Bucks = 90's Kings and Redd = Mitch Richmond
Posted: Fri Jan 4, 2008 2:56 pm
Pretend this was written in the future by a sportswriter comparing the two franchises and their star sg's.
First the team-wise comparison. Both teams had one excellent player but were perenial losers. However, they were seldom so pitiful that they were able to draft a superstar, so they were stuck. They didn't start to improve until they traded their star for a top prospect and built around that player, with a stellar supporting cast of players they had drafted (or traded for) using the lottery talent they had accumulated during their rut. The Kings somehow managed to get Washington so piss-drunk that they traded Chris Webber for a 33-year old Mitch Richmond. The Bucks didn't fall into such uncanny good fortune, but when they traded Michael Redd and Dan Gadzuric for Mike Conley Jr, a draft pick, and a bunch of cap-friendly contracts they acquired a pereniall all-star pg, a solid sf in the draft, and later a great free agent pick-up who together, along with Yi Jianlian, Andrew Bogut, Mo Williams & co, helped turn them into one of the best teams of the next decade.
As for the Richmond-Redd comparison, each was a top-notch scoring 2-guard who posed match-up nightmares for other sg's. Insiders around the league considered both to be elite sg's, although they both toiled in obscurity and were dogged by questions about their ability to win. Opposing sg's raved about their abilities. Jordan once called Richmond his toughest individual match-up, better than Miller, Drexler, Sprewell, Dumars or Starks. Both were burly, well-built sg's who were equally adept at getting to the basket, creating their own shot, or killing teams with their stellar outside shooting, a rare combination of offensive skills. Neither player ever filled up the boxscore. Redd once averaged 5 rpg as a back-up sg/sf and Richmond twice averaged close to 5 apg, but overall they usually averaged around 3-4 apg and 3-4 rpg, sub-par for sg's. Offense was what they did best. Critics said both should pass more, but they probably would have been playing right into the hands of the defense because their teammates were much easier to defend than they were.
For those of you who think the Bucks should try to make a trade that will get them into the playoffs this year or whatever, I think you need to ask yourself whether the Kings should have kept Mitch Richmond in hopes of making the playoffs a few times (only to get trounced in the first round, of course) and then being terrible for 10 more years.
First the team-wise comparison. Both teams had one excellent player but were perenial losers. However, they were seldom so pitiful that they were able to draft a superstar, so they were stuck. They didn't start to improve until they traded their star for a top prospect and built around that player, with a stellar supporting cast of players they had drafted (or traded for) using the lottery talent they had accumulated during their rut. The Kings somehow managed to get Washington so piss-drunk that they traded Chris Webber for a 33-year old Mitch Richmond. The Bucks didn't fall into such uncanny good fortune, but when they traded Michael Redd and Dan Gadzuric for Mike Conley Jr, a draft pick, and a bunch of cap-friendly contracts they acquired a pereniall all-star pg, a solid sf in the draft, and later a great free agent pick-up who together, along with Yi Jianlian, Andrew Bogut, Mo Williams & co, helped turn them into one of the best teams of the next decade.
As for the Richmond-Redd comparison, each was a top-notch scoring 2-guard who posed match-up nightmares for other sg's. Insiders around the league considered both to be elite sg's, although they both toiled in obscurity and were dogged by questions about their ability to win. Opposing sg's raved about their abilities. Jordan once called Richmond his toughest individual match-up, better than Miller, Drexler, Sprewell, Dumars or Starks. Both were burly, well-built sg's who were equally adept at getting to the basket, creating their own shot, or killing teams with their stellar outside shooting, a rare combination of offensive skills. Neither player ever filled up the boxscore. Redd once averaged 5 rpg as a back-up sg/sf and Richmond twice averaged close to 5 apg, but overall they usually averaged around 3-4 apg and 3-4 rpg, sub-par for sg's. Offense was what they did best. Critics said both should pass more, but they probably would have been playing right into the hands of the defense because their teammates were much easier to defend than they were.
For those of you who think the Bucks should try to make a trade that will get them into the playoffs this year or whatever, I think you need to ask yourself whether the Kings should have kept Mitch Richmond in hopes of making the playoffs a few times (only to get trounced in the first round, of course) and then being terrible for 10 more years.
