Before Lamar Odom and Lebron James did extraordinary things with the ball there was a Virginia native named Paul Pressey. It was 1984, the year Michael Jordan was drafted, when a team just north of Chicago and in Jordan’s division, the Milwaukee Bucks, had a problem to solve.
Oct 30, 2012; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach Paul Pressey during a game against the Washington Wizards at Quicken Loans Arena. Cleveland won 94-84. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
They had too many shooting guards who couldn’t handle the ball. The reason had to do with trades and cutting down payroll and what usually happens to franchises because of money. But the Bucks coach Don Nelson was an all-time great problem solver. Always original and sometimes revolutionary and never afraid to fail, Nelson decided to have his third year player, a guard out of Tulsa, play the small forward position and initiate the offense. He thought it could work. It would open the floor for Sidney Moncrief to create. It would help Terry Cummings.
Most thought it was one of those crazy innovative Don Nelson things. But Paul Pressey, the Milwaukee Bucks small forward in 1984-85, handled the ball to initiate the offense and Nellie called him a point-forward. If it was crazy it also worked. The Bucks won the Central Division.
Paul Pressey played college at Tulsa and was a point guard. Before Don Nelson moved him to the small forward spot he had average success in the NBA. In his two years in the league he averaged 26 minutes a game, 7 points and 3 assists. But when Nelson all of a sudden changed his position his offense took off. He doubled his scoring average. He played 35 minutes a game as the initiator of the Bucks offensive attack. In 30% of his games as a point forward he shot over sixty percent. Against the New York Knicks in that first season of this new experiment Pressey missed one shot, made 11 shots and scored 25 points. This would begin a trend for Pressey, the next five years of his career would be his best.
1n 1984-85 the Bucks finished 1st in the Central Division and lost in the second round of the playoffs. Pressey was their third leading scorer behind Sidney Moncrief and Terry Cummings. He averaged 16 points a game. He led the team in assists with 7. The Bucks were first in defense and Pressey was All-Defensive, first team. The next year the Bucks lost in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Boston Celtics. The Bucks were a good team by then but they were never going to be great. Besides, they heard footsteps echo behind them. Michael Jordan had just finished his second year and was establishing himself as a dynamic player in the Central Division and the NBA as a whole.
Once again in 1985-86 Paul Pressey was All-Defensive, first team. Pressey passed and scored and ran the offense but that was the last year the team coached by Don Nelson would get to the Eastern Conference Finals. They lost to the Celtics once more even though Pressey was All-Defensive, second team. In later years Nelson would move to the Bay Area and the Bucks would lose to the Pistons. Suddenly they had company. Scottie Pippen was in the league now. The Bucks quietly disappeared.
Paul Pressey played eleven NBA seasons. By then he made his rounds and was with the Warriors before he was injured and called it a career. He also played with the Spurs. He began his second career as an assistant coach. He worked with Doc Rivers, Mike Brown and Byron Scott in New Orleans. He has a NBA title as an assistant coach with the Spurs (1999). Now he is back with Byron in Los Angeles. What Paul Pressey was as a player- a tough defender, a ball distributor, a career 48% field goal shooter, the first point-forward- Byron Scott expects as a teacher for his crew of young guards with potential, especially Jordan Clarkson.