If it's not an adage for NBA coaches, it should be: Get along with your best player or they'll be getting along without you.

A coach can complain all he wants about his star -- and many do -- but at the end of the day he better make sure his star knows he's the star. Bucks coach George Karl, unable to stomach doing that with Ray Allen any longer, replaced him with a star to whom he doesn't mind catering, Gary Payton.

	Sam Cassell, left, has had to share the ball with fellow point guard Gary Payton.

Karl, of course, is not the first to make this move. He'd just be the first to make it actually work. In recent memory, Don Nelson tried it by dealing rookie Chris Webber for Tom Gugliotta. P.J. Carlesimo did it by dealing Latrell Sprewell for John Starks, Chris Mills and Terry Cummings. Scott Skiles did it by going along with the trade of Jason Kidd for Stephon Marbury. John Lucas waved goodbye to Andre Miller.

In other words, that ticking you hear in Milwaukee is not the radiator kicking up.

None of this is to suggest the trade shouldn't have been made. The bridge between Karl and Allen had been burned. They were never a good fit, personality-wise, and tolerated each other as long as they did because both personalities are decent. The pieces the Bucks got back -- GP and Desmond Mason -- allow them to rebuild on the fly and/or get under the salary cap if they choose, an attractive option with the franchise up for sale. Mason has the raw goods to be a starting 2, and he's a lot cheaper than Allen. Payton is a free agent who can be brought back to form a backcourt with Mason, dealt in a sign-and-trade to get some frontcourt help, or let walk for a nice dollop of cap relief.

Of course, keeping Payton means moving Sam Cassell, who has long regarded himself as the Bucks' best player, Allen's All-Star berths notwithstanding. (It's worth noting how quickly Allen publicly accepted a backseat to Rashard Lewis in Seattle.) Karl was hard-pressed to discourage Sam-I-Am's personal ranking system because, for one, his in-your-face style is how Karl played, and therefore far more palatable than Allen's glide. But that also meant endorsing someone whose mindset is to outscore the opposition. That was never Karl's philosophy before, but he didn't have much choice when he arrived in Milwaukee to a team built around Sam, Ray and Glenn Robinson.

Another problem is that Karl has portrayed Ray, subtly or otherwise, as the reason Milwaukee has cratered since flirting with a Finals appearance two years ago and, in part, Gary as being the panacea. Which means the Bucks should be instantly better now that Allen is in Seattle -- and of course they're not. Teams that change such pivotal players this late in the season rarely are, at least not in the short term. The Mavericks weren't better after making last year's trade for Nick Van Exel and Raef LaFrentz, even if on paper they appeared to be. For teams with playoff hopes beyond a first-round cameo, making major changes at the trading deadline rarely work. The 76ers got by with the addition of Dikembe Mutombo because he didn't have an offensive role and had such a simple defensive one (swat all incoming.)

The roles Payton and Mason have to play, on the other hand, are by no means simple. They were brought in to play defense on a team that doesn't, or can't or won't. So while the Bucks' offense, statistically, has improved in nearly every category, their defense has plummeted in similar fashion. Opposing field-goal and 3-point shooting percentages are up since the trade, and they've allowed 100 points or more in eight of 14 games (57 percent), compared to 100 or more in 23 of their first 53 games (43.3 percent).

Perhaps even more important, the new additions aren't used to building and giving away huge leads, which has been a Bucks staple for years. Glenn, Ray and Sam could be up by 20 at halftime, give it all back in the third quarter and play the final 12 minutes completely unfazed. When Milwaukee blew an 18-point lead for a 72-72 tie going into the final period last week against the Lakers, I was courtside. GP, Mason and Toni Kukoc looked shell-shocked.

	The pain is that George is correct; there is a "right way" to play the game, a way that is in noticeably short supply these days, whether it be on the playgrounds, campuses or in the NBA. But while such rhetoric is as heartwarming as somebody shouting, "Let Freedom ring!" and stumping along with a fife and drum, it doesn't go very far unless it produces wins.

For those who never have actually talked to Karl, the behind-the-scenes promotional clip of him exhorting his team in the locker room to "play the right way" for the benefit of the fans has to raise one question: Does he really talk that way?

He really does. Which, from a purely esoteric point of view, makes it painfully predictable that the Bucks will stagger to the end of another season. The pain is that George is correct; there is a "right way" to play the game, a way that is in noticeably short supply these days, whether it be on the playgrounds, campuses or in the NBA. But while such rhetoric is as heartwarming as somebody shouting, "Let Freedom ring!" and stumping along with a fife and drum, it doesn't go very far unless it produces wins. Players follow a game plan for one reason, the same reason every corporate-cubicle schmoe, bus driver or check-out clerk the world 'round does -- because they believe it will result in a reward. The second anyone -- player, schmoe, driver, clerk -- believes otherwise, improvisation begins, along with inattention to detail. Everybody has a better idea of how things ought to be. Which is the end of the game plan.

When I talked to Karl before the loss to the Lakers, he complained that too many "very good coaches" were giving their top player unprecedented offensive latitude this season. He's right, of course, and I can understand why it offends him. It's not playing "the right way." Then again, fewer and fewer coaches seem to be in it for that. They're just trying to get along -- and avoid the ticking.

Ric Bucher covers the NBA for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at ric.bucher@espnmag.com. Also, send a question for possible use on ESPNEWS.