Does anyone else see The Bucks making unwise business decisions? I certainly do. Now I understand Millwaukee isn't the best market to attract big name free agents, but I don't think that's any reason to go out and max out your team's payroll over the course of a single summer. Michael Redd? Max Contract? Fine, perhaps he's not a max caliber player, but I do understand the fact that The Bucks needed to over pay him in order to keep a franchise guard in town. Andrew Bogut, great selection. Desmond Mason, Jiri Welsch, TJ Ford, Dan Gadzuric, are all solid players. So now The Bucks, with cap room to spare, decide they MUST make yet another move so they can have a great season next year. So...They sign Bobby Simmons. One solid year last season and all of a sudden he's worth 47 Million Dollars over 5 years. Why? He's had one year worth mentioning and he's an undersized foward at just 6'6" 228lbs. Is he honestly worth 9.4 Million Dollars a season? No. Especially not when you have Desmond Mason who is more than capable of playing Small Foward. And certainly you don't want to play Simmons at Power Foward, his size and inability to defend that postion or block shots will prove to be career suicide for one Andrew Bogut. Why? The Bucks couldn't stand to miss the playoffs again next season? Is it truly that big of a failure for a team that's rebuilding? In my opinion that's why they went out and spent their cap room in such a hurry, they were afraid of the blacklash they may receive from their fans and the media if a winning season wasn't giving to them yet again. In my opinion The Bucks would have been much better off sitting on their remaining cap space until next season. Why not wait untill 2006? You could finally add that missing piece, a true power foward. Free Agent Fowards/Centers in 2006 include: Amare Stoudemire, Yao Ming, Nazr Mohammed, Michael Olowokandi, Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Wilcox, Ben Wallace, NeNe, Drew Gooden, Al Harrington, ETC. On top of that, who knows what kind of big men would be available on the trading block. I just think Milwaukee may have jumped the gun here. They could have spent their money a little more wisely and perhaps should have even sat on it for another year. I think the pressure to produce a winning franchise for next season forced The Bucks into making several signings even if it wasn't in the best interest of the team long term. Anyone else agree?
I can see what you're saying, man. When I first heard about signing Simmons, I thought the same thing. Why didn't we spend the cash on a big man? Why are we spending so much now? What I've realized though, is two things. 1) The team we've assembled fits well. I wish we would bulk up inside and play tough D and be more like the Spurs, but this team we have now can win with the style it's going to have. We've got a pair of lightning quick PGs, guys who can run and gun and pressure and make things happen. We've got a deadeye shooter in Redd, and now we've got two athletic guys on the wing. Guys who can score, solid complementary players for Redd. And now, with the draft, we've got an interior centerpiece. Add Gadzuric and or Zaza to Bogut (and Joe Smith) and our interior game isn't so bad. We've got a team thats going to get up and down and score, and while it's not my preferred style, it figures to work for us. 2) For so long, the Bucks have been reluctant to spend their money. Like some other teams. This year, though, even if it seems like we're throwing away our money like it's burning a hole in our pocket, at least we're spending it. We've overpaid for both Redd and Simmons, but they're both young, improving players. That's smart money. I'm glad that we're investing for the future. With a core of Redd, Bogut, Simmons, T.J and Mason, that's about as good a young core of players as there is in the NBA. All in all, I can definitely undestand where you're coming from man. We're throwing money around like crazy, and it can easily be viewed as reckless. But it's not. We've put our money on young players on the rise, and we should reap the benefits of this spending spree for years to come.
You could even say you have 2 deadeye shooters. Bobby Simmons is money from 20 feet in, and he can hit the 3 point shot efficiently, though he's not a volume three point shooter.
Yeah, you make good points.. But I'd rather have a free spending owner in Kohl (at least this summer) than a punk like Sterling.. Anyhow, it appears as tho they've agreed to up Gadzuric for 6 years 36 million.. I guess he's a mid-level type player.. But all of this is quite a lot of money.. Didn't know the Buckz were this far under the cap..
The Bucks had about 15 million to spend and about 10 million once they signed Bogut, and they used it all at once by signing Simmons (who filled up the gap pretty much). They then were able to resign their own players with the Bird exception, so they'll be going over the cap. I guess they might as well go for it now with Bogut. There are few good free agents next offseason, so they'd have to wait two years or for potential draft picks. Combine that with a draft class next year that doesn't have many big names in it, and they might as well hope for the best out of the players they have. I do agree, though, that they should have waited it out a bit. Simmons was probably recieving many MLE offers, and Milwaukee was the best team that was interested in him. That combination could have given Milwaukee the edge in the negotiations, not the other way around.
Ok, first off, I'll say I can step back and see where you are coming from, now I'm going to tell you where this team is headed and why..... For starters, when you compare the statistical numbers and most importantly the PER of Michael Redd, he is worth a max deal. Concodering his age is a huge factor aswell. Secondly, Bobby Simmons was not getting any MLE offers, he was getting HUGE offers from over a half dozen teams. Milwaukee got lucky to get him. And in no way shape or form is he an undersized forward. He's a standard sized 3, which is what he'll play in Milwaukee. I continue on again with this whole "Desmon Mason is already there" issue. It's not an issue. Mason will come off the bench, Simmons in younger, a better ball handler, rebounder and MUCH better shooter, and can defend almsot aswell. Mason has him in overall athleticism and dunking. Not comparable. Mason has never had a problem coming in as the 6th man, and his numbers last year, given the minutes he received, were no huge jump compared to his old 6th man role. His stats were not much less when he came off the bench. And if Mason were to not accept his role, you know he would command a lot in a trade, so he is just one more great asset. You need to look at it that way. Milwaukee is a running team with shooters all across the floor. Simmons, Redd, Ford are the kind of guys who can put up numbers ala the BIG 3 when we had Allen, Robinson, and Cassell, however, these guys will play D, do the dirty work or work together. They also have a huge edge over those teams, Bogut, who people like to forget we drafted. Add him to those 3, including Desmond, and it's called money well spent. We dont have a single un-movable contract on our roster besides Redd and Simmons, and we JUST signed them, so they are not going anywhere. There is a difference between spending to spend, and spending with a purpose, which Milwaukee is doing. Next, the Bucks do not need to go after a big man. We have Bogut, and less all of you forget our drafting or Ilyasova, who is our power forward of the future. No name you listed above (Amare, Yao, Shaq, Big Ben, Nene) are going to be coming to Milwaukee. And the hell if we will ever sign Olowokandi!!! We have assebled a team that blends together nicely. They didnt log jam or sign guys who couldnt play together. They all have the same work ethic and blue collar mentality to just "get the job done". Lastly, you need to spend to win. The Bucks arent winning by sitting on their wallets. They have not positioned themselves to be strangled by the cap. Sure they will slide over it, but not by and obscene magin. They have filled their roster from the 1 to the 5 with young talent. Most of our team is 25 and under. Factor in that Kohl is putting the Bucks on the market again, and what he has done to remake this roster, along with a young up and coming GM like Larry Harris, and it makes the Bucks a much more attractive team to purchase than last season. We have our MLE left yet, aswell as players who have expiring contracts AND assests if we ever need to pull a trade. If you look deeper into the Bucks situation, they could not have done too much better to not only fill their roster with talent, but put themselves in a financial situation to allow dealing and still have cap room to play with come next season. There is a difference between being "too anxious" and beating 29 other teams to the punch.
