Milwaukee Bucks: 3 Huge moves for this offseason

A Huge Trade

Any big offseason trade would require three things to be successful. The Bucks have to make salary numbers line up, they have to get someone that would make a meaningful impact in the playoffs, and also have enough assets to acquire such a player.

The biggest name that’s been tossed around lately is Chris Paul. He was great in the first round against the Houston Rockets, pushing them to seven games and nearly leading the Thunder to an upset victory. He averaged 21.3 points, 7.4 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.6 steals and shot 49.1 from the field and 37.2 percent from beyond the arc. He was the only one of the Thunder’s five leading scorers to shoot over 45 percent from the field.

So, Paul would add efficient scoring, leadership, playoff experience, and playmaking to this team, almost surely pushing them closer to a championship. Next come the logistical problems, mainly making the salaries line up in a trade.

The Bucks don’t have a lot of big contracts that they’d like to move, and that makes taking on Paul’s $41 million dollar salary for next season extremely difficult. The framework could be something like Bledsoe, Ilyasova, Robin Lopez, and Divincenzo. However, that probably isn’t even enough to make the numbers quite line up, and George Hill could be a candidate to be traded as well because of his $9.5 million salary for next season.

In that case, they’d have to either elevate Frank Mason to backup point guard, sign a cheap one like the aforementioned Teague or Carter, or draft one. Even if the trade would go through, it’s giving up a lot and taking on the huge salary of a 35-year-old point guard.

Finally, those assets might not be enough for the Thunder. They’ll try to sell him high after his playoff performance, but his large salary and age should bring his value down enough that an enticing young player like Divincenzo and talented defender in Bledsoe would be enough.

A different target could be Jrue Holiday. He’s not as flashy as Paul, but he’s a consistent player and has shown star capabilities. In his last playoff appearance in the 2017-18 season, he averaged 23.7 points per game while shooting 51.8 percent from the field, and he’s averaged around 20 points per game in the regular season in each of the last three years.

The nice thing about Holiday is that he’s owed about $15 million less than Chris Paul next season, at about $26 million. With that much less of a salary, a package of Eric Bledsoe and Robin Lopez is almost enough to make the contract numbers line up. Not that a package like that would be enough for the Pelicans, but that should show you how much more possible this is.

Maybe it would take a guy like Donte to be thrown in or a first-round pick, but if Holiday can provide the offensive punch in the playoffs that he’s shown he’s capable of, while also giving the Milwaukee Bucks a true third option, it might be worth it. They might want to hold onto that draft pick, though, because they could do some interesting things with it on draft night.