Milwaukee Bucks Mailbag: All-Time Teams and more

In the latest edition of the Milwaukee Bucks mailbag, Bucks Twitter supplies great questions yet again.

Forget the boys–Saturdays are for the Bucks! As always, there’s a lot going on with the Milwaukee Bucks. To help figure out exactly what’s what, I reached out to Bucks Twitter and asked for questions about the team.

As always, the fine folks on Twitter came through, and some great questions arrived. I’ll go through them one by one and answer them as well as possible. To get involved next time, just keep an eye on both my Twitter and the official Behind the Buck Pass account.

This is a great question because it has so many layers. Obviously Giannis Antetokounmpo is already on the Milwaukee Bucks All-Time Team on NBA 2K18. So that’s one.

More from Bucks News

• Bucks 2023-24 player profile: Can MarJon Beauchamp take a leap?
• Piecing together the Milwaukee Bucks’ dream starting 5 in 5 years
• Predicting Thanasis Antetokounmpo’s 2023-24 stats for the Bucks
• Grade the trade: Bucks land reputable backup guard in swap with Pacers
• New workout video should have Milwaukee Bucks fans excited

I would say there are three more possibilities at this moment: Jabari Parker, Khris Middleton, and Thon Maker. Barring a rookie or young player dramatically improving, these three seem like the ones who could have a shot.

Thon would need a dramatic improvement too, but that doesn’t seem impossible. His physical tools are just so impressive that I have to include him here. Luckily for him, center is one of the easier positions to break onto the Bucks All-Time Team.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of the best Bucks ever, but his backups on the All-Time Team are Bob Lanier and Andrew Bogut. Both had good Bucks runs, but neither of their Milwaukee tenures were especially long or dominant in terms of their individual play.

It would take years, but Thon could eclipse one or both of them. Maybe.

Middleton and Parker would have a harder time of it. The Bucks have had tons of great wings and forwards. Guys like Sidney Moncrief, Ray Allen, Paul Pressey, Michael Redd, Vin Baker, Jon McGlocklin, Bob Dandridge, Terry Cummings, and now Giannis all are going to be on all of these sorts of teams. Marques Johnson and Glenn Robinson should be too, although both of them were snubbed from this year’s All-Time Team.

The real question here, that will determine if Middleton and Parker end up making the cut, is how good can this team be. If the Giannis-era Bucks win a title, players like Khris and Jabari will get such a huge legacy boost. Being the second- or third-best player on a title team means a ton to a player’s resume.

It’d be hard for either of them to make it unless they had absolutely incredible careers if the Bucks never win a championship with them around. Let’s hope they win so much they have to be included!

Frank Madden effectively murdered any love I had for Dwyane Wade coming to Milwaukee with his effective takedown of the idea on Twitter. Here is the only way it works: Wade gives up all ego entirely, takes a veteran minimum salary, plays as a backup point guard-type role, and constructively boosts the Bucks young guys all year.

Sound impossible? It probably is. Wade might not get more money than that, but Cleveland seems like a much more logical destination than Milwaukee. The young guys in Chicago supposedly disliking him does not help matters much.

For part two, involving Milwaukee’s nickname situation, I’ve always been fond of the Mil. However, I like MKE better than MIL in terms of abbreviations. I guess I’m weird.

I would be surprised if Rashad Vaughn did not make the roster at this point. Maybe not shocked, but definitely surprised. While Vaughn hasn’t shown many signs of him being an effective player yet in his NBA career, his salary is guaranteed for next season, meaning the Bucks would have even more dead money by releasing him.

What would shock me is if Milwaukee takes the team option on the fourth year of his deal, aka the 2018-19 NBA season. I believe the team technically has until October to do so, and could save a small amount of cash next year–and a roster spot–by declining to pick it up.

I am very vocally against stretching Spencer Hawes because it’s basically like taking out a credit card to pay off a credit card–the problem isn’t solved, it’s just pushed back. Instead of having dead money for this season, the Bucks would have an unusable $2 million for each of the next three years.

As far as trading him at the deadline, that would almost certainly require Milwaukee giving up a draft pick, unless some team actually talks themselves into Hawes. Honestly, at this point in the NBA, anything is possible.

That said, I’d rather see the team try to find a deal that makes sense than stretch Hawes. I just hate the idea of adding to the dead money Milwaukee already has thanks to their stretching of Larry Sanders’ contract.

Next: Getting to know the 11 Herd expansion draft picks

That’s all for this week–thanks for the great questions everybody!