The Milwaukee Bucks came into existence in 1968 and by 1971 they won their first and only NBA Championship. Things took a turn for the worse in 1975 for the Bucks when they traded center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the Los Angeles Lakers in one of the most lopsided trades in NBA history as it changed the fate of both franchises. The Bucks have never made another NBA Finals appearance since the trade went down while the Lakers would go on to win five NBA Championships with Abdul-Jabbar. The Bucks would be a consistent playoff team in the 1980’s while they only made three postseason appearances in the 1990’s. Lately the Bucks have become a franchise that will make a trip to the NBA Playoffs every few seasons while mainly being the whipping boy for the rest of the NBA. After being swept by the Miami Heat in the first round of the NBA Playoffs last season, the Bucks had the worst record in the league this season as they only won 15 games, but all is not lost in Milwaukee.
After owning the Bucks for the past 30 years, United State Senator Herb Kohl has agreed to sell the franchise to hedge fund billionaires Wesley Edens and Marc Lasry. The sale of the Bucks will be for a reported $550 million as Edens and Lasry will look to breath some new life into the Bucks.The sale of the Bucks must still be approved by the other team owners in the NBA and one of the sticking points for the purchase of the Bucks by Edens and Lasry was that the franchise must remain in Milwaukee. The Bucks have played their home games at the Bradley Center since 1988 which is one of the most outdated basketball arenas currently in the NBA. New NBA commissioner Adam Silver recently toured the Bradley Center and he wants to work towards having a new arena in Milwaukee. Milwaukee is one of the smaller markets in the NBA, but that should not stop the Bucks from competing as long as Edens and Lasry have a plan in place for this team to succeed.
Edens founded the Fortress Investment Group in 1998 while Lasry founded the Avenue Capital Group in 1995 and he now has a net worth of $1.7 billion. Now these two great business minds are coming together in the hopes of making money and giving the people of Milwaukee a professional basketball team that they can be proud of.I will bet dollars to doughnuts that the Bucks will get a new arena within the next few years or else Edens and Lasry would not have stepped up to the plate in order to purchase the franchise. John Hammond has been the Bucks general manager since 2008, but will Edens and Lasry trust him to remain in their front office?
Under Hammond the Bucks have only made two playoff appearances. Last summer the Bucks lost their starting backcourt in guards Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis. Jennings went to the Detroit Pistons via a sign-and-trade while Ellis signed as a free agent with the Dallas Mavericks. Jennings and Ellis combined for nearly 33 percent of the Bucks offense during the 2012-2013 NBA season and Milwaukee was never able to fill that void in the past season.
Regardless of who will be the Bucks general manager next season, Milwaukee will have a top pick in June’s NBA Draft. The Bucks have the best shot of winning the NBA Draft Lottery next month and even if they are unable to secure the first overall pick they still should have a top five selection which will enable Milwaukee to have a run at picking on the draft’s top prospects in forwards Jabari Parker, Aaron Gordon, Andrew Wiggings, or Julius Randle.
In his first year as Bucks head coach, Larry Drew had one of the youngest rosters in the NBA to work with this past season. The Bucks allowed 103.7 points per game which was 25th in the NBA while they only scored 95.5 points per game which was 28th in the league. Center Larry Sanders, shooting guard O.J. Mayo, and power forward Ersan Ilyasova combined to miss 106 games this past season and each player was expected to be a big part of what the Bucks wanted to do. The Bucks will need all three players to be healthy for next season while point guard Brandon Knight continues to improve as he averaged a career-high in points per game (17.9), and assists per game (4.9) this past season. Being that the Bucks play in one of the smaller-markets in the NBA it will be up to their front office to do a tremendous job of drafting and developing players if they are going to compete in the NBA. Luckily for the Bucks they play in the lowly Eastern Conference so a quick turnaround is not that hard to fathom.
It will be imperative for the Bucks to strike it big with their first round pick at the NBA Draft as the right scoring forward (if they choose to draft one), along with a healthy team of veterans could be the difference in the Bucks contending for a postseason spot next season. The Bucks have $47 million committed to player salaries for next season. The NBA’s salary cap is expected to increase by $5 million to nearly $64 million for next season and the Bucks should have at least $15 million to work with this summer.
Whoever the Bucks draft in the first round this June, Edens and Lasry will more than likely attempt to make him the face of the franchise as they are looking to put their own spin on the Bucks brand in Milwaukee. If Edens and Lasry are committed to winning, this will be an important summer for them and the Bucks.
Source: Basketball-reference.com, Forbes.com
Hopefully for the sake of the Milwaukee Bucks the new owners in Marc Lasry and Wesley Edens will inject some life into the franchise. The Bucks will need to draft better, but they should also benefit from the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement.
They can’t be any worse than they are now. The Bucks have been absolutely terrible for more than 20 years save for a few exceptions such as the time George Karl ran the team. Unfortunately, as long as the team remains in Milwaukee, they will never be able to attract the marquee talent crucial for it be a true contender and be nothing more than a marginal or mediocre team at best.