Trading down: Bucks #8 pick will sweeten offseason deals

J.D. Mo — Wed, 21 May 2008 08:54:00 GMT

Bucks GM John Hammond says he's open to trading the Bucks draft pick, now set at #8. I say, let it dangle.

The Bucks needed to lottery-up into a top three pick to really be in control of how this draft would impact their roster. So ... what's that supposed to mean?

The top two picks, Michael Beasely and Derrick Rose, are real impact players, obviously. The rest is in flux. The Bucks would not have been expected to draft center Brook Lopez, the projected #3 pick, unless for trade purposes, but the #3 would have provided the luxury of choice. At #8, the Bucks will choose from leftovers, especially when looking at the guards in this draft.

The Bucks will have their pick of whichever of these five -- O.J. Mayo, Jarryd Bayless, Eric Gordon, D.J. Augustin, Russell Westbrook -- are unwanted by the teams drafting ahead of them. The Bucks need to control how their roster changes and improves, and the #8 pick doesn't put them in that position, not in this mediocre draft. Mediocre may be an overstatement. This draft is just not good enough, and the prognosticators are moving players up and down the board as a result.

ESPN's Chad Ford has Eric Gordon falling to the Bucks at #8. Wait a minute. Wasn't Ford forecasting on lottery day that Gordon would be going to the Clippers at the #6 spot? What changed? D.J. Augustin has fallen to #11 in Ford's mock draft. Ford had the Bucks taking Augustin with the #7 for weeks. I realize part of the reason this is all so fluid is that Rose is the only guard who stands out from the rest, and the others are too young and undistinguished for the so-called experts to make evaluations that stick. But c'mon.

It is possible that the national media, which doesn't look too closely at the Bucks, has realized that the Bucks may not be looking for a point guard. Certainly not any old point guard who happens to be available at #8 in the draft.

The Bucks are high on Ramon Sessions potential, which I wrote about in yesterday's BBJ. There is no savior in this draft after Rose, and, as such, no guarantee that a rookie point guard from this draft would be an improvement over Sessions and Mo. ... No guarantee of improvement? What am I talking about? I'm starting to sound like one of those tired old sports columnists so used to couching everything they write that nothing gets written. With a rookie point guard (Augustin or Westbrook) the Bucks would be almost guaranteed to fare worse than if they left itt to Sessions/Mo.

Remember the TJ Ford years? Those years set the Bucks back, leading to where they find themselves today. Prior to T.J., when had the Bucks ever gone with a rookie point guard? Quinn Buckner in 1976, when the Bucks were rebuilding and "Green and Growing" was the slogan. These Bucks are not in full rebuilding mode, and need to step forward, not back. The Bucks will likely stick with Sessions and keep working on his development. As it stands, Mo Williams has probably already lost the starting point guard job to Ramon.

So the so-called experts have sent the Bucks back to Gordon, the shooting guard, and, lo and behold, Ford and other national NBA wags suddenly realize that Michael Redd is on the trading block.

Gordon "is a dynamic scorer who could free up the Bucks to trade Michael Redd," Ford wrote.

Sports Illustrated also has Gordon falling to the Bucks at #8:

"He's the best player available here, an explosive scorer with a solid family background. His arrival may allow the Bucks to move Michael Redd's enormous salary if they're so disposed."

GM Hammond has identified small forward as an area of need but this draft is light on small forwards. Italian Danilo Gallinardi ranks at the top of the class. Draft Express, which has rated Gallinari highly throughout this perpetual season of draft speculation, has the Bucks taking Danilo with the #8.

But Gallinari's stock has been on the rise, seemingly in the last 24 hours. ESPN and Sports Illustrated both have Gallinari going to the Knicks at #6. That's OK, because there are some great, proven small forwards who could be on the move in offseason trades, ranging from Carmelo Anthony (would George Karl trade him?) to Andrei Kirilenko, Josh Howard and Richard Jefferson are other possibilities, and there's always Ron Artest. To a man their salaries are a nice match for Michael Redd's salary. The Bucks #8 pick would be the trade sweetener, with the Bucks taking the lower first round pick of the other team in exchange.

If the Bucks are in the small forward market (and Hammond says they are), the best pick for the Bucks would be an SF (Danilo, Donte Greene, maybe Anthony Randolph) to help fill another team's roster hole, let's say Dallas, a hole the Mavs would create by trading Josh Howard to the Bucks. Let's face it, Dez Mason and Bobby Simmons are just not the sort of players who are big trade enticements. Hammond'll have better luck if he dangles the pick.

The pick could also be used to entice a Bobby Simmons or Dan Gadzuric trade. How else could the Bucks move their $16 million duo? Future salary cap flexibility is at a premium for the Bucks, and may be worth dumping a pick to get. Maybe.

No saviors for the Bucks in this draft, but the chances of picking up a decent player with a lower pick are fair. The #8 pick is just good enough to sweeten any number of trade opportunities that might come along. Let it dangle.

My sleeper pick in this draft: DeAndre Jordan. The seven-footer is extremely athletic and more active in the paint than most centers. But he's raw. He'll likely play in the NBA for a long time. I predict that the team that picks Jordan and develops him will be happier in the long run than the team that picks Brook Lopez.

Milwaukee Bucks Blog - The Bob Boozer Jinx : Danilo Gallinari

Trading down: Bucks #8 pick will sweeten offseason deals