Milwaukee Bucks: Trade or Keep for Biggest Assets

Brook Lopez and George Hill

If the Bucks want to add value in order to a trade for a bigger star while also making salaries line up, Lopez and Hill are the best candidates because of their contracts. Hill is due $9.59 million next season, and Lopez about $12.7 million. The Bucks don’t have many big contracts on their roster, so these would be the ones to move if they needed to make contracts equal in a trade.

They are both far from trade fillers, however, and shouldn’t be viewed that way at all. Hill was the top three-point shooter in the NBA this season at 46 percent. While his playoffs this year were slightly disappointing, he still wasn’t bad off the bench, averaging 9.5 points on 47.8 percent shooting and 35.7 percent from three.

Let’s also not forget how much of a spark he was in the playoffs last year, sometimes looking like the best player on the court. He averaged 11.5 points per game while shooting 53.4 percent from the floor and 41.7 percent from beyond the arc while only turning it over 0.4 times per game.

The issue with Hill really adding value in a trade is that he’s aging, and so is Lopez. Hill is 34 years old, Lopez is 32, and they’re not getting any younger. But they still often turn back the clock with Lopez still being dominant in the post for stretches and Hill doing things like this in last year’s playoffs:

The real problem with his age isn’t that they can’t still play and make an impact, but more so that other teams want young players with potential if they’re going to trade away a star. This makes these two veterans not as enticing for other teams.

Brook Lopez had a rough season shooting the ball, shooting under 30 percent from behind the arc before the bubble, but he was rejuvenated by being in his happy place of Disney and got his percentage up to 31.4 percent by the end of the season and shot 39.6 percent from deep in the playoffs while averaging 15.8 points per game. Lopez is a perfect fit for this team as a rim protector and a shooting center.

For both of these guys, that fit is what this really comes down to. As shooters and veteran leaders, their value in Milwaukee is probably higher than their perceived value anywhere else. The Bucks already have an old roster, so their age isn’t as much of an issue to them, and they’ve built chemistry with the guys here.

This all points to them keeping Hill and Lopez simply because the value they would get back wouldn’t be what these guys are really worth to this team. Maybe the Thunder are just obsessed with Lopez’s talents and would take him as a coveted piece in a Chris Paul trade, but I just don’t see that, so they’ll probably hold onto these guys.

Trade or Keep: Keep