National Basketball Association

Milwaukee Bucks: Two Stars That Were Almost Bucks In The 1990s

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Milwaukee Bucks drafted and subsequently traded away Dirk Nowitzki and Stephon Marbury in the 1990s. One deal worked out–the other did not.

What’s done is done. The past is in the past, and there’s no changing what’s already happened. Still, isn’t it fun to play a little “what if” when looking back through history?

The Milwaukee Bucks drafted some great players in the 1990s, including Glenn Robinson and Vin Baker. But did you know they also, technically, drafted Dirk Nowitzki and Stephon Marbury?

First, in 1996, Milwaukee took Marbury with the fourth overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft. Right away after taking him, the Bucks flipped Starbury to the Minnesota Timberwolves for the fifth overall pick, and a future first.

The Bucks blew the future first by failing to use it at all. Instead Milwaukee traded it back to the Wolves in exchange for Andrew Lang. Lang played two years with Milwaukee and averaged 3.9 points per game in that time.

The Timberwolves ended up using that first rounder on Rasho Nesterovic in 1998. Nesterovic was a solid if unspectacular center who spent time in Minnesota and then won a ring with the San Antonio Spurs.

Eight picks before Nesterovic, Milwaukee made another draft pick who the team would immediately trade. The Milwaukee Bucks selected Dirk Nowitzki ninth overall, and dealt him to the Dallas Mavericks right away.

In exchange, Milwaukee got Robert Traylor, an athletic forward out of Michigan. Tractor Traylor never managed to get healthy for long over the duration of his NBA career, and saw his career end in 2005 after needing heart surgery.

Sadly, Traylor passed away in 2011 due to a heart attack while in Puerto Rico.

Traylor did look like a great prospect coming out of college–he won multiple tournament awards and averaged 16.2 points, 10.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.4 blocks per game in his last season with the Wolverines.

Obviously his NBA career never had the dramatic success that Dirk Nowitzki enjoyed, but the reasoning for the Traylor trade is obvious. Adding a forward who can do everything Traylor did in college clearly would’ve been huge for the Bucks.

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While some Bucks fans might look with longing at Nowitzki, at least Milwaukee’s faithful can rest easy knowing the Ray Allen trade worked out well. Allen was a better overall player than Marbury over the course of their careers, plus the latter only stuck around for two years in Minnesota before being traded again anyway.

Still, it’s interesting to look back at the team that could’ve existed in Milwaukee. Traylor was brought in to play power forward–imagine if the Bucks had gone with Dirk instead.

Milwaukee could’ve trotted out a Sam Cassell/Ray Allen/Glenn Robinson/Dirk Nowitzki/Ervin Johnson starting five. That’s an incredible team that probably gets a lot farther than the Eastern Conference Finals.

As previously mentioned though, the past is in the past. Hindsight is 20/20. The Bucks had every reason to believe their team would be just as powerful with Traylor in the lineup–he was a stud coming out of Michigan and was seen as a missing piece for Milwaukee.

Unfortunately things just didn’t work out that way.

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