Looking for larger than life characters? The Milwaukee Bucks squads from the early 2010s would at least make for an entertaining Last Dance-style documentary.
Editor’s note: This is the latest in a series of articles where we’ll take a closer look at teams, seasons, and moments in Bucks History that could make for a documentary in the vein of ESPN’s The Last Dance (more details to be found here). Check back on Monday each week for a closer look at the candidates
For obvious reasons, mediocrity is generally never remembered. Quite simply, it’s not that interesting. The appeal of getting to know more about a great team is obvious, as in many ways it is for a terrible team too. There’s a sense of those kinds of teams helping us to learn something greater about the notions of winning and losing.
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But what about when there almost seems to be a maniacal commitment to mediocrity, in spite of the fact all rewards are to be found in pushing to take the paths toward either glittering success or complete, abject failure?
Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to the story of almost 15 years of early 21st century Milwaukee Bucks basketball.
By the time the Bucks entered the 2010s, they’d been distinctly mediocre since the Ray Allen trade. It had essentially become a way of life for the Bucks in a league that punishes nothing more harshly than it does continued mediocrity.
Neither memorable seasons or vast playoff revenue were coming Milwaukee’s way, but nor, more often than not, were top quality draft picks.
As we kicked off this series last week, the early 1970s Bucks, and the pinnacle in franchise history, seemed like an obvious place to start in terms of potential documentary subject matter. This time, though, let’s consider something entirely different.
This is a story of a team that had completely lost its way, a roster that was packed with larger than life characters who possessed largely misguided confidence, and a franchise that was on the precipice of hitting its nadir (albeit not entirely by design). This is the story of the last Bucks squad before Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton arrived, and brought with them a bright new dawn.
So, without further ado, let’s make the case for why a documentary series focused on the Bucks of the early 2010s, and specifically the 2012-13 season, could grip Milwaukee fans, even if it was frequently for all the wrong reasons.
Where they were in their run
The truth of the Bucks from 2002 all the way through to 2014 is that there wasn’t really any run.
Various players did their best to provide sparks, whether sustained or fleeting, but none of Michael Redd, Richard Jefferson, John Salmons, Andrew Bogut or Brandon Jennings could ever manage to push the Bucks to be anything other than a total irrelevancy.
The Bucks at least made the first round of the playoffs three times in five seasons at the beginning of that period, but from the mid-2000s onward that would pivot to just two postseason bows in eight seasons.
That’s the kind of stretch that usually delivers top quality draft picks who can turn a franchise around, but it didn’t work that way for the Bucks. To be frank, their work in the lottery had been almost comical during this spell anyway.
Starting with T.J. Ford, whose prospects of living up to his eighth overall billing were upended by serious injury, the Bucks also drafted Yi Jianlian of chair workout fame with a sixth overall pick, and Joe Alexander, who proved to be a bust for the ages, with an eighth overall pick. To make matters worse, injury eventually caught up with first overall pick Andrew Bogut too, meaning even Milwaukee’s crown jewel was suddenly tarnished.
There were signs of hopes for the Bucks in 2009-10 as Bogut hit his stride and the Bucks went on to win 46 games, but a catastrophic injury for the center at the beginning of April ultimately led into a seven-game first round defeat against the Atlanta Hawks, and a false dawn for Milwaukee.
That in turn set up two sub-40 win seasons without any playoff action, and a break away from Bogut for good.
If there had been any kind of grand plan for the Bucks at that time, any great idea of roster construction, trading away their former No.1 overall pick signaled the end of it. Any right-minded franchise would have steered into the skid at that point, but not the Bucks.
Instead, it was time to attempt treading the needle with an eclectic group of players.
Shape of the Bucks’ roster
In many ways, the Bucks had simply been trying to tread the needle for years. Speaking ahead of the 2013-14 season, then owner Herb Kohl explained:
"“I’ve never been a person who uh … to use the word, ‘tank?’ Maybe there’s a different word.”"
Kohl will likely be remembered, in time, as an owner who always did his best to serve the Bucks as a core part of the Milwaukee community, ultimately ensuring the team’s long-term stay with his sale of the team and donation toward the construction of a new arena. In the moment, though, Kohl ran an organization that was relentlessly committed to not being bad, which in turn meant they could never be particularly good.
