The Milwaukee Bucks today traded their first-round draft pick, Terry Mills, to the Denver Nuggets for veteran center Danny Schayes.
The Bucks had announced their intention to trade Mills right after taking him wihh the No. 16 pick in June. But the team had to wait for the league's salary camp to expand today before it could fit Schayes onto the roster."Danny's rugged style of play will aide us tremendously in the physical Eastern Conference," said Milwaukee coach Del Harris. "Our staff identified our No. 1 need to be the acquisition of another center to relieve Jack Sikma of excessive minutes."
The Bucks also announced they had relinquished the rights to veteran free agents Ben Coleman and Tony Brown because of salary cap considerations.
Mills averaged 18.1 points and 8 rebounds per game last season at Michigan. Schayes, a first-round draft pick of the Utah Jazz in 1981, has spent the last 71/2 seasons with the Nuggets. He averaged 10.4 points and 6.5 rebounds for Denver last season.
The trade came after Larry Riley, the Bucks' assistant coach, said that Milwaukee forward Larry Krystkowiak had been unable to compete with the team's squad in the Southern California Pro Summer League due to continuing leg problems.
Krystkowiak had missed much of last season after undergoing surgery to repair ligament damage to his left knee sustained in a 1989 playoff game.