic one. Surprising season for the Bucks. The best offense in the league, a rock solid core and maybe moving forward with the spirit of us against the world to ensure the coach and the stars stay focused.

Well, let me start by saying that a new player shouldn't ruin a good NBA team. It doesn't work that way. If that seems to be the case, then the equipment was probably fragile to begin with. Okay, so in the summer of 2001, general manager Ernie Grunfeld didn't do anything significant until just before training camp when he suddenly traded away the beloved Williams and a pick that became Josh Smith, just to make room for... Hello! Just days before the season began, Milwaukee signed Anthony Mason to a multi-year contract. Grunfeld knew the super-tough, brash forward from his time with the hellish Knicks of the 1990s.

The general manager knew what Mason brought to the table as a dynamic player and, for better or worse, a fearless presence in the locker room. Since he left New York, Mason had broken in as a primary offensive option in Charlotte and played a surprise All-Star season in Miami. And now here he was in Milwaukee turning 35, exhibiting the physical level of, well, someone he had waited until late October to sign with a team. Mase played a healthy and statistically decent 2001-2002 season in Milwaukee, but trading him for Scott Williams shook up that harmonious offense from the previous year.

Coach Karl gave Mason's team a lot of minutes and an excess of responsibility in handling the ball. And as was his tendency, Mase made some noise. On a team with a pre-established pecking order, Mase wanted the ball more and said so without apology. He criticized the Bucks' practice habits, was overheard insisting that Karl bench one of his "jump shooter" teammates,

somehow

turning the Bucks' best trait into an epithet. But while Mason's disturbance made him an easy scapegoat, there was a lot else going on. For one thing, the Bucks suffered injuries. Allen had never missed a game before 2001, but he battled knee tendonitis throughout the season.

Robinson sat out 16 games, Tim Thomas and Sam Cassell were known to be playing injured. And then there's Coach Karl. To the extent that Karl's callous rhetoric motivated the Bucks' turnaround in 2001, it

turned

out much worse as they slumped in 2002. The Bucks had a pretty solid record as the All-Star break approached, but After a loss to those Sixers, Karl went into a rage, labeling his stars as stubborn and selfish and proclaiming that someone needed to be traded or fired. Maybe himself. Karl continued to growl after the break, so much so that Ray Allen's mother became worried and the Bucks continued losing into the spring.

A five-game slide in early April, including a crushing loss to the horrible Cleveland Cavaliers, left the Bucks with an impressive break-even record. Still, Milwaukee only needed a win in Game 82 to maintain the eighth playoff spot. But that night in Detroit they were crushed by the hottest new team in the central division. A year after nearly reaching the finals, the Bucks fell from first place in mid-March to falling out of the playoff race in April. Since the 16-team playoff format was introduced in 1983, no team had sunk so deep and so fast. When you do that kind of story, you have to change things.

Glenn Robinson was the oldest member of Milwaukee's Big Three, present through good times and bad, but Big Dog, like many others, had argued with Coach Karl and his relationship with co-star Allen was also not very good. Robinson also entered that offseason embroiled in a grim domestic violence scandal. In the late summer of 2002, Grunfeld traded Robinson to the Atlanta Hawks, returning an over-under player, Toni Kukoc, plus a 2003 draft pick. Karl embraced the opportunity to remake the team's chemistry and get rid of the big man. Robinson contract. The Bucks now seemed to be Ray Allen's team. That was good on the court.

Trading Robinson certainly didn't make the Bucks better, but Allen proved to be a capable first option. And then, before the deadline of the 2002-2003 season, the mediocre Bucks shocked their fan base. They traded Ray Allen to Seattle. Another member of their former big three, a rising young electric star, had just passed away. Why would they do that? Coach. George Karl said Allen was nothing but trouble. Allen said he came to despise the coach, though he later claimed it wasn't so much animosity as Karl's anguish because the star was close to team owner Herb Kohl. For what it's worth, Kohl had to approve the Allen deal but regretted doing so, while Ray enjoyed a long and brilliant career elsewhere.

He admitted it years later. And even then, business was shit. Milwaukee gave up Allen, a few other players and a first-round pick. From the Supersonics, they got Desmond Mason, who was an exciting young dunk contest champion but ultimately wasn't that good, and they got Gary Payton, an established star, although he's 34 and playing on a long-term contract. is about to expire and perhaps still harbors a grudge against Karl from when he coached the Sonics. Oh, and Payton was a true point guard, like Sam Cassell. The Bucks traded their best player for a guy who played the same position as their next best player.

Very rare. If the trade made any basketball sense, it was right here. Buried in Milwaukee's former conference finals team was a diamond in the rough. Michael Redd had been a second-round pick and played only garbage time as a rookie in 2001. But since then, Redd had reshaped his skills to become one of the best three-point shooters in the NBA. The smooth lefty progressed from bench scorer to starter and, in 2003, a legitimate successor to Ray Allen. "The next star of the Bucks defense". Well ahead. Some sort of unbalanced new core led Milwaukee to basically the same record as the year before.

The Bucks sneaked into the 2003 playoffs and gave the New Jersey Nets a scare in the first round. A critical last-second finish in Game 3, Rodney Rogers in the clutch, Payton missing at the buzzer, went New Jersey's way. The Nets took him out in six. So, Bucks, you traded your two best players to appease the coach. His performance basically didn't change. What are you doing now? Step one: Trade the third player and Ervin Johnson as well. This was just terrible treatment. After being traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Sam Cassell immediately enjoyed an All-Star resurgence. Milwaukee didn't get enough in return for him, but maybe Ernie Grunfeld had something else up his sleeve...

