Hardwood Paroxysm presents: Winners, losers and shockers of NBA free agency

Quite the crazy offseason, huh? From LaMarcus Aldridge going to the San Antonio Spurs to Andrea Bargnani actually getting another contract in the NBA, this free agency period was the wildest in some time. Now that the dust has mostly settled, which teams graded out well, and which teams didn’t do so great? We here at Hardwood Paroxysm are here to break it down

The Milwaukee Bucks Are Enjoying Their Summer

Ian Levy (@HickoryHigh) — Hardwood Paroxysm

In the first month of the summer, the Milwaukee Bucks went a long ways towards shaping their roster for the future. To be fair, their roster had a shape before. It was long and it was lean. The Bucks used that collection of largely interchangeable length to hound opponents on the defensive end. Their offense really only worked well when it was feeding off the defensive frenzy of said length. They rode that train of athleticism, intensity, and marginal wingspan inches to a surprisingly upbeat playoff appearance.

So far this summer, they have locked down one of the best young players to a contract that will become increasingly valuable and added an anchor of offensive skill to start molding that length around.

The first move was re-signing Khris Middleton to a five-year, $70 million contract. He was their best individual defender, their best outside shooter and a player who is just scraping the surface of his offensive ability. Middleton has yet to really explore skills as a pick-and-roll ball handler or an isolation scorer. He has a dangerous matchup-specific post game that has also been under-utilized. What he has shown implies that he is capable of much more. Middleton is the rare wing player who appears to be good at everything. The trick for Milwaukee is setting him up to do a lot more.

The second move was nabbing Greg Monroe with a three-year, $50 million deal. Monroe’s defensive deficiencies will be covered up by the talent around him and his post-game and savvy passing add a fulcrum for the rest of the roster to start working around. He stands out as a bastion of skill in a sea of athletic talent, an anchor to begin pressing the rest of the roster into shape.

Some familiar faces have departed–Jared Dudley in a salary dump, Zaza Pachulia and Ersan Ilyasova in traders. But the Bucks also get a (hopefully) healthy Jabari Parker back who may turn out to the be their biggest addition of the summer. The Bucks look positioned to start pushing from athleticism and effort into a refined system that can exploit versatility in a more intentional, and less haphazard way. The Milwaukee Bucks can spend the rest of the summer sunning themselves on the shores of Lake Michigan, confident that they are entering next season loaded.

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