Report: Bucks still shopping Drew Gooden

[Big Bid'Ness]

Fromrobasketballtalk

Drew Gooden has not yet set foot on the court for the Milwaukee Bucks this season, getting a DNP-CD in every game. He’s demoted. Benched.

And so the Bucks are trying to trade him. Good luck. But that’s the buzz, reports Gery Woelfel at the Journal Times.

The Bucks don’t comment on trade speculation but the scuttlebutt around the league is the team is trying to move the 31-year-old Gooden, who is being paid $6.68 million for this season and the next two seasons as well.

This shopping has been going on for a while with no success. No way the Bucks will get a taker unless they are willing to take a worse contract back. And there are not many worse. Gooden signed a full five-year mid-level exception deal back in July 2010 — he is owed $6.7 million a year the two seasons after this one. Trade for Gooden right now and when you count in the rest of the money he is owed this season you are just shy of $20 million guaranteed. For a guy his current coach won’t put on the court.

Granted, Gooden started 46 games for the Bucks last season and had a PER of 18.8 (well above the league average), but the fact he can’t get off the bench on a struggling team tells potential trade partners all they want to know. (Credit Gooden for being professional through this and not lashing out.)

So, good luck Bucks. Go ahead keep shopping him if you want.