The Bratwurst - Milwaukee Bucks Blog

In some ways, it’s a little harsh to give it to a GM who has made some mistakes because that does come with the territory — if you take a risk there is a pretty good chance it will come back to bite you.

There is a consistent theme to Harris’ mistakes, and they point to his major failing that I will mention again and again: he has been way too optimistic about how good his team was. That’s the sort of thinking that leads a GM to discard second round picks in favor of projects and that’s what leads GM’s to mortgage the future on long term “win now, pay later” contracts.

Just because he’s made a couple of colossal errors doesn’t mean that he’s a bad GM or that he wont learn from his past errors, but these moves are the reasons why this team has not been able to improve beyond a .500 team under his watch, and it’s going to take a major leap from the personnel in place for this team to get much better.

Bad Moves

2005: Traded Desmond Mason and a 2006 first round pick to New Orleans for Jamaal Magloire. This trade looked great at the time but would have been a complete disaster had New Orleans not used the pick to select Cedric Simmons. Simmons projected as the sort of tough, rebounding, shot blocking power forward the Bucks would need (and would probably have taken had they kept the pick) but instead has turned out to be an unqualified bust. Other than that, this trade is a perfect example of Harris’ overarching optimism clouding his view of the reality of his team , he felt that the Ford/Redd/Simmons nucleus was ready to make a deep playoff run immediately, and didn’t want a slow rookie season from Andrew Bogut gumming that up. Unfortunately, he failed to realize two things: (1) the team wasn’t that good in the first place and (2) neither was Magloire. It turns out that a slow recovery from a broken finger wasn’t what has dragged Magloire’s play down from “All-Star” level two seasons previously; it was that he had had a fluke good season in a horrible conference with no good centers in it. So all the Bucks got out of the deal was 2 years without Desmond Mason screwing up the offense, 1 season of Bogut’s development being screwed up by playing out of position, and one 8th seed playoff trip. I originally had this trade listed as good because it seemed so benign, but I’ve moved it to bad simply because they may not have taken Cedric Simmons with the pick, or may have pulled off some ridiculous, convoluted trade involving TJ Ford and the pick that would have netted them LaMarcus Aldridge or something like that. But we’ll never know, because despite having Bogut and Gadzuric and the chance to sign Pachulia for $4 million, Larry Harris had to have another center.

2006: Drafted David Noel (2 years/$1 million). I normally wouldn’t crack on a second round pick, but this one deserves it because it was such a wasted opportunity. Harris’ optimism about the team’s prospects got in the way as instead of trying to find a player who could help them immediately he went for a guy who might be good in 3-4 years (which sucks since he’s only signed for two). Noel busted onto the scene at the NBA Draft combine when he graded out as the best athlete there, which if you think about it is really meaningless. He may have played on big-time college teams at North Carolina, but was only good enough to start for one year. Now, before the draft I remember hearing rumors that the Bucks had promised the pick to Craig Smith, which would have been great had he not gotten taken before they got the chance. However, considering Smith shows that Harris wasn’t scared of taking an undersized power forward, and there was another one out there whose college numbers had all the math guys screaming “steal of the draft”: Paul Millsap. A stud at Louisiana Tech who led the NCAA in rebounding for 3 years, Millsap has become a 20 minute per game energy machine for Utah. He’s a dirty work player who shoots a high percentage, rebounds like a maniac and plays solid defense. He’s the sort of difference maker that would mean an extra 3-4 wins a year for the Bucks, and there’s no doubt that he’s the sort of player the Bucks needed to add at the time. But Harris took the guy who did a really good shuttle run.

Very Bad Moves

2005: Bucks do not match Hawks offer sheet for Zaza Pachulia (4 years/$16 million). Harris couldn’t match this offer because it came after he had already wasted his backup center cash on Dan Gazduric (see “Horrendous Move”). The problem isn’t so much that the Bucks kept Gadzuric and let Pachulia go (at the time, Gadzuric looked like the better player), but that the botched negotiations with Gadzuric cost the Bucks a ton of money and two extra years on the contract (to say nothing of losing the better player) and it was all to sign a career backup, considering that Andrew Bogut had just been selected. Meanwhile, Pachulia has played pretty well for Atlanta.

2006: Traded a 2007 second round pick to San Antonio for Damir Markota. I don’t have quite as much a problem with the fact that the Bucks did this trade as I do with the way it was handled. Harris had done well scouring Europe to that point (Bell, Ilyasova) so if he felt Markota had potential, why not take the shot. First of all, the Bucks never even had to bring Markota to the NBA in the first place. They could have let him stay in Europe, get a little older, and develop his game. Once they did bring him in, why let him stagnate on the bench? Why not use him? Why not send him to the D-League? It worked pretty well for Ilyasova the year before. It was just unreal , last season got worse and worse, the pick the Bucks owed to San Antonio got better and better, and Markota still sat on the bench, even in March and April when the season was completely lost. Since he was released this year, it appears to me that Harris figured out early on that he had really screwed this one up — Markota wasn’t that good in the first place and sending him to the NBDL wouldn’t fix that. Adding to the problem, Markota was supposedly 19 years old last year, but was apparently regularly seen in Water Street bars after games. Seems that he used the same birth certificate-fixer as Yi and Ilyasova. Meanwhile, San Antonio wasted the 2007 pick on Marcus Williams, who they cut in training camp. But the Bucks still are looking for that backup power forward who can rebound, and two of the three picks after the Bucks should have picked this year were Glen “Big Baby” Davis (currently seeing important minutes on Boston) and Jemareo Davidson (Charlotte’s 4th best player this year).

