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Milwaukee Bucks: 49 years in 49 days – 1993-94 season

By Ti Windisch

LANDOVER, MD - FEBRUARY 17: Milwaukee Bucks Vin Baker (L) loses the ball under pressure from Washington Bullets Juwan Howard (R) in the third quarter in Landover, Maryland 17 February. Washington beat Milwaukee, 95-93. (Photo credit should read TED MATHIAS/AFP/Getty Images)
LANDOVER, MD - FEBRUARY 17: Milwaukee Bucks Vin Baker (L) loses the ball under pressure from Washington Bullets Juwan Howard (R) in the third quarter in Landover, Maryland 17 February. Washington beat Milwaukee, 95-93. (Photo credit should read TED MATHIAS/AFP/Getty Images) /
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The Milwaukee Bucks found a potential young star but couldn’t find the postseason during the 1993-94 season.

The season: 1993-94

The record: 20-62

The postseason: N/A

The story:

The 1993-94 NBA season was kind of drunk. This was the first year that Michael Jordan stepped away from basketball to follow a baseball career following the Chicago Bulls winning three straight titles.

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Other Central Division teams may have seen that as an opening. The Atlanta Hawks ended up wrestling the top spot in the division from Chicago, although the Scottie Pippen-led Bulls still won 55 games.

None of this really mattered, however, for the Milwaukee Bucks. Even with the division, conference and NBA weakened with the loss of Jordan, the Bucks could barely string wins together all season long.

Still largely rudderless under the leadership of Mike Dunleavy, Milwaukee hadn’t done much in the summer of 1993 besides drafting Vin Baker and signing him to a ten-year deal, the kind of weird first contract that happened in the NBA back then.

Baker would end up being a hell of a player, but his career with the Bucks started out fairly quietly. Rookie Vin averaged 13.5 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.4 blocks per game and played in all 82 contests. That was enough to show Bucks fans the team had a nice young player, but not enough to actually make an impact on the standings yet.

The rest of the team around Baker would go through a big change during the 1994 trade deadline. The Bucks, in a series of moves, dealt Frank Brickowski, Anthony Avent and Danny Schayes in exchange for Anthony Cook, two first round picks, Mike Gminski and a second round pick.

Gminski and Cook combined to score less than five points per game that season in 31 combined games played. The Bucks didn’t really get any usable players immediately, but at least the team built draft capital that could eventually help with a rebuild.

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Along with Baker, the most productive Bucks who stuck around all year were Ken Norman, Eric Murdock, Blue Edwards and Todd Day. Murdock led the team in scoring with 15.3 points per game, barely edging out the Brick, who put up 15.2 per game in the half of a season he spent in Milwaukee.

Murdock added 6.7 assists, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.4 steals in what would end up as his best NBA season. Norman, Edwards, and Day all averaged between 11 and 13 points per game as well, rounding out the Bucks who contributed on offense.

That combination of contributors led the Bucks to a 20-62 record, the worst mark the franchise had ever posted. Remember that Del Harris stepped down, in part, due to starting a season 8-9, which was unacceptable to Milwaukee at the time. This losing streak was completely unprecedented to the franchise.

Next: 49 years in 49 days: 1992-93 season

If the 1993 NBA Draft helped the Bucks a lot by the team getting Vin Baker, the 1994 NBA Draft would prove fundamentally crucial to Milwaukee’s later success after the 1990s were finally, blissfully, over.

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