When will the Milwaukee Bucks become more than just a middle-of-the-pack type team in the Eastern Conference?
Over the past 12 years, they have made the playoffs just five times – all brief, first-round exits. Things had not been much better in the four-year Brandon Jennings era when the team made the playoffs twice, including last season with an underwhelming overall record of 38-44.
Perhaps recognizing the need to rebuild once again and to change personnel, they let free agent Monta Ellis walk and traded away the intriguing but inconsistent Brandon Jennings for Brandon Knight this summer. It sounds like a disaster to lose two of your best offensive players, but playing the smallish guards together was a no-go on the defensive end (this seems to be a recurring theme wherever Ellis goes), and both were low-percentage shooters too often in need of the ball to co-exist.
The Bucks had one critical piece they could not afford to lose, a piece they could truly build a team around, and that is the ever-developing defensive monster they call Larry Sanders. After two seasons of playing insignificant minutes for the team, Sanders finally put it together in his third season as the starter with 9.8 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.8 blocks – second best in the league behind Serge Ibaka – in just 27 minutes of play. Per Sean Deveney of Sporting News, he anchored the team’s defense and allowed just .760 points per possession, which ranked third among all centers. Here is a video further explaining how good Sanders was last season:
For his development, the Bucks are planning to reward him with a contract in the range of $48 million over four years. Although there was no word of confirmation that the deal was officially completed, it appears to be all but in the bag, based on what Sanders had to say:
Sanders, of course, could be talking about something unrelated to his deal with the team, but for the sake of this article, lets assume otherwise. Although a bit moody at times, he is one of the bright young talents in the league and if he continues to improve on the offensive end, the contract he’s signing on for could end up being quite a bargain in the near future for the Bucks.
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James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. You can find him on twitter @SheridanBlog.