Very Very Bad Moves

2005: Traded a 2006 second round pick to Cleveland for Jiri Welsch. This one just didn’t make any sense at all. I mean, everybody already knew that Welsch sucked. He was 25 and on his third team already. Cleveland was being laughed at to no end for blowing a first round pick to bring him in as a designated shooter, only to find that he couldn’t shoot , he was white and slow, so everyone must have just assumed he could shoot. Why would Harris let the Cavs out of their gaffe? I don’t understand the logic of; “if Cleveland gave up a first rounder for him, then we are getting a bargain by only giving up a second rounder for him.” If he’s bad, he’s bad, right? It’s the same sort of logic as; “Hey, the 49ers were going to take Aaron Rodgers #1 overall, but now he’s available at #20, so he must be a great pick here!” If he’s a bust then it doesn’t matter where he was picked , he’s still a bust! Well, once again it must be an indication of Harris’ overwhelming optimism about his team , assuming that they were ready for a deep playoff run, and thus needed a veteran “designated shooter”. Or another Eastern European for Toni Kukoc to talk to. Meanwhile, Cleveland was able to spin that second round pick into another second rounder (actually getting their own pick back that they had traded in another deal) and used it on Daniel Gibson. Nice job, Harris , you took a problem off the hands of a division rival and gave them their starting point guard two years later to boot. Meanwhile, that Bucks second rounder was used by Orlando on Lior Eliyahu, while the next three picks were Alexander Johnson (serviceable backup power forward), Dee Brown (a favorite of mine who wound up getting a tryout with the Bucks this year) and , look! There’s that name again! , Paul Millsap.

2007: Matched Miami offer to Charlie Bell (5 years/$18 million). For a long time, I’ve been meaning to write a post about why matching this contract was really, really, really dumb, but with Bell’s shooting percentage getting closer and closer to 20%, that just seemed like piling on. Here’s the thing , Bell is supposed to back up your best player (Redd) and point guard who just signed a 6 year contract (Mo). He’s never going to start unless something goes seriously wrong. So why would you ever sign a backup , not a 6th man of the year type, a generic backup , to a 5 year deal? Especially one that will pay him until he’s 33, and well past his prime? Don’t get me wrong , Bell played so hard and so much the last two years that there is nothing wrong with him getting paid , even overpaid , for a year or two. But why for five? If Harris found him for the minimum, why wouldn’t he be able to do a little work and find someone else cheap and short-term who would give 85% of Bell’s production? Who knows when the Bucks might actually keep a second rounder and use it on a big guard who can play a little “¦ Ramon Sessions, for example. Never mind that Bell didn’t want to be in Milwaukee anyway , let him go! It’s a FIVE year commitment to him! Until he’s 33 years old! It is guaranteed that you will be able to find another adequate backup guard one way or another! Matching this deal was so incredibly dumb that I wonder if Harris matched the offer out of spite for Bell’s trying to talk his way out of town. And my old posts prove that I felt that way long before Bell came out shooting a scorching 25% this year. Hopefully they can trade him once the restrictions on his contract end (in a couple of weeks).

Horrendous, Colossally Bad Move

2005: Signed Dan Gadzuric (6 years/$36 million). Resigning Danny G wasn’t the worst idea in the world, but the way Harris handled it was. Gadzuric had improved in each of his first three years in the league (and actually played pretty well in the first season of the new contract) but he was already 27 years old in 2005, so he wouldn’t continue improving that much. The thing about the whole negotiations is that Gadzuric , like Pachulia at the same time , was a restricted free agent and the Bucks had Bird rights on both of them. Harris could have waited, let Gadzuric and Pachulia’s agents troll for offers from other teams, and then chosen whether to match whatever came in. Instead, he ran out and offered Gadzuric a 6 year deal. Why do that? Why not wait and see if another team felt he was worth the full midlevel? Harris had already drafted Bogut, so just like the Bell signing, Gadzuric was never, ever going to be a starter under this contract. But he’s getting paid like one , he actually will be making more than Bogut until after next season. Now they are going to be paying him until he is 33, and since his game has completely fallen apart they are stuck with him. It just absolutely blows my mind that Harris would offer Gadzuric that sort of money and a contract of that duration to be a backup without even seeing what the rest of the market would bear for him. Would anyone else really have offererd Gadzuric a full-midlevel deal? Even if they had another team could have only offered him 5 years! It just doesn’t make any sense, and it wound up costing them Pachulia , a player with a cheaper, shorter term contract who wound up being a significantly better player. And by saving a few million on Gadzuric they could have matched Pachulia, not bothered with Magloire, and kept their 2006 first round pick.

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