Zaza to Dallas for second rounder

[raferfenix]

Deron Williams / Wesley Matthews / Parsons / Dirk / ZaZa seems like a team Herb Kohl would dream of.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/daldridgetnt/status/619274538791141377[/tweet]

[MiltownHawkeye]

This has probably been touched on, but the only pro I see to dumping Dudley/Zaza for essentially nothing is that our owners save some money. Am I missing something here?

[HurricaneKid]

Monroe is one of the bigger centers in the league. He played PF out of necessity and because of his skills. But Monroe is very strong and is a good box-out big. Much bigger and tougher than any big on the Bulls, except maybe Mohammed. But I would not worry about Monroe's bulk at all - most centers are at a disadvantage strength-wise against him.

I'm fine calling him a C. But saying he is the biggest, strongest, toughest is beyond a stretch. Maybe he has gotten stronger in recent years but a lot of his playing PF was because he wasn't able to handle 5s at that time. Given that his backup is another 4, it just gives me pause. On the flip side, we are committing to our youth and I suppose that is a good thing.

In the end it feels like in Moneyball when the FO took away the 1B from the coach when the coach was playing the wrong guy. I'm surprised Kidd was ok with this move. What I feel we should have done was to trade Henson (and Bayless). Those were the moves to balance the roster. Now we are just at some risk of our big FA wearing down at a position he hasn't been playing and our backup has proven for years he can't stay healthy banging with 5s.

Maybe Monroe isn't the biggest center, but he is at least average for a starting center and probably better than average in physical strength. And he has always had better numbers at center. He only played PF after Drummond joined.

Plus, Monroe can handle physical player much better than anyone on the Bucks roster last season. Zaza really struggled vs. Chicago and some other large bigs. Monroe is better at rebounding and playing in the post than Zaza. Zaza just lacks the physical prowess of Monroe.

Prior to Drummond joining the Pistons, Monroe had missed two games his entire career. He has missed 16 games total in five seasons. Do you have some source for why Monroe played PF that says anything other than needing to play him next to Drummond? I find it hard to believe that Monroe, one of the biggest, most physical and most durable big men in the NBA, was moved to PF because of concerns about physicality.

Monroe was a top-10 rebounder in the league last season, was a top-10 low post scorer and is known as an effective screener and low post defender. I'm curious as to what element of physical play he struggles at.

Henson is thin, but he can't really play any position other than center effectively. And Henson did great vs. DMC and was the Bucks best player vs. the Bulls. He can handle physical bigs better than Zaza a lot of the time, due to his length and reach.

I really don't want to get pinned to a position I don't really like in piling on to Monroe's perceived weaknesses. I do agree that he was playing out of position the last few years and I certainly look forward to him filling our position of need. I just thought it made sense to keep someone on the squad that could support him should the extra mileage get to him. I think our primary disagreement is in his backup. I am not comfortable with Henson as the only backup C on the team and it appears you are.

I completely disagree that Henson was our best player against the Bulls. He played 2 games I was happy about in the series and still forced the rest of the team to collapse more than I hope they need to with Monroe. I thought he mostly looked lost in the other 4 games. The Bulls completely ignored him defensively for games at a time. Which is rather amazing considering he is always right next to the basket.

[HurricaneKid]

This has probably been touched on, but the only pro I see to dumping Dudley/Zaza for essentially nothing is that our owners save some money. Am I missing something here?

The only pro is getting those minutes to Jabari/Henson

[SkilesTheLimit]

DAL is going to be in no man's land in the West. Lost Monta and Chandler and gain Wes Matthews, Zaza, and D. Williams.

Meh.

Next to the SAS and HOU, they're the JV team of Texas.

[RealBucksFan]

I'm fine calling him a C. But saying he is the biggest, strongest, toughest is beyond a stretch. Maybe he has gotten stronger in recent years but a lot of his playing PF was because he wasn't able to handle 5s at that time. Given that his backup is another 4, it just gives me pause. On the flip side, we are committing to our youth and I suppose that is a good thing.