Oh. Days later, Grunfeld left to take the Washington Wizards job. Alright. Longtime Bucks employee Larry Harris got a promotion and in his first significant act as general manager, he saw Gary Payton leave in free agency for nothing. Payton was the big name that Milwaukee acquired by sacrificing Ray Allen and his entire Buck career was 28 games and one loss in the playoffs. Journal. But now Harris had a clean slate. It would be his task to completely reinvent the team for coach Karl... Oh, okay. The coach who once insisted that Milwaukee trade stars or fire him understood both.

After blowing up their big three in a succession of bad trades, Milwaukee also sent Karl packing. If this all seemed like the work of a distracted and confused franchise, well, that might be because Herb Kohl was in talks to sell the Bucks to another guy. The name sounds familiar to me. However, that deal fell through. Kohl retained ownership of a team well positioned to zero out and

rebuild

. But here's the thing about Herb Kohl: the quality that sets this collapse apart. The man did not want to disconnect it. Call it pride, call it stubbornness, and don't forget that the team once flirted with leaving Milwaukee, but the Kohl's franchise rejected incentives to go underthroughout the next decade, an era that wavered between mild promise and mild disappointment.

It started in 2003-2004. Only the third season, after being close to the final, went well. The Bucks got a hot young coach in Terry Porter, Redd absolutely stood out as an All-Star, Tim Thomas left in a sort of lateral trade for Keith Van Horn and his

great

teams. While Milwaukee hadn't lucked out with any of the real prizes of the 2003 draft, it did enjoy the talents of rookie point guard TJ Ford. Ford looked fantastic until a horrific spinal injury ended his season and also cost him the entire next season. The short-handed Bucks claimed a spot in the 2004 playoffs, but ran into the eventual champions in the first round.

Here the cycle began. Milwaukee felt they had enough to run in 2005, but injuries hurt them and Porter was fired. The Bucks sank to just 30 wins, that stinking gray area between playoff contention and the best lottery odds. The fate of non-oilers. But Milwaukee got very lucky that offseason. A slim 6% chance of winning the lottery drawing was worth it. With their unexpected number one pick, the Bucks selected Andrew Bogut, a very solid center, although not one of the superstar point guards that defined that draft. Milwaukee felt ready at point guard with TJ Ford returning from injury. Bogut, Ford, a new-look Michael Redd and newcomer Bobby Simmons formed a good nucleus for new coach Terry Stotts.

Back to the playoffs, where Milwaukee fell again to the Pistons, but hey, a rebound. And then a recession. More moves, more injuries, another fired coach, another losing record and this time some bad luck in the lottery, Milwaukee missed out on a great draft pick and one of these guys, and since they were already employing Bogut, passed on taking Joakim Noah to select Yi. Jianlian, a guy who didn't want to play in Milwaukee at all, battled injuries and inconsistency, then left town after just one year. Once again, a bad season, but not bad enough. Another missed opportunity to draft the best of the best in 2008.

Another disappointing lottery pick that didn't last in Milwaukee and midway through the 2008-2009 season, Milwaukee lost its only All-Star caliber player of this era. Michael Redd broke his knee in January 2009. Redd would never be the same player and left Milwaukee a couple of seasons later. Still, the Bucks didn't come up empty. The next seasons get confused. Milwaukee traded youngsters for veterans. They changed veterinarians for veterinarians. They spent quite a bit of money to land one free agent after another, after another, after another. Meanwhile, Milwaukee used a succession of mid-level lottery picks to select players who were good but didn't reach their potential as a Buck.

In the process, they left behind a couple of future big stars. This is a bland, featureless era that is consistently at or just below average Bucks basketball. No stars, no home run draft picks, no playoff hype except a little head fake in 2010. Finally, 2013-2014 hit rock bottom. Before that season, general manager John Hammond used another mid-round draft pick on a mystery youngster and acquired veterans who didn't make a difference, plus a recent nobody in the second round. The fans conveyed his tiredness through an advertising poster. To win you need balls. You need good lottery odds to recruit the best players and to ensure good lottery odds, you need to stop plugging holes and allow a tank to run its course.

Well, Milwaukee purposely ignored the tank call, but the tank came for them anyway. Bad moves and bad luck combined to give the 2014 Bucks a franchise-low 15 wins. Toward the end of that season, Herb Kohl, 79, sold his franchise to some billionaire private equity hedge fund guys. And then there were none. The abrupt collapse and demolition of this team gave way to long-term decline and eventually sale in 2014. This low point comes with a couple of opposite punchlines. Hitting rock bottom didn't pay off. The Bucks were able to pick second in 2014, but they selected Jabari Parker, yet another player who failed to live up to his potential and whose career fell short of the players drafted below him.

But all that mess in between

somehow

paid off. This 2014 roster, this bleak, accidental 15-win failure included a future All-Star in Khris Middleton and a future multiple MVP winner, Finals MVP and surely Hall of Famer, Giannis Antetokounmpo, two key components. of the 2021 NBA champions. . What can we learn from the collapse of the Milwaukee Bucks? Well, some great equipment is volatile and could be incinerated at any second. They may burn longer than fans want, because lottery odds don't reward the owner's stubborn refusal to cut costs and lose on purpose, but buried in the ashes, you might find a diamond or two or the value of an entire ring.

I do not know, man. Meltdowns can be really strange.