Milwaukee Bucks: Grading their offseason moves at the halfway mark
The Milwaukee Bucks made a number of impressive moves last Summer. Let’s go back to take a look and grade their signings and draft pick.
Milwaukee Bucks’ general manager Jon Horst had himself a very good summer. He went out and got one of the two best coaches on the market, drafted a future role player and signed three contributors to the roster. It doesn’t get much better than that.
The Bucks are officially at the halfway mark of the 2018-19 season so it’s about time we go back and take a look at how the offseason played out for them. Here are the grades at the mid-way point for all of their offseason moves:
Signing Mike Budenholzer: A+
The Bucks began their summer with a home run. On May 16th, the bucks and Mike Budenholzer agreed to a multi-year deal. Budenholzer served under Gregg Popovich for a number of seasons and was the head man with the Atlanta Hawks.
He has brought a five-out system to Milwaukee that Giannis Antetokounmpo has thrived in. He encourages every player to shoot threes and they greatly appreciate that about him. Furthermore, he’s created a defensive system that ranks in the top five for defensive rating. It doesn’t get much better than this for the Bucks.
Drafting Donte DiVincenzo: C
After hiring Budenholzer, the Bucks next move was to draft Donte DiVincenzo with the 17th pick of the draft. DiVincenzo was drafted because he perfectly fits Budenholzer’s scheme in that he can pass, shoot and dribble.
DiVincenzo will never be an All-Star in the NBA, however, he has the chance to become a contributor at some point. After playing consistent minutes to begin the season, the rookie has fallen out of the deep guard rotation. However, he flashed enough to show that he has a future as a role player if he can get his outside shot to fall.
Signing Ersan Ilyasova: C-
This was probably the worst move of the offseason for the Bucks and it’s still not even a very bad one. Ilyasova and the Bucks agreed to a three-year contract worth $21 million. However, the final season has very little guaranteed money so it’s basically a two-year deal.
Ilyasova has struggled to hit shots consistently and hasn’t quite provided the Bucks with the spark they were looking for. Still, he’s knocking down 37.1 percent of his threes and plays solid enough defense. If he can regain his rhythm, this grade will quickly rise.
Signing Brook Lopez: A+
Talk about one of the best signings of the summer in terms of both player ability and value. Lopez agreed to a one-year, $3.3 million deal with Milwaukee and is already set for a huge raise in 2020.
He’s fully transitioned to a three-point bomber, as he’s taking 6.8 a game and connecting on 37.4 percent of them. His ability to stretch the floor from the center position has done wonders for this offense. His defense has also been spectacular and he routinely deters shots around the rim. Lopez is definitely the hit of the offseason class.
Signing Pat Connaughton: B
Connaughton began the season on the bench, earned a role for a period of time, but is back to the bench again. Similar to DiVincenzo, he can’t quite find his stroke from downtown, but found ways to contribute in other areas.
His contract is for two years and only $3.4 million total. That means he is set to make $1.6 million this year and a non-guaranteed $1.7 million next season. That’s a great contract for the Bucks and he would be in the rotation for a lot of teams.
Next. 3 trade proposals involving Khris Middleton. dark
Signing Christian Wood: Undetermined
Christian Wood has a weird following in the Bucks Twitterverse. He’s dominated the G-League for multiple seasons now and that has a lot of folks calling for his tenure in the NBA to begin. Unfortunately, he hasn’t seen any real playing time in Milwaukee, as he is stuck behind a plethora of forwards. His grade will be incomplete until we see him on an NBA court.