5 Players the Milwaukee Bucks gave up on way too soon

Players the Milwaukee Bucks gave up on way too soon: No. 2 – Ray Allen

Ray Allen’s departure from the Milwaukee Bucks is one of the most infamous moments in Milwaukee sports history.

While Milwaukee didn’t necessarily “give up on him” per se, management still took the side of head coach George Karl over Allen in a feud that led to the trade. Many saw the trade as a decision that set the Bucks back a decade and former long-time owner Herb Kohl said it was the team’s “most unfortunate moment” in 2016.

Allen was a rising superstar with the Bucks averaging roughly 22 points in his final three years in a Bucks uniform before being traded to Seattle during the 2002-03 season. By the time he was traded, he was shooting roughly 44 percent from the field and had years where he was shooting as good as 43 percent from behind the arc.

After the departure of Ray Allen, the Bucks practically wandered through the wilderness until the rise of Giannis Antetokounmpo in the mid-2010s. Who knows what would’ve happened had the Bucks opted to side with Allen? But it certainly couldn’t have been as bad as it became.