| Just Like Dallas Authored by Zach Eisendrath - July 3, 2006 - 5:22 pm
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But after a sub par season from the ‘Big Cat,’ and a disappointing conclusion to Milwaukee’s season, (free-falling all the way to the 8th seed on the last night of the season) Harris and most Bucks fans came to a gloomy conclusion: Magloire just doesn’t fit with what Milwaukee hopes to become.
Harris has stated publicly that he hopes to model the Bucks after a team the Western Conference Champion Dallas Mavericks. Harris doesn’t want the only positive connection between the two franchises to be the Harris name (his father Del is head coach Avery Johnson’s lead assistant coach). More on the negative connections (or supposed) between the two teams later.
I can understand what Harris sees as similarities between the teams and all indications – including drafting the supposed best athlete of the draft, North Carolina senior David Noel – prove Harris is striving to model his team after the Mavericks. While Magloire might have some similarities with Eric Dampier and DeSagana Diop, he can’t competitively produce in the up-and-down style starting point guard TJ Ford and backcourt mate (baring a trade) Mo Williams are most effective in. Nor would Magloire accept a limited role at this point in his career (remember Dampier and Diop were used sparingly in the first three rounds of the playoffs as Johnson tried to figure out the right combinations to attack the variety of combinations the Grizzlies, Spurs and Suns threw at them). This brings me back to Jamaal. He was clearly brought into Milwaukee based on the concept that has overtaken the NBA in recent years that you need a dominant big man that can go against Shaq. Once again you can’t blame Harris for going after Magloire since he is one of few players that have played Shaq straight up competitively throughout his career, but times are a changing. With Shaq not nearly the same player he was and with the new philosophy of playing O’Neal straight up with average centers be sufficient, Magloire is not as big of a commodity. Instead players like Josh Howard, Marquis Daniels and Jason Terry are more attractive.
In my opinion, the Bucks already have their Jason Terry in Mo Williams. Watching the NBA playoffs I couldn’t stop comparing Mo to Terry and I still won’t. During the regular season Terry and Williams, along with Detroit’s Chauncey Billups – were two of the three most clutch point guards in the NBA. Bucks fans all know of Mo’s heroics but Terry had his share, and besides for his debacle in game 6 of the NBA finals, had done the same for the majority of the playoffs. Sure, Williams isn’t the defender Terry is but “what if” Avery Johnson and Terry Stotts switched jobs for a week…or about ten years (we can only dream), I’m guessing Mo would be a better defender. I never questioned Mo’s effort defensively, something I did for first half of the season for TJ. Mo was always attacking but sometimes a little too Dan Gadzuric-like.
But where are our Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels? Well, perhaps Noel will fit the Daniels mold but now it is up to Harris to find our Howard. This is where I go back to the “what if” game. Had Harris kept Desmond Mason, our problems would have been solved in trying to find that running mate for Ford. “What if” Harris decided to re-sign Zaza Pachulia for 4 years at a civilized 16 million. Then maybe Milwaukee wouldn’t be worrying about acquiring Joe Smith’s successor at power forward. Of course, that can be debated depending on if you think Zaza’s true position is center, something the Hawks certainly do after drafting their eight power forward in the last two years when they reached for Sheldon Williams with the fifth pick.
Either way, the bread and butter of the Magloire deal might have been losing the 15th pick in the draft. At first it seemed insignificant in what appeared a weak draft, but even Harris admitted on Monday that giving up a middle round pick is not something he will do again anytime soon. While the draft may have been weak at the top of the board, my gut is that the entire draft top to bottom was deep – meaning the third player picked and #23 could have similar careers. The Hornets ended up picking lengthy power forward Cedric Simmons out of N.C. State with our pick – what would have been an almost ideal pick for us in that spot. Talented small forward’ Rodney Carney Shawne Williams out of Memphis also went after the Bucks spot, meaning Milwaukee would have had a plethora of young, athletic swingman to choose from.
But it is what it is. Harris now must make lemonade out of the lemons in his hand. Harris knows what he is doing. He has said he won’t just give away Magloire to free up the center position for Andrew Bogut and Gadzuric. The most logical of all rumors floating around the internet are former Syracuse standout Hakim Warrick and power forward Stromile Swift of Memphis for the ‘Big Cat.’ Swift is rumored to be on the move after being thrown in to make salaries work in the Shane Battie to Houston for Ruddy Gay on draft night. Warrick is the raw yet versatile type player Harris is looking for.
Word around town is owner Herb Kohl has told Harris he won’t take a large contract i.e. Carlos Boozer or Troy Murphy (can you blame him after the way Tim Thomas and Anthony Mason played in the purple and green?) Bobby Simmons didn’t exactly play great in his first year with the green and purple after signing a mammoth deal, but hey, maybe Simmons will do his best Santa Claus impression next season in new red and green colors the Bucks unveiled last night. Christmas colors from a Jewish owned team, makes perfect sense to me….just like it made perfect sense for Stu Jackson to suspend Scott Williams for Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals back in 2001….
Zach Eisendrath is sports columnist for the Minnesota Daily but also contributes moderately to RealGM. Zach can be reached by email at zeisendrath@mndaily.com. Comments, questions and feedback are always welcome. |
