Milwaukee Bucks: Washington Wizards are Open for Business

There are recent report that the Washington Wizards are willing to move their two All-Star guards in John Wall and Bradley Beal.  Should the Milwaukee Bucks make a move for either player and what would they have to give up?

According to Adrian Wojnarowski,  everyone on the Washington Wizards is available because they simple cannot get along with each other. The two guys on the team that everyone is interested in would be John Wall and Bradley Beal. The Milwaukee Bucks are still probably another All-Star caliber player away from a championship and right now there are two All-Stars rumored to be available.

First let’s discuss John Wall. He is a 28-years-old and a five-time All-Star. He’s one of the more athletic players in the league (when healthy). He is a below average three-point shooter (32.7 percent career) but a good distributor (nine assists/game career). He has made an All Defensive Team but his defensive engagement has been called into question frequently over the last few seasons. He’s sort of like a souped up version of Eric Bledsoe. And like Bledsoe, Wall depends a lot on his athleticism to be effective and that is something that will not necessarily age well.

Wall also signed a super-max contract extension in 2017 that will keep him under contract until the 2022-2023 season in which he will make $46 million dollars per year. Considering his age, health history, playing style, contract, and apparent attitude issues the Bucks should not waste their time in trying to acquire him. Oh, and according to this Zach Lowe piece, because of a 15 percent trade kicker a Wall trade is very unlikely until next summer anyway.

Now onto Bradley Beal.  Beal is one of the ideal players in the league to pair with Giannis Antetokounmpo. First of all, he is 25 years old and under contract 2020-2021 at a reasonable $25-28 million per year. Pairing him with Antetokounmpo would allow the Bucks to have two All-Star level players in their peak seasons for the next three years. Beal is a lot different from the recent All-Stars that have been made available in trade because he is locked into a contract and guaranteed to be on the team for three seasons.

With players like Jimmy Butler, Khawhi Leonard, and even Paul George the Bucks would have been taking a big chance because each of those players could leave the team the following season. Besides just his age lining up with Antetokounmpo, he also has a skill set that would compliment him as well. Beal is a career 39 percent shooter three-point shooter and a pretty solid defender. He ranked fourth among shooting guards in 2016-2017 in defensive rpm. Beal also has shown he can carry a team offensively as he did last year when John Wall was out a significant portion of the season. He’d be a perfect Robin to Giannis’ Batman.

Now on to the next important question – do the Bucks have the assets to get a deal done? Ideally the Bucks would add Beal to be their third star along with Khris Middleton and Giannis so let’s look at a couple possible trades.

Without Middleton in the deal the Bucks are going to have to give up almost every other asset they have to get a deal done and it will be difficult to match salaries considering Beal’s $25 million salary.  The other thing that may provide value to the Wizards is to rid themselves of the terrible Ian Mahinmi contract.

This first one is the simplest:

Don’t forget the Bucks still have a pick they owe to the Suns for Bledsoe and until that conveys they can’t really trade another pick before 2022 due to the Stepien rule.  This doesn’t seem like quite enough to pull off a deal.  After that option you really have to start involving a third team. Here’s one option that could be out there:

The Bucks would still have to put in their 2022 firstand even with that it would be a stretch that the Wizards would accept the deal.  But this trade would get the Wizards under the tax this year and clear their books a little next year. It would also get them a young shooting guard that has shown some promise in Donte DiVincenzo and a young big in Thon Maker.

For the Magic they are essentially taking in Henson’s contract so they can get a point guard. The front office in Orlando is familiar with these two players as John Hammond drafted both of them. With all this said, without including Middleton in a deal, the Bucks could likely be out bid by other teams for Beal’s services. Teams like the Lakers and Celtics come to mind as having both young players and picks to offer that are better than what the Bucks have to offer in this trade.

The Bucks should exhaust every effort to get Beal without trading Middleton but if push comes to shove they should also be willing to trade Middleton. Beal is younger, more athletic and has a higher overall upside than Middleton does as a player. Also I will reiterate the contract situation. Middleton will be getting paid next year and it will most likely be more than Beal makes now and perhaps up to $30 million a year.  There is also a chance that we just get out bid for Middleton’s services next year all together. So by trading Middleton for Beal we’d be guaranteeing ourselves a younger, cheaper player, that’s at least as good as Middleton and that’s locked up guaranteed for the next three years. Should be a no-brainier.

The trades with Middleton do seem more likely but there is still the problem of salary matching. One of Bledsoe, Tony Snell, Mathew Dellavadova or John Henson pretty much have to be included with Middleton to get the job done salary wise. Here is the first one which would be ideal for the Bucks:

Milwaukee would retain Bledsoe to be their starting point guard and also be sneakily clearing some salaries that could create some issues in the future. We also would not be including a first round pick in this scenario.

Now for the trade that would almost be too one-sided in the Wizards favor, but to get a guy like Beal this may be what it takes:

In this scenario they’d be committing to Brogdon long-term as their point guard and Tony Snell would be the starting small forward for the foreseeable future.  Considering Bledsoe’s murky future with Bucks anyway the front office should still probably pull the trigger on a trade like this. Donte DiVincenzo has looked very promising thus far but his shot has still been questionable.

If the Bucks are willing to trade Middleton, there is a very good chance they can get Beal.  The trade possibilities are endless and they could even start getting a third team involved. Previously I’ve been very hesitant for the Bucks to trade Middleton but to have an All-Star caliber player for 3 years locked up with Giannis it would be well worth it.

If the Bucks position themselves correctly they could have Beal and Giannis Antetokounmpo locked up for the next three years, both of whom are 25 or younger, and also have cap space for a big free agent in 2020. This has to be a move the Bucks are willing to make if they have the bigger picture in mind, even if that means shaking up a team that’s on pace for 55+ wins this year.