As a small market franchise that was by no means guaranteed to sell an arena out from night to night, maintaining competitiveness was key for Kohl. As ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz laid out in 2013, for Kohl, putting out a competitive team every night, and every season, was almost viewed as a civic duty:
"“A sports owner like Kohl (and similarly Simon) who lives in an older city that has struggled to join the growth economies of the sun belt or tech corridors often sees his franchise as a public trust. The team has an accountability to the city. And part of that is delivering a competitive product, to let those making the trip to an aging arena know that there’s a better than 50 percent chance they’ll see a win for the home team. Unlike so many of the newer owners who live out of town and have only a passing relationship with the cities of their teams, Kohl sees Milwaukeeans as neighbors. When you invite your neighbors over to your place, you owe them your hospitality.”"
That kind of thinking is how a roster such as the Bucks of 2012-13 came to exist. A squad of capable players, who could be even better than that in the right situations, but who weren’t presently in that kind of spot or even necessarily surrounded by the right mix of personalities.
The headliners were Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis, the latter of which was acquired in the trade that sent Bogut to the Golden State Warriors. In other words, two immensely undersized but very skilled offensive guards, who often failed to muster even a passing interest in the defensive side of the game.
Center Larry Sanders offered the team a great young hope too, as a prodigiously gifted defensive center with phenomenal length and instincts. Sanders’ potential was clear for all to see, but as would become clear over the course of 2013 with two cruelty to animal citations, and a thumb injury from a nightclub incident that eventually led to assault and battery charges, he needed the right kind of guidance, support, and nurturing, and was unable to find it in Milwaukee.
Ersan Ilyasova was also growing in importance having just signed a new four-year deal valued at just under $32 million, and any meaningful Bucks success would undoubtedly require him to step up a level in his age 25 season.
The Bucks also had a promising if rarely used second year player called Tobias Harris, but we’ll talk more about him later…
All in all, what’s important to know is that the Bucks’ situation in 2012-13 was later described by a long-time NBA employee as “the worst locker room” they had ever observed.
The 2012-13 season
Scott Skiles took control as Bucks head coach in 2008, and entered 2012-13 in the final year of his contract, something which created a level of resentment that would later blow up spectacularly in Milwaukee’s face.
A week into 2013, with the Bucks at exactly .500 in the standings, Skiles and the team officially parted company by mutual consent, or so they said. In reality, Skiles could see he wasn’t going to be back the following year, and with a roster built by a general manager, John Hammond, who was also in a contract year and therefore not exactly empowered to do anything radical, the coach decided it was best to get out while he was somewhat ahead.
By that point, Skiles had implemented near constant lineup changes, aggravating many players who didn’t know what their role with the team was supposed to be. A horrid start to the season saw Ilyasova benched, while a respected veteran such as Samuel Dalembert went from being brought in as a starter to being out of the rotation entirely.
When Skiles departed, Adrian Wojnarowski incredibly reported a friend of the former coach as saying:
"“Scott hated his team.”"
That was something that Skiles would later dispute in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Charles Gardner, but when asked whether he had wanted to be Milwaukee’s coach, the best Skiles could muster was:
"“That’s a question it’s not easy to answer.”"
In other words, if the 2012-13 Bucks were dysfunctional, it’s no real surprise. The organization lacked any clear direction, had its top executive, coach, and players in the final year of their respective contracts, and said coach was known as a hard-nosed perfectionist who was in charge of a roster that wasn’t even remotely consistent, let alone anything more than that.
Following Skiles’ departure, Jim Boylan took charge on an interim basis (no, not this one), and the Bucks still had every opportunity to make something of their season. They were in the playoff places after all.
Six weeks later, though, the Bucks made a trade that would go on to be remembered as one of the worst in franchise history. Along with other pieces on both sides, the Bucks sent second year wing Tobias Harris to Orlando in exchange for J.J. Redick.
Redick joined an increasingly large cohort of Bucks employees who would be out of contract at the end of the season, and was not particularly thrilled to have been acquired by Milwaukee. Redick admitted to crying at hearing the news, later described his whole experience with the Bucks as “challenging”, and endured one of the worst stretches of his playing career before swiftly leaving for the Clippers in the offseason.
It wasn’t entirely Redick’s fault, as the Bucks tried to force a three-guard lineup built around him, Jennings and Ellis into working. Considering the lack of size and the significant defensive limitations of that trio, who could possibly have predicted it wouldn’t work out?
Well, seemingly, the Bucks’ front office.
According to a 2019 report from the Toronto Sun’s Ryan Wolstat, the Bucks never wanted to deal away Harris, but were ultimately forced to at the behest of Kohl. The push for competitiveness at all costs ultimately saw the Bucks part with a future All-Star in exchange for possibly the worst nine weeks of J.J. Redick’s career (40.3 percent from the field, 31.8 percent from deep).
