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Bucks', Pistons' stories remain intertwined
Since 1968, the Bucks and Pistons have been playing basketball games against each other. Milwaukee's first franchise win came in that inaugural season against Detroit, and since then the two teams have met 245 more times, including the playoffs. And they've been pretty evenly matched over the years, with the Bucks triumphing 126 times and the Pistons 120 (giving the former a razor's-edge-advantage 52.1 winning percentage).
But recently, Detroit has appeared almost eager to help out its Eastern Conference Central Division rivals. The Bucks' reported signing on Thursday of free-agent center and former Piston Greg Monroe (per league rules, contracts aren't official until July 9) is just the latest in a succession of moves involving the two teams -- moves that, more often than not, seem to work out much better for Brew City than Motor City.
Here is a chronological record of some of the major NBA transactions and connections between Detroit and Milwaukee over the past several years:
2008: John Hammond leaves Pistons to become Bucks GM
Hammond spent seven years with the Pistons as the organization's vice president of basketball operations. During his tenure there, the team won at least 50 games every season, captured six Central Division titles, made the NBA Finals twice and won the league championship in 2004. In April 2008, the Bucks announced they had pried Hammond away to become their general manager. In 2010, he won the NBA Executive of the Year Award and, now with new ownership and direction, is the architect behind Milwaukee's strategic -- and rapid -- on-court rebuild. Meanwhile, Detroit kept the franchise in the hands of Joe Dumars and, since Hammond left, the team hasn't had a winning season once. Last year, Dumars stepped down (or didn't have his contract renewed) as president of basketball operations and has been replaced by Stan Van Gundy. Some in Detroit wonder whether Hammond, the right-hand man, was the real genius behind all of Dumars' moves that made the Pistons so successful.
2009: Charlie Villanueva leaves Milwaukee to sign with Detroit in free agency
Villanueva spent three years with the Bucks, culminating in a strong 2008-09 season when he averaged career highs in points (16.2) and rebounds (6.7). Eager to leave Milwaukee and parlay that production into a lucrative free-agent deal, Villanueva got just what he was hoping for from the Pistons, who signed him to a five-year contract worth $35 million. He never averaged even 12 points (or 5.0 rebounds) per game in any of his five seasons with Detroit. The Bucks never regretted not re-signing Charlie Villanueva.
2013: Bucks trade Brandon Jennings to Pistons for Brandon Knight (oh, and Khris Middleton, too)
This was a win-win trade for both teams and seemed like a straight point-guard swap at the time. Jennings and Knight were both former lottery picks that scored well but needed a change of scenery. Knight, who averaged 13.3 points and 4.0 assists with the Pistons in 2012-13, upped those numbers to 17.9 and 5.1 in his 124 games with the Bucks. Jennings, who put up 17.5 points and 6.5 assists with Milwaukee in 2012-13, averaged 15.5 points and 7.1 assists in 121 games in Detroit. Neither player finished the year with their respective team. Knight was traded at the deadline to Phoenix in a deal that brought (yet another) young point guard Michael Carter-Williams to the Bucks, while Jennings' season ended with a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered (in tragically ironic fashion) against Milwaukee as he was guarding Knight. Call the Brandon-for-Brandon swap a wash -- even though the Bucks have turned Jennings, via Knight, into MCW, a promising and cheaper player, serviceable big man Miles Plumlee and (still yet another young point guard) Tyler Ennis. The guy that was essentially a throw-in, Middleton, has incontrovertibly made the Bucks the winners of the trade.
Middleton, a second-round pick of the Pistons in 2012, didn't start a game his rookie season and averaged just 6.1 points. On a Milwaukee team that would go on to lose more than any in franchise history and had plenty of minutes and shots available, Middleton flourished. In two seasons with the Bucks, he averaged 12.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game, while becoming a dangerous 3-point shooter and a highly respected defender. And on Wednesday, that trade throw-in agreed to terms to re-sign with the Bucks for five years and $70 million.
A couple of additional, minor notes from 2013: In the draft, the Pistons used their first-round pick, which was No. 8, on Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who's been a nice player for them. Still, though, they passed (as did many others) on Giannis Antetokounmpo, whom the Bucks took 15th. Later in that draft, the Pistons took Tony Mitchell, who's from Milwaukee, in the second round, hoping he would become an athletic wing contributor. Instead, he appeared in just 21 total games, averaging 1.0 point in 3.8 minutes, and was traded away.
June, 2015: Bucks trade Ersan Ilyasova to Pistons for Caron Butler and Shawne Williams
After what seemed like years (or, perhaps, after what was actually years) of trying to trade away Ilyasova and the last burdensome years of the five-year, $40 million contract to which Milwaukee signed him in 2012, Milwaukee found a taker in Detroit. Saying they'd long coveted the Turkish forward, the Pistons undeniably did not have to give up much to get him. The Bucks have since waived Butler and Williams, confirming the widely held belief that the deal was strictly a salary dump for Hammond and Co. While it's possible Ilyasova thrives in Detroit (reunited with Jennings), where he can hoist 3s, rebound occasionally and defend when it suits him, many Bucks fans were happy that a team was finally willing to take him off their hands.
July, 2015: Bucks sign Greg Monroe in free agency
On Thursday, Milwaukee agreed to terms with Monroe on a three-year contract worth $50 million, the first max-level deal the team has given out since signing Michael Redd in 2005. After averaging 15.9 points and 10.2 rebounds per game last year with the Pistons, the free-agent center chose the Bucks over big-market suitors like the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers. Milwaukee had reportedly targeted a couple of other high-profile centers, but given the swiftness and big money involved, the team clearly wanted Monroe pretty badly. And, since he'd said recently of returning to Detroit, "I don't want to be anywhere I'm not wanted," the Bucks can again thank the Pistons for helping them get what they wanted.
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