In the end it feels like in Moneyball when the FO took away the 1B from the coach when the coach was playing the wrong guy. I'm surprised Kidd was ok with this move. What I feel we should have done was to trade Henson (and Bayless). Those were the moves to balance the roster. Now we are just at some risk of our big FA wearing down at a position he hasn't been playing and our backup has proven for years he can't stay healthy banging with 5s.

Maybe Monroe isn't the biggest center, but he is at least average for a starting center and probably better than average in physical strength. And he has always had better numbers at center. He only played PF after Drummond joined.

Plus, Monroe can handle physical player much better than anyone on the Bucks roster last season. Zaza really struggled vs. Chicago and some other large bigs. Monroe is better at rebounding and playing in the post than Zaza. Zaza just lacks the physical prowess of Monroe.

Prior to Drummond joining the Pistons, Monroe had missed two games his entire career. He has missed 16 games total in five seasons. Do you have some source for why Monroe played PF that says anything other than needing to play him next to Drummond? I find it hard to believe that Monroe, one of the biggest, most physical and most durable big men in the NBA, was moved to PF because of concerns about physicality.

Monroe was a top-10 rebounder in the league last season, was a top-10 low post scorer and is known as an effective screener and low post defender. I'm curious as to what element of physical play he struggles at.

Henson is thin, but he can't really play any position other than center effectively. And Henson did great vs. DMC and was the Bucks best player vs. the Bulls. He can handle physical bigs better than Zaza a lot of the time, due to his length and reach.

I really don't want to get pinned to a position I don't really like in piling on to Monroe's perceived weaknesses. I do agree that he was playing out of position the last few years and I certainly look forward to him filling our position of need. I just thought it made sense to keep someone on the squad that could support him should the extra mileage get to him. I think our primary disagreement is in his backup. I am not comfortable with Henson as the only backup C on the team and it appears you are.

I completely disagree that Henson was our best player against the Bulls. He played 2 games I was happy about in the series and still forced the rest of the team to collapse more than I hope they need to with Monroe. I thought he mostly looked lost in the other 4 games. The Bulls completely ignored him defensively for games at a time. Which is rather amazing considering he is always right next to the basket.

Not saying Henson was perfect, but he was the only Bucks player who scored efficiently and he seemed to have a much easier time with the Bulls size than Zaza and played some nice defense. IDK, I thought he was pretty outstanding in the postseason. Not necessarily some major player, but almost every other Buck was awful on offense in the postseason, except maybe Dudley and Middleton. Henson shot 58.5% from the field in the series and averaged 11.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per 36.

[Bernman]

Mark Berman ‏@MarkBermanFox26 45m45 minutes ago

Clint Capela (rt knee tendinitis), Sam Dekker (lower back pain), & Nick Johnson (rt lower leg irritation) out tonight n Summer League opener

[wichmae]

Dallas' 2018 2nd round pick to Milwaukee protected for selections 31-55. So essentially another pick we will never see.

[jakecronus8]

Glad we did this just so I could bust it out....

[wichmae]

Glad we did this just so I could bust it out....

That I dont even get..

[paulpressey25]

Deron Williams / Wesley Matthews / Parsons / Dirk / ZaZa seems like a team Herb Kohl would dream of.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/daldridgetnt/status/619274538791141377[/tweet]

Actually this is the type of team Herb would have liked but not been competent enough to put together. ie. this team actually will win 40-45 games.

But I wouldn't want to be paying Wes Matthews $70 million coming off a blown achilles. Would guess that injury would not be insured by the league.

[jakecronus8]

Glad we did this just so I could bust it out....

That I dont even get..

It goes back to two offseasons ago when we decided to help two other teams get better for seemingly no reason while we acquired a smorgasbord of second rounders and unused trade exceptions.

[HurricaneKid]

Not saying Henson was perfect, but he was the only Bucks player who scored efficiently and he seemed to have a much easier time with the Bulls size than Zaza and played some nice defense. IDK, I thought he was pretty outstanding in the postseason. Not necessarily some major player, but almost every other Buck was awful on offense in the postseason, except maybe Dudley and Middleton. Henson shot 58.5% from the field in the series and averaged 11.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per 36.

