Milwaukee deals Michael Carter-Williams to Chicago for Tony Snell
The Milwaukee Bucks just learned from their bad mistake.
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The Chicago Bulls? They’re a little behind. Just walk a little slower, and they’ll catch up to you by the time you get to the next intersection. One hopes, at least.
As was oft-rumored through the weekend, originally sourced by ESPN’s Marc Stein and Zach Lowe, the Chicago Bulls and Milwaukee Bucks have pulled the trigger on a deal sending 2014 NBA Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams to Chicago in exchange for swingman Tony Snell.
Milwaukee general manager John Hammond did not add a statement once the deal became official, but Bulls GM Gar Forman did release this:
“We’re excited to add Michael to our roster,” said Chicago Bulls General Manager Gar Forman. “He is a two-way player who adds versatility and depth to our backcourt rotation.”
MCW averaged 16.7 points, 6.2 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.9 steals during that award-winning rookie campaign in 2013-14, taking the hardware as the best of one of the NBA’s worst draft classes in history. He was shipped to Milwaukee in the season following for, you spotted it, a potential future lottery pick for the 76ers. Battling hip injuries, Carter-Williams missed the final two months of the 2015-16 season, and averaged 11.5 points, 5.1 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.5 steals in 30 minutes of action last season.
Snell struggled to establish himself as an NBA contributor in three NBA seasons with Chicago, playing average defense alongside a 35 percent career mark from behind the 3-point line. The 5.3 points per game he averaged in 2015-16 fall right in line with his career marks, and he offers little beyond the hope that he could eventually turn into a sound 3-and-D player on a contending team.
With swingman Khris Middleton out for perhaps the entirety of the 2016-17 season with a hamstring tear, though, the Bucks needed to add to the team’s lacking depth on the wing. Snell will help in some games, and disappear in most others. One can understand the need to pull the trigger, though.
However, as SB Nation’s Tom Ziller beat me to reminding you on Monday, the Bucks are but 20 months removed from sending the trading equivalent of what could turn into a future No. 1 overall pick to Phoenix in exchange for Carter-Williams. Milwaukee dealt Brandon Knight to Phoenix in the three-team deal that sent the Lakers’ upcoming lottery selection (with dwindling protection) to Philadelphia for MCW’s services. And, just a season and a half later, they’re dumping him on the Bulls in exchange for a player in Snell who rarely makes a tangible impact on the game he’s participating in.
This is partially because of Middleton’s injury, but also because of the dwindling trade leverage that followed the league-wide (including Chicago, to its credit, they just love non-shooters) observance of Carter-Williams’ limitations as a shooter. Or, perhaps more specifically, his inability to shoot.
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The Syracuse product was a 25 percent 3-point shooter last season, and he fared little better within the arc while working in a league that demands spacing above all. A 65 percent mark from the free throw line in 2015-16 doesn’t speak to an improving set of shooting fundamentals, and no amount of ball-dominant stat-grabbing can make up for the fact that, so far, Michael Carter-Williams has been more of a burden to his various squads than he has a boon. There are significant talents and smarts here, but they’ve yet to be applied to the current game in a form that suits the era.
He’s almost developed into a younger version of, while we’re at it, the man he’ll be charged with backing up in Chicago. The Bulls front office just can’t get enough of an offense-crushing, box score-obsessed thing.
Carter-Williams will learn behind Rajon Rondo in Chicago, with the hope that Rajon’s (we’re assuming; even given the slowpoke nature of a Bulls front office that refuses to admit mistakes in spite of obvious evidence to the contrary) short time in Chicago will do more as a Point Guard Whisperer than MCW’s short time in Milwaukee under Jason Kidd could.
There is hope, given a complete restructuring of Carter-Williams’ game, that he will be able to turn his career around as a post-happy, Shaun Livingston-type. After all, MCW’s recent hip surgery and youth have absolutely nothing on what Livingston went through in the years following the massive leg injuries he suffered in 2007.
That will take a bit of time, though. And for a Bulls team that has whiffed on several drafts in a row prior to signing Rondo to share court space with another non-shooter in Dwyane Wade (set to leave the team, we’re sure, in nine months), faith in the Bulls acting as the team that helps Carter-Williams to turn it all around should be in short supply.
Both the Bulls and Bucks will get to shake around their new toys before both – barring massively unprecedented steps forward for both franchise and players alike – move on as restricted free agents this summer following an underwhelming turn during their lone season with their new teams.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
