Michael Carter-Williams has been a lot of things to a lot of different people during his relatively short stint in the NBA. To some, he’ll forever be a former Rookie of the Year who is on the verge of truly putting all his wonderful tools together. To others, he’ll be a guy who tends to play outside his abilities; more prone to harming his team than helping. Heading into his fourth season, it appeared as though MCW would get a chance to finally break through as the leader of a bench unit in desperate need of some play-making ability from the 1.

If MCW does breakthrough this season, however, it will no longer happen as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks. Instead, he’ll be heading due south from Milwaukee to Chicago to join the Bulls in exchange (as of now) for wing Tony Snell.

And so the short and sometimes painful experiment comes to a halting end.

Looking Back

The trade that ended up bringing Michael to Wisconsin was almost instantly reviled once it became known that the Bucks seemingly passed on acquiring a future Los Angeles Lakers lottery-protected first round pick in favor of the former ROTY. That decision was infamous the moment it became public knowledge, and it has (rightly or wrongly) colored MCW’s time in Milwaukee ever since.

Of course, the fact that he didn’t do much on the court to help his case certainly went a long way from making a bad situation worse.

Signs of trouble were almost immediately obvious. The Bucks in 2014-15 were the biggest surprise in the NBA and looked slated for a middle seed appearance in the playoffs. Brandon Knight could be a headache to watch in his own right, but his tending of the helm seemed to be the right fit at the right time. At the time of the trade which sent Knight out and saw MCW (among others) come in, the Bucks were a respectable 30-23. After the new talent infusion, the team managed to stumble their way to the end of the season, going 11-18. That sort of drop off was concerning, especially considering the visible swap in the starting lineup of Knight for Carter-Williams.

Perhaps, though, the difficulties at the end of that season were simply growing pains for a guy accustomed to being the number one option on a dumpster fire of a roster in Philadelphia. MCW seemed to quiet murmurs around him with a string of decent to impressive performances in the first round series against the Bulls. The Bucks surprisingly took their rivals to six games, and MCW was undoubtedly a part of making that happen.

Heading into the 2015-16 season, then, Bucks fans were hopeful that a full offseason with the coaching staff would do the trick for integrating Michael into the roster. Instead of continuous improvement, though, MCW had trouble carving out a spot once more. He couldn’t shoot from the outside (27.3% from 3) on a team that desperately needed any help it could get from the perimeter. His inability to read the floor as the primary ball handler meant the continuation of inordinately high turnover numbers (3.8 per 36) in exchange for unimpressive assists (6.1 per 36). Defense was still seemingly a strong suit, but it wasn’t nearly impacting enough to offset the troubles he had offensively. By the end of the season, a hip surgery forced MCW off the court which made room for Giannis Antetokounmpo to take over as the unquestioned point forward.

That sort of ignominious end to the season didn’t bode will for Michael, but leading up to this season, he seemed to have come to terms with a new role: The lead man off the bench. He’d continue to have a shot at running the offense and would benefit from playing against weaker competition. Unfortunately, his short appearances in the preseason didn’t do much to inspire confidence that he’d be up to the task: In two appearances, he managed to somehow shoot 23.8% from the floor, 20% from three, all while averaging a scintillating eight points, six rebounds, and five assists.

Apparently those numbers were as uninspiring to team officials as they were to the general fanbase. Things already looked bleak for MCW after reports came out that the team made an effort to swap him for Sacramento’s Ben McLemore (to no avail), and it seemed a move was inevitable.

That shoe has now finally dropped, and MCW finds himself on the way out-of-town in exchange for the equally disappointing Tony Snell (more on him later). Through all the difficulty, Michael seemed to get along well with the other guys in the locker room (Giannis especially), appeared appreciative to fans, and even had quite a few performances of which he should be proud of. While his stint in town ended short, one can only hope the best for him in yet another town. Perhaps a competitive environment at point guard in Chicago will bring the best out of Michael; only time will tell.

Note: MCW finished his time with the Bucks with the following per 36 minute averages: 14.6 points (on 44.4% shooting, 22.9% from three), 6.3 assists, 5.8 rebounds, 2.0 steals, and 3.5 turnovers.