Oh how far they have fallen.
This is a team that was a seven-foot jump shot away from the NBA finals just two years ago. Glenn Robinson makes that shot in his sleep 99 times out of 100. Now he can sleep all he wants in Atlanta.
The poster boy for the Bucks and the NBA now resides, along with his sweet stroke, in Seattle.
Two out of the "Big Three" are gone, leaving us with a more athletic and probably more talented team. The only problem is they're still losing. Scott Williams is the reason.
Ask anyone in this city why the Bucks aren't winning, and you'll hear, "we have no inside presence and play no defense." They couldn't be more wrong.
The death bell of this franchise rang when we traded for our inside presence named Anthony Mason. I will admit that I also was excited to see toughness come to our blue- collar town. Then I saw him play.
It should be impossible to play 37 minutes and not get your name in the box score. Instead of the free-flowing artistic basketball the Bucks used to play, they now drag an anchor around the floor with them.
They no longer rotate on the defensive end in the true George Karl style because Mason can't get out on anyone. He also clogs the middle better than anyone in the NBA ... but that it is on offense. Rarely does that warrant all-star votes like he received in Miami the year before coming to the Bucks.
We are also one of the few teams that play with four guys on offense. It is not even that he can't shoot. The problem is that he won't shoot. Most importantly, he brought gasoline with him to a locker room that was already combustible.
{INSERT_RELATED}Mason is the classic NBA veteran that plays because coaches and GMs fear what will happen if he doesn't. This is obviously what the highest paid coach in sports is paid to control. It has become a fact of life in the NBA, that even with one of the most respected coaches in the league, the inmates still run the asylum in Milwaukee.
With the arrival of Mason's "toughness," the departure of the General couldn't possibly have been more overlooked. Williams was the team's locker room leader and arbiter. He was the team's spokesman during the playoffs and set a tone of hustle and enthusiasm. Williams also played pretty good defense, was an adequate rebounder for his size, could hit the 15-foot jumper necessary to open the floor and never once demanded the offense went through him or dribble the ball up the floor.
Everywhere he has gone teammates rave about him, even his "Airness." The Bucks need to find someone to fill that roll. It is very easy to place the blame but a solution needs to be found.
This team still has a bright future it just doesn't involve player like Anthony Mason.
