While Michael Redd grinds, the Milwaukee Bucks grow.
While Redd — the injured Bucks scoring guard who had surgery (again) on the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee (again) Tuesday — works through his strength and flexibility exercises and finds his way back to a treadmill, the Bucks are all about strengthening their roster, boosting their salary-cap flexibility and getting off the treadmill of five straight losing seasons.
While Redd labors mightily to get back to what he was, the Bucks push hard to leave behind most of what they were. And therein lies the problem, the disconnect between an ailing veteran star trying to navigate today and a team focused on tomorrow.
“Who’s got next?” isn’t just the code of the playground. It’s a fact of life in the NBA too, that whiff of replaceability that hangs over every player most of his career, sometime shortly after he signs his first contract.
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“Teams are always playing for the future and always planning to move on,” San Antonio’s Tim Duncan said over All-Star Weekend. “Whether it’s through talk of trades or draft picks or positioning yourself for a certain [free agent] class like teams are with this class. Everybody’s always positioning for that future. That future pick, that future player. It’s a business and us, as players, we know that.”
Duncan is among the NBA’s most sturdy, stalwart and secure players, so if he’s aware of how tissue-thin anyone’s status really is, imagine how the rest of them feel.
We just saw it in full bloom with Tracy McGrady in Houston, one of the NBA’s bright lights whose career — and value to the Houston Rockets — got derailed by a series of injuries and on-court disappointments. This season it became clear, awkwardly so, that the Rockets had moved on, to the point that McGrady wasn’t really welcome anymore. It’s not that the Rockets did anything wrong, either; not being able to count on him, certainly not at his previous superstar level, they had to move on.
If you think the same thing’s not going on in Portland with chronically-sidelined center Greg Oden, you’re kidding yourself. The New York Knicks did it with Allan Houston several seasons back, the Philadelphia 76ers essentially did it while Elton Brand — that big free-agent prize just a couple years ago — was out. Now it is Redd’s turn, like it or not.
Certainly, the Bucks like and appreciate Redd, a 10-year veteran and the face of the franchise for most of them. General manager John Hammond wasn’t throwing him under any bus when we spoke Tuesday.
“I can’t answer that question [about leaving Redd behind],” Hammond said. “If that natural process happens, it happens. But all we can do is support Michael. We supported him in that last [injury layoff] and we’ll support him again. … Michael’s injuries last season and this season didn’t change our approach. We’re still trying to put a competitive team on the floor, we’re still trying to win games.”
Still, Redd played in only 18 games this season, finally breaking down for good on Jan. 10 against the Lakers in L.A. In a wildly inconsistent comeback from knee surgery in January 2009, he had averaged 11.9 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 27.3 minutes. He’d had scoring nights of 25, 32, 27 and 24 — interspersed with nine games in single digits. How could it be much different? Redd has missed 76 of Milwaukee’s last 94 games and will end up missing 113 of 164 from the start of 2008-09 through the end of this season.
“This is a no-excuses league,” Hammond said, acknowledging the pressure to adapt, improvise and overcome any single player’s absence. “No team in the league is going to feel sorry us.”
Actions speak louder than words, too, no matter how loyal or benevolent the Bucks feel toward Redd. Hammond drafted point guard Brandon Jennings last June and, while a Jennings-Redd tandem would be swell, Jennings has filled Redd’s void as the team’s most recognizable and important player. The Milwaukee GM added Jerry Stackhouse in January and Stackhouse, has averaged 15.0 points on 51.2 percent shooting his past four games.
Next, at the trading deadline, Hammond acquired John Salmons as another Redd fill-in, with far more encouraging results than Chicago was getting with him. In his first seven games with Milwaukee, Salmons was averaging 20.1 points and the Bucks had gone 6-1. The itinerant wing player had led them in scoring five times, getting at least 15 points in each game.
“Down the stretch, he makes big shots,” Jennings said recently of Salmons. “I think that’s what we’d been missing since Redd went down. We didn’t have anybody that could take over like Redd could. Bringing him in has been a big help.”
Then there is the master plan. If Salmons’ $5.8 million player option for next season gives the Bucks some maneuverability for the summer of 2011, Redd’s $18.3 million option can make them a major player in that offseason’s free-agent and trade markets.
So things are looking up — and already have been happening, with Redd relegated to the sideline. When the Bucks went 10-4 in February, it was their first month winning 10 or more since December 2006. No other team in the East won as often, earning Scott Skiles the conference’s Coach of the Month award. Milwaukee had won 12 of 16 heading into its home game against Washington Wednesday, and at 30-29 have their best record through 59 games since a 32-27 start in 2003-04.
Another cold, hard reality? When Redd played this season, the Bucks were 6-12 … without him, they’re 24-17.
Hammond notes that Redd’s game is easier than many stars’ to just plug back into a game plan, once he’s healthy. In that way, he’s different from a ball-dominator such as McGrady or even Kobe Bryant. “Michael Redd made his name and developed his reputation in this league as a shooter,” Hammond said.
“If you’re a shot maker, there’s always going to be an opportunity for you with almost any team. That would be the case for us as well as the other 29 teams.”
Hmm. That could play equally well as a vote of confidence for Redd’s return or as a sales pitch to potential, eventual trade partners. After all, the business of the NBA is, well, business.
“This league is all about replenishing,” said Boston’s Kevin Garnett. “This league is all about talent being turned over. At some point, my position will change, obviously. It’s just the nature of what the league is. It’s refurbishment. Out with the old, in comes the new. And that’s cool, because you’ve had your time and you’ve done whatever you’re supposed to be doing and your mark is what it is.”
Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA for 25 years. You can e-mail him here.
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