HoopsHype.com Columns

Whatever happened to Milwaukee?
by Mike Sandrolini / April 22, 2002

With the NBA becoming more and more popular overseas, maybe now is as good a time as any for the league to set up its first international franchise. Why not moving the Bucks to Manila, capital city of the Philippines. Then you could call them the Manila Folders. Several years ago, a columnist referred to the Chicago Cubs -- who know a thing or two about folding in the waning months of a season -- as the original Manila Folders. But if you look at how the Bucks imploded after the All-Star break, it's safe to conclude that the plague of futility, held for so long by the Cubbies, has managed to drift 90 miles north and infect the Bucks.

When the 2001-02 campaign began, there were whispers that Milwaukee was on the verge of recapturing the team's glory years of the early 1970s, when the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then Lew Alcindor) and Oscar Robertson-led Bucks were one of the NBA's elite teams (Milwaukee won their only NBA crown in 1971). There certainly was enough reason to raise the bar of expectation. The year before, the Bucks were the league's Cinderella story. They won their first division title since 1986, posted their first 50-win season since 1987, and came within one shot of going to the NBA Finals.

This year, the Bucks had their big three of Sam Cassell, Ray Allen and Glenn Robinson returning. And to fill a void at power forward, the Bucks signed Anthony Mason. Milwaukee lived up to its preseason billing through the first half of the year, going 26-13 at one point. Then their year went about as flat as a bottle of Miller Lite left sitting open for too long. The Bucks dropped 17 of their last 23 games, lost 12 straight on the road and now find themselves in the running for a lottery draft pick instead of repeating as Central Division champions and competing for a berth in the finals.

So how, then, did a season of promise turn into a year of yuck? If we were to put Milwaukee's formula for free-fall this season on paper, it would look something like this: injuries + egos + griping = collapse.

The injury bug bit the Bucks hard. Allen and sixth man Tim Thomas -- a free agent whom Milwaukee re-signed to a whopping $67 million contract -- struggled through various knee ailments. Robinson and Cassell also missed a combined 21 games. All told, the Bucks lost 173 games to injury. But frustration and finger-pointing continued to mount along with Milwaukee's injuries and losses. Mason didn' quite fit into the Bucks' offensive flow. Coach George Karl tried different schemes with the hope of better utilizing Mason's abilities, but was unsuccessful, for the most part. Mason complained openly about his new teammates not looking to get him the ball inside. In one respect, Mason did have a legitimate beef: For all of his off-court problems and propensity for being a malcontent, he can score and rebound. And he's an unselfish player, perennially posting assist numbers that are among the NBA's best at his position.

However, given that the Bucks nearly catapulted to the NBA Finals on the shooting of Allen and Robinson -- along with the scoring and playmaking abilities of Cassell -- Allen, in particular, contended that Mason needed to
adjust to his new teammates, not vice-versa. GM Ernie Grunfeld took the diplomatic approach to Milwaukee's nosedive, telling after the season ended that "everybody has to take responsibility. I know George and the coaches take responsibility. All the players and individuals have to take responsibility because it's all of
us."

One would expect to see a shakeup of Milwaukee's roster over the summer, but it seems that Grunfeld has little maneuverability. "Big Dog" Robinson, always the subject of trade rumors, has to be at the top of any short list of
expendable players.

The Bucks could dangle Allen as trade bait, but would Grunfeld part with one of the team's go-to guys, as well as arguably its most popular player? Further, how many takers would there be for either Mason, center Ervin Johnson (who struggled this season) or Thomas -- each of whom (like Cassell) are inked to multiyear contracts?

Usually, when a team flops as badly as the Bucks, the head coach gets the ax. Karl has a two-year, $14 million extension on his contract that goes into effect next season; nonetheless, Grunfeld has all but ruled out that Karl won't be the scapegoat for the Bucks' woes, saying Karl is one of the game's best coaches.

Grunfeld's sentiments are accurate. Karl owns over 600 career wins and possesses a great track record of taking subpar teams and transforming them into winners. Yet it remains to be seen whether Karl can get his club to forget about the nightmarish, underachieving 2001-02 season and reach the level of play that it did the year before.

Mike Sandrolini has written about the NBA for various newspapers and magazines. He is a regular contributor to HoopsHype.com

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