Milwaukee Bucks: Trade or Keep for Biggest Assets
By Kenny Jilek
Donte DiVