What Changed Hands—and What Lasted
On 2006-07-31, Milwaukee Bucks and Portland Trail Blazers completed a transaction built around Steve Blake, Brian Skinner, Ha Seung-Jin, and Jamaal Magloire. Milwaukee Bucks received Steve Blake; Brian Skinner; Ha Seung-Jin. Portland Trail Blazers received Jamaal Magloire. The useful starting point is the full exchange rather than the most recognizable name in it. Each player, pick, draft right, financial mechanism, or secondary consideration belongs in the record, but those pieces do not carry equal retrospective weight. The evaluation follows the value that actually materialized for the receiving franchises and uses the package to keep the comparison tied to this trade instead of to unrelated later moves.
How the Margin Became Clear
The verdict is Bucks Win, and the grades place Milwaukee Bucks at A- and Portland Trail Blazers at C+. The realized value favors Milwaukee clearly. Milwaukee received Steve Blake; Brian Skinner; Ha Seung-Jin and gave up Jamaal Magloire. On a hindsight basis, most of the value rests in the players and assets that actually changed hands. The grade also accounts for transaction scale and whether the outgoing package contained premium first-round or established-player value. The assets exchanged are clear enough to support high confidence in this assessment. That separation is important because a trade can be understandable for both sides and still finish with a clear retrospective winner. The grade gap measures completed value: player production, realized draft conversion, role, timing, and transaction consequences that the record directly connects to the exchange. It does not require every asset on the winning side to succeed; it requires the stronger side to have created more durable value than the return on the other side.
The Return That Carried the Deal: Milwaukee Bucks
For Milwaukee Bucks, the incoming package centered on Steve Blake, Brian Skinner, and Ha Seung-Jin. The realized value favors Milwaukee clearly. Milwaukee received Steve Blake; Brian Skinner; Ha Seung-Jin and gave up Jamaal Magloire. On a hindsight basis, most of the value rests in the players and assets that actually changed hands. The grade also accounts for transaction scale and whether the outgoing package contained premium first-round or established-player value. The assets exchanged are clear enough to support high confidence in this assessment. That perspective explains why the A- grade is attached to the stronger side rather than simply to the larger package. The most substantive pieces were Steve Blake, Brian Skinner, and Ha Seung-Jin, and the record credits what those assets became for the franchise. Where the return included draft value or multiple components, the analysis treats conversion and actual use as part of the outcome instead of assuming that an unexercised possibility had the same value as production that reached the floor.
The Return That Could Not Match It: Portland Trail Blazers
Portland Trail Blazers received Jamaal Magloire. The Blazers’ incoming side was Jamaal Magloire; the outgoing side was Steve Blake and additional consideration. The counterpart finished ahead on the principal assets, though the gap never became lopsided. The full transaction history therefore supports a slight partner edge. The C+ grade still records the value that side obtained; it is not shorthand for 'nothing.' The comparison turns on whether Jamaal Magloire and the rest of the return could match the stronger completed outcome. In this trade they did not. That is why the losing side can have a defensible trade-day rationale, useful rotation value, or a legitimate asset without erasing the separation reflected in Bucks Win.
Final Verdict
Bucks Win. Milwaukee Bucks receive A-, while Portland Trail Blazers receive C+. The verdict follows the realized value of the trade: Milwaukee Bucks' side, led by Steve Blake, Brian Skinner, and Ha Seung-Jin, finished ahead of Portland Trail Blazers' side, led by Jamaal Magloire. The result is not based on package length or hindsight name recognition alone. It is based on the production, draft conversion, role, timing, and asset consequences described in the underlying trade details. That evidence supports the explicit grade split and leaves enough completed-value separation to preserve Bucks Win.