Milwaukee Paid a Fourth for McNamara
Milwaukee acquired Mark McNamara from the Kansas City/Sacramento franchise on August 9, 1985. In exchange it surrendered a 1986 fourth-round selection, not an established rotation player or a premium pick. McNamara was the concrete center asset Milwaukee wanted to bring into its roster at the time. The acquiring team therefore took the certainty of a known player, while the Kings accepted the possibility of obtaining a different player in a late round the following June.
Sacramento Chose Bob Beecher at No. 91
The fourth-round pick materialized as No. 91 in the 1986 draft and was used on Bob Beecher. That connection is more informative than treating Milwaukee's outgoing consideration merely as a distant draft asset. The transaction ledger doesn't justify attributing production by unrelated fourth-round picks or later teams to Sacramento's compensation. Milwaukee could assess McNamara as a player on its roster; the Kings had to turn their selection into someone more useful to change the comparison.
The Exchange Was Narrow in Cost
A fourth-rounder is a comparatively limited price for the chance to acquire center depth. The trade's lasting evaluation depends on whether McNamara's Milwaukee value surpassed the direct result of the Beecher selection, not on an imagined blockbuster counterfactual. The source trail identifies the date, the incoming player and the exact pick conversion. With no additional cash or first-round asset documented, the proper verdict should stay tied to those components rather than to assumptions about what Sacramento might have drafted.
Final Verdict
Bucks Win. Milwaukee earns a B+ grade for the McNamara side, while Sacramento's return is recorded as C for the No. 91 selection used on Bob Beecher. This is a modest historical deal rather than a franchise-defining reversal; the principal advantage comes from acquiring a roster player for the particular fourth-round pick that actually changed hands.