The Malik Allen deal makes some sense in that the Bucks save some money. They certainly couldn’t have found some more interesting guys to pick up in the deal.
The Bucks got Sonny Weems and Walter Sharpe in the deal. Weems will likely get bought out — his contract only has $175,000 guaranteed. Weems is a highly athletic guard who apparently could potentially wind up in the NFL should his hoops career peter out. According to his former coach, George Karl, it’s headed that way:
Since the Bucks need to eliminate someone from their roster in order to make room for Brandon Jennings, Weems is clearly as good as gone.
Walter Sharpe is another story.
Despite being a 2-year veteran, he is a total enigma. He is supposed to be a highly athletic 6’9″ power forward who was originally drafted by John Hammond at Detroit. He had been traded to Denver this offseason in a cost-cutting move by the Pistons. Along with Amir Johnson, I’m seeing a trend with Hammond’s player evaluation style — he wants to stockpile athletic big men, hoping to eventually mine a mini-Kevin Garnett.
He’s supposed to have lottery talent. However, to say Sharpe had a checkered college career would be an understatement, as his resume includes:
– Getting kicked off of the Mississippi State team for transgressions that included missing team flights and practices, and being academically ineligible.
– Winding up at UAB.
– Before playing for UAB he was arrested along with 4 teammates for disorderly conduct and, in a really bizarre incident, shot with a small-caliber bullet in the abdomen — an incident which he tried to hide from the police and medical workers.
– Playing half a season for UAB before being declared academically ineligible.
– Being diagnosed with narcolepsy, which actually explains a lot.
As far as I can tell, Sharpe’s contract is guaranteed this season. He is big and athletic with a good handle, and Detroit had been trying to shift him to small forward, a transition that I would expect to continue in Fort Wayne this year. A good look at Sharpe can be found at this Nuggets blog, Roundball Mining Company. The odds are heavily against him ever developing into much of a player, but if he does the rewards could be great.
With these moves in place, the Bucks now find themselves far enough below the luxury tax to be able to match a full midlevel offer sheet to Ramon Sessions. But would they do that?
Despite theoretically having the necessary cap room, I think that if Sessions gets a full midlevel, maximum length (5 year) contract, they will let him walk. They didn’t draft Brandon Jennings to sit him forever, and while having Sessions around for the next two years while Jennings develops would be nice, his presence might cause more problems than it would solve if the two are equal players in 3 years. If Jennings turns out to be good, then Sessions winds up being an overpriced backup.
Honestly, last year I got the feeling that Scott Skiles didn’t really think much of Sessions’ game. He often breaks off plays to penetrate, his jumper is shaky, and his defense was very spotty. If they really thought Sessions was a long-term solution they wouldn’t have drafted Jennings in the first place.
However, this illustrates the problem with drafting a young point guard. You need to take a couple of years to let him develop before you really know what you have, and if the answer is “a total bust” then you might have set your franchise back 5 years before its all said and done.
UPDATE: I notice from Gery Woelfel that Walter Sharpe will be out for the year with a torn ACL. Not often you see an injured player get traded. From what I read, Sharpe’s contract is guaranteed this year but those facts may be incorrect — he may have a buyout. So he wont be stashed in Ft. Wayne this season after all. His is an interesting story, but I doubt we ever see him on the BC court.
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