Michael Carter-Williams Lands in Perfect Place with Milwaukee Bucks
Is Michael Carter-Williams the perfect piece to get the Milwaukee Bucks over the hump? No. But is Milwaukee the perfect place for Carter-Williams to conquer his developmental demons? You bet.
In the midst of a hectic 15 minutes that saw a cluster of point guards get flipped, the Philadelphia 76ers shipped Carter-Williams to the Milwaukee Bucks in a three-team deal with the Phoenix Suns.
Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski and CBS Sports' Ken Berger provided the details:
At first glance, the Bucks' motives seem confusing.
Brandon Knight was a fringe All-Star on one of the Eastern Conference's burgeoning squads, averaging 17.8 points, 5.4 assists and 1.6 steals while shooting a career-high 43.5 percent from the field and 40.9 percent from three.
However, Knight's set to become a restricted free agent at season's end, while Carter-Williams is under team control through 2016-17 before he's due a qualifying offer worth roughly $4.4 million.
Aside from the financial considerations, Carter-Williams fits the mold of what head coach Jason Kidd wants in his starting point guard.
CSN Philly's Dei Lynam reported as much after the trade was announced:
Not only does Carter-Williams get to work under the tutelage of Kidd, but he's in a situation that will allow him to develop properly.
Freed from the burden of the league's most notorious tanking tacticians, the reigning Rookie of the Year will be allowed to evolve into the sort of open-court playmaker he's always projected to be.
Carter-Williams' per-game numbers will undoubtedly drop now that he isn't the focal point of Milwaukee's offense, but as we learned throughout his tenure in Philadelphia, gaudy counting stats don't equate to developmental progress or a positive impact.
The key now is that Carter-Williams will get to sit back and play to his strengths while learning from one of the game's most esteemed floor generals.
For starters, that means improving his jump shot. And if there's one head coach qualified to advise Carter-Williams on how to improve his mid-range and three-point stroke, it's Kidd.
Not only did Kidd capture Rookie of the Year honors in 1994-95 while shooting worse than 40 percent from the field, but as Bleacher Report's Kelly Scaletta points out, the two share very similar numbers through their first two seasons:
No wonder Magic Johnson likened the two late Thursday night:
And even though Carter-Williams is one of two players averaging more than 14 shots and converting on worse than 38 percent of them, according to Basketball-Reference.com, Kidd's career arc provides hope that MCW can eventually round into a semi-consistent spot-up and off-the-dribble shooter.
Carter-Williams also has the luxury of playing in an offense that's now competently spaced thanks to shooters like Khris Middleton, Jared Dudley and O.J. Mayo. That means he should finally have breathing room to operate with the ball in his hands.
Where he'll make an impact instantly, though, is on defense.
Through 41 appearances, the Sixers were 7.2 points better per 100 defensive possessions with Carter-Williams on the floor, allowing a paltry 98.5 points per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com. Compare that to Knight, whose presence made the Bucks 4.7 points worse per 100 defensive possessions.
Carter-Williams is also holding opponents to lower field-goal percentages than the league average all over the floor:
| Overall | 44.1 | 39.7 | -4.4% |
| 3-Pointers | 35.5 | 28.9 | -6.7% |
| 2-Pointers | 48.1 | 45.7 | -2.4% |
| Less than 6 feet | 59.2 | 57.7 | -1.4% |
| Less than 10 feet | 53.5 | 49.3 | -4.2% |
| Greater than 15 feet | 37.6 | 32.4 | -5.2% |
With Carter-Williams in at point guard, the Bucks somehow have even more length than they did before. That's terrifying, since Kidd's team already ranks second in defensive efficiency at 99.3 points allowed per 100 possessions and second in turnover ratio (17.0).
Hawks.com's K.L. Chouinard explained how the addition of a menacing 6'6" presence on the wing will allow Milwaukee to get even more creative with its schemes:
To think that the Bucks could somehow play a more frenetic brand of defense is frightening, but it's not all that surprising given Kidd's preferences, as explained by Grantland's Zach Lowe back in December:
"Kidd is banking on the Bucks’ wing players being long and athletic enough to help inside and rush back out in time to thwart any open shot. Cross-court passes hang in the air awhile, after all.
'If we weren't as long as we are, we probably wouldn't play like this,' Kidd says. 'But with our length, any long passes should give us time to recover.'
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With the addition of a physical specimen who will be allowed to scramble and let his athleticism do the talking, there's a lot to like about the future of Milwaukee's defense and Carter-Williams' rising ceiling.
Now on a playoff-bound squad that's only starting to scratch the surface of its potential, Carter-Williams has landed with the one team that may be able to maximize all he has to offer on both ends of the floor.
And while the Bucks will need plenty of time to integrate fully their new point guard, the long-term payoff has the chance to be exponentially greater than the short-term benefits Milwaukee was set to reap with Knight in tow.
The loss of a leading scorer hurts in the immediate future, without question. But Milwaukee owns a 7.5-game lead on the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat for the Eastern Conference's No. 6 seed. Upward mobility may be capped for now, but even with a transition occurring, a drastic collapse shouldn't be in the cards given how stingy Milwaukee's defense has been all season.
Beyond this year, Carter-Williams gives Milwaukee a versatile new weapon on a rookie-scale deal. Not only does that mean Kidd will have an extended opportunity to develop his skills, but the Bucks front office will have additional cap space to go chase complementary pieces.
Factor in the return of Jabari Parker from a torn ACL, and there's reason to believe Milwaukee could shake up the Eastern Conference power structure if evolutionary procedures go according to plan.
All statistics current as of Feb. 19 and courtesy of NBA.com unless noted otherwise.
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