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Milwaukee Bucks: A farewell to Spencer Hawes

By Jordan Treske

MILWAUKEE, WI - FEBRUARY 13: Spencer Hawes
MILWAUKEE, WI - FEBRUARY 13: Spencer Hawes /
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With the news that he’s likely to be waived, we take a look back at the brief tenure of Spencer Hawes with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Change has been a strong theme for the Milwaukee Bucks this offseason and another departure will be added to the list.

On Thursday afternoon, David Aldridge of NBA.com reported that the Bucks were likely to waive big man Spencer Hawes and stretch the final year of his deal via the stretch provision, a move that has since been confirmed by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Considering the team was slightly over the luxury tax line, this was a scenario that had been a possibility and with yesterday being the deadline to stretch salary under next season’s cap, the Bucks obviously felt this was the route to take in order to get under the tax line. While this move creates a level of intrigue on how the Bucks will use their newly opened roster spot, we’ll take this time to look back at Hawes’ brief stay in Milwaukee.

Acquired at the beginning of February last season, Hawes came to Milwaukee along with Roy Hibbert in exchange for center Miles Plumlee in a deal with the Charlotte Hornets.

In getting both Hawes and Hibbert, the Bucks were able to right the wrong they made by getting off of Plumlee’s sizable contract, which the early returns couldn’t have looked worse after agreeing to the four-year, $52 million deal mere months earlier.

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Upon arriving to Milwaukee, Hawes quickly became a fixture on the bench and went even so far as to not making an appearance in the first month of his tenure.

Finally, Hawes broke through in the beginning of March in head coach Jason Kidd‘s rotation for spot minutes. It was Hawes’ second appearance, though, that provided one of the more surprising and memorable performances from a Bucks role player last year.

In the team’s matchup against the Toronto Raptors on the evening of March 3, Hawes put in a near-perfect performance off the bench by scoring 16 points on six-of-seven shooting from the field (two-of-three from deep) and grabbing eight rebounds in 17 minutes of action.

While Hawes’ later appearances paled in comparison, he still proved useful as a third big off the bench, providing spacing in limited stretches and being capable of hitting shots from downtown at an acceptable rate.

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On the flip side, however, Hawes obviously had his share of limitations as well. Being slow footed as he is, Hawes was certainly a liability within the team’s aggressive defensive scheme, something that was highlighted in their first round series against the Raptors in the playoffs and effectively relegated him back to his seat on the bench by the end of the series.

In total, Hawes appeared in 19 games, averaging 4.4 points on 50.8 percent shooting from the field and 34.8 percent shooting from deep in 171 minutes as a Buck. All in all, Hawes generally performed up to his capabilities, for better and for worse, during his stop with the Bucks, one of many the Washington native has made over his 11-year career.

Of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the high entertainment factor that came whenever he got some run on the floor and his penchant for circus shot-like and-ones stands as the best example of that (something Bucks twitter luminary David Dunn perfectly highlighted in his Hawes sendoff video).

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But now, this edition of Spencer Hawes’ wild ride has come to a close in Milwaukee and I’m sure we’ll keep an eye on wherever it may head to next (lasso whooshes for eternity).

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