In the end, the high volume offense of Jennings and Ellis, the Bucks’ commitment to pushing the pace, and Ilyasova breaking out of his putrid early season funk helped Milwaukee to do what they needed to do. Or at least what Kohl wanted them to do.
With 38 wins secured, the Bucks snuck into the playoffs as an eighth seed, and a first round date was set with the star-studded juggernaut of the Miami Heat.
Win in 6
Even in a weak Eastern Conference, it’s kind of remarkable that the Bucks even made the postseason in 2013. In fact, the notion that they entered that season expected to be competitive, led by Jennings and Ellis is something of a time capsule in its own right. The NBA was starting to change, and it would sweep the Bucks away in dramatic fashion the following season.
The modern NBA values size in the backcourt and on the wings, and the kind of defensive versatility that allows effortless switching. At this point, the Bucks were dreaming of success with meaningful minutes shared between Jennings, Ellis, and Redick. That kind of strategy was so ripe to be exploited, that it’s no surprise that it was, in Milwaukee and elsewhere.
The idea of what a winning backcourt would ideally look like changed right around that time, but so did the vision of what an outstanding team could be.
The Miami Heat were in their third season since LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade had teamed up in South Beach, and were undoubtedly performing at the peak of their powers.
The Heat came into their first round series with the Bucks as the defending champions, after winning 66 games, and off the back of a season where they’d put together a 27-game winning streak, which is the second longest in NBA history.
So, naturally, Brandon Jennings predicted the Bucks would get the better of Miami in six games.
Jennings’ famous proclamation of “we’re gonna win in 6” certainly spoke to his own precocious nature, but also the kind of irrational and deeply misguided swagger that seemed to run through that Bucks team.
The 2012-13 Bucks were one big heat check, and much like Jennings and Ellis’ field goal percentage, they essentially only managed to scrape around at success at the 40 percent mark.
On their day, a red-hot offensive outburst from Jennings and Ellis could have fired the Bucks to a win against anyone, but both players’ entire careers were built around volume rather than efficiency.
Against the Heat, opportunities were limited. In fact, they were kept to the minimum of four games. The Heat swept the Bucks and moved on to better things. Milwaukee didn’t manage to finish even one of those games within 10 points of Miami.
At what point does a blind commitment to being competitive actually lead to being profoundly uncompetitive?
The Bucks were soon to find out the answer.
Why it would make for a great documentary
With a humiliating loss and an endless list of pending free agents, the 2012-13 season proved to be the end of the line for Milwaukee’s long run on the treadmill of mediocrity.
By the time the 2013-14 season got underway, only Ilyasova, Sanders, John Henson, and Ekpe Udoh remained from the previous year’s roster. The Bucks didn’t necessarily commit to tanking, or whatever word Kohl would have preferred to use, still voicing optimism that their young roster would remain highly competitive.
In reality, though, the 2013-14 Bucks compiled the worst season in franchise history winning a meager 15 games, and landing the second overall pick in the following year’s draft.
Jennings was moved to Detroit as part of a sign-and-trade deal that, along with Brandon Knight, notably yielded a throw-in recent second rounder by the name of Khris Middleton. Giannis Antetokounmpo was drafted with 2013’s 15th overall pick, which was earned from the previous year’s eighth seed heroics. And by the final days of the 2013-14 season, Kohl had agreed to sell the team to Marc Lasry and Wes Edens.
In hindsight, it was a stroke of luck that the Bucks’ attempts at remaining competitive finally fell to pieces when they did. The low of the 2013-14 season is the obvious starting point, but if the Bucks had performed just a little better in 2012-13, Jennings could have found himself back on a lucrative new deal. That would mean no Middleton for the Bucks, and who knows how many other elements would have changed for the worse too.
In that context, the 2012-13 season offers up a true tipping point for the franchise, and the kind of revolving doors moment that is packed with the kind of drama befitting of a documentary.
Beyond that, though, this is a season where cameras having an all-access look could have delivered all kinds of truly explosive footage.
Between Skiles’ increasingly irritable demeanor as his tenure wound down, the active hand of Kohl in basketball decisions, Hammond trying to build a team without any security for his own future, the disgruntled players with frequently changing roles, and the fascinating, larger than life personalites as varied as Jennings, Ellis, and Sanders, this season has more than enough gripping drama in its own right, before also factoring in the context of what preceded and followed it.
This may not be a time that’s fondly remembered in Bucks history, but having come out the other side of it in great shape, it’s one that certainly couldn’t have been described as uneventful.