He scored efficiently because the Bulls took his defender and used him to block off the lane for everyone else. The Bulls literally elected not to defend him and he couldn't even make them pay for it. If that is your evidence that he can be a major contributor on a good team, well its not very strong.

[Buck Dweller]

Dallas' 2018 2nd round pick to Milwaukee protected for selections 31-55. So essentially another pick we will never see.

Why are we just giving away players for nothing? Zaza and Dudley were good contributors last year and we got nothing for them. I expect this to backfire.

[VooDoo7]

These trade are confusing to me and a lot of people. Now, I'm totally fine getting rid of Duds and Zaza. But it seems we are in win-now mode, right? If that is the case, why would you dump Zaza and Dudley? Not that they're great players, but it definitely adds to our depth.

Personally I'm good with it mainly because it opens up more minutes for the younger guys. We aren't competing for the Finals this year, and Zaza and Dudley aren't future pieces in our puzzle, so they aren't a loss. Same can be said for the Vasquez trade. He's a FA after this year, and also isn't/shouldn't be in our future plans. Which makes the trade that much dumber.

Very confusing as to what they're doing.

[jakecronus8]

We're not contenders so we moved vets that were blocking young players and saved some coin. What's not to like? Not like we were gonna get first rounders for those guys.

[Ill-yasova]

Dallas' 2018 2nd round pick to Milwaukee protected for selections 31-55. So essentially another pick we will never see.

Why are we just giving away players for nothing? Zaza and Dudley were good contributors last year and we got nothing for them. I expect this to backfire.

I expect Jabari and Ingles to take all of Dudley's minutes and for Monroe to take all of Zaza's minutes and for all of us to barely remember we even had the other guys. Nothing against the two of them because there were large chunks of the season where both were huge contributors. There were also just as many chunks of the season where they were both big time liabilities. I understand the leadership aspect, but I really don't think this affects the team in any way really.

[RealBucksFan]

Glad we did this just so I could bust it out....

None of the picks will convey. Bucks only traded draft picks this offseason, they didn't gain any. Ersan, Dudley and Zaza were traded for cap/financial reasons only. The second round draft picks were not the pull - Washington and Dallas just included them as a formality, so that the trades would be legal. Both are top-55 protected so they will never convey.

[RealBucksFan]

Dallas' 2018 2nd round pick to Milwaukee protected for selections 31-55. So essentially another pick we will never see.

Why are we just giving away players for nothing? Zaza and Dudley were good contributors last year and we got nothing for them. I expect this to backfire.

I expect Jabari and Ingles to take all of Dudley's minutes and for Monroe to take all of Zaza's minutes and for all of us to barely remember we even had the other guys. Nothing against the two of them because there were large chunks of the season where both were huge contributors. There were also just as many chunks of the season where they were both big time liabilities. I understand the leadership aspect, but I really don't think this affects the team in any way really.

Team really lacks depth now, though. Ersan played a lot of minutes at SF/PF, as did Dudley. As it stands, Bucks will likely rely on Jabari, Giannis and Inglis for minutes at PF and Giannis, Inglis, KM and Vaughn for minutes at SF. If Giannis, Jabari or Inglis get injured, which is highly probable, team is in trouble. Inglis and Jabari aren't even ready for game action at the moment. I have really high hopes for Inglis, but we don't really even know if he will be particularly effective, although I am really optimistic about him.

I love that the team is fully committing to small-ball (i.e., playing PFs who can handle the ball and play on the perimeter) and is committed to playing the young talent on the roster. But the team could really use a SF/PF who can hit corner threes and not demand the ball for depth purposes. Of course, the team had one of those and traded them away for nothing, so it seems that isn't going to happen - team is really working to cut costs.

[Buck Dweller]

We're not contenders so we moved vets that were blocking young players and saved some coin. What's not to like? Not like we were gonna get first rounders for those guys.

We're trying to win and Zaza and Duds weren't blocking anybody