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Milwaukee Bucks: 5 biggest offseason mistakes

By Jim Quinlan

NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 21: Donte DiVincenzo poses with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver after being drafted 17th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks during the 2018 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center on June 21, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 21: Donte DiVincenzo poses with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver after being drafted 17th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks during the 2018 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center on June 21, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images) /
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2. Failure to dump bad salary

I’ll keep coming back to this point, the Bucks are still another All-Star caliber player away from being a legitimate championship contender. There are three ways to get great players; through the draft, through a trade, or signing a free agent.  Since the Bucks are lacking in draft assets, signing a free agent may be their most likely route for another star. There is just one problem (well three I guess),  they have a bunch of bad money tied up and don’t have enough space to sign a max free agent in 2019.

The big three of bad money contracts for the Bucks are John Henson ($10 mil for two years), Dellavedova ($10 mil for two years) Tony Snell ($11 mil for three years). To realistically make enough room for a max free agent in 2019, the Bucks would have to get rid of at least two of these contracts.

Getting rid of bad contracts is easier said than done and, usually, a team would have to get rid of significant assets to offload contracts like these. Snell might have some value around the league?  Maybe we could have found a taker for Henson?  These situations would be hard to come by but there was one situation that stood out to me where the Bucks could have jumped in and really helped themselves and that was the Carmelo Anthony trade/buyout.

Anthony got traded to the Hawks for Dennis Schroeder and some throw ins.  The Thunder had to include a future first-round pick to get the deal done.  The Bucks could have offered Delly and Snell (and Zeller for salary matching) for Anthony and told the Oklahoma City Thunder to go ahead and keep that future first rounder.  Snell actually would have been a nice fit for them. Milwaukee could have then just waived Anthony like Atlanta did and set themselves up for a bunch of cap space in 2019.

OKC may have really wanted Schroeder (not sure why), and perhaps this was a long shot of a trade proposal but the point is the Bucks need to get creative and try to clear some of this horrible salary off their books, especially when guys like Delly and Henson aren’t going to see a whole lot of minutes this year.  The other option is to take their medicine and wait until 2020 when two of these guys come off the books, but by then it could be too late.

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