Milwaukee wanted NVE

[MFFL]

Here's the link

Woelfel on the Web: Changes in store for Bucks
By Gery Woelfel, Journal Times, April 20

You don't have to have a doctorate in professional basketball to realize the proverbial crap is going to hit the fan this summer with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Changes will be made. And they could be radical changes. You know Bucks owner Herb Kohl, general manager Ernie Grunfeld and coach George Karl -- all intensely competitive in their own right -- won't accept the status quo.

The odds are overwhelming one of the Bucks' so-called "Big Three" of Ray Allen, Sam Cassell and Glenn Robinson will be relocated to another zip code. Of course, Bucks management almost broke up the Big Three just prior to the February trading deadline. According to a Bucks insider, that's when the Denver Nuggets had a deal on the table in which the Bucks could have obtained Raef LaFrentz, Kenosha native Nick Van Exel and George McCloud for Tim Thomas, Joel Przybilla and Cassell.

"I heard about that,'' Van Exel told me. "I thought it was going to happen.''

Instead, the Nuggets dealt Van Exel and LaFrentz to Dallas as part of a multi-player deal that brought them Juwan Howard. While Van Exel and LaFrentz went on to help the Mavs advance to the playoffs, the Bucks went into a free fall seldom seen in NBA history.

Now the Bucks brass has to make a slew of decisions, many of major proportion. None of them will involve Karl; he's staying put. You can't safely say the same about Cassell, Robinson and Allen.

[DTL]

That looks like a better deal for the Nuggest. No? Anyone knows why it didn't happen? Did Kiki just want to help out the Mavs while he went ahead with rebuilding the Nuggets? Or am I just falling into my old habit of Juwan-bashing...?

[MFFL]

It looked like a much better deal for the Nuggets. Maybe the Nuggets decided to get away from established players and go the free agent route - they can be major players in free agency when Juwan's contract runs out.

[Lvubun1]

Denver was looking for expiring contracts over players, unless it was some great player they couldn't resist, Sam Cassell is a little overrated IMO, no PG with the talent that surrounds him should be sitting at home right now, I would take a angry NVE over a mildly pissed Cassell and I think that is what it came down to. On a side note, if you put both of them on the same team, wouldn't that team have a huge soar in popularity on the planet Mars?

[grbh]

I though Cassell had a contract expiring in the next xouple years.

[madape]

Cassell's contract is tiny, thats not what scared them off. It had to have been Tim Thomas. This dude is maxed out for a long time, and he's not even close to worth the money. I tink the decision came down to Kiki wanting to dump salary and totally rebuild the Nelson way. Its going to be several years before Denver stops sucking.

[Hoopsmeister]

Cassell got a contract exentension this year didn't he? It's still a very reasonable contract as far as point guards go, but along with Thomas' contract it would certainly leave Denver without any cap flexibility in the future which seems to be what Kiki wanted--blow it up and rebuild it his way.

[TheKid]

hindsight is a mother isn't it..

[Drbio]

hindsight is a mother isn't it..


That pretty much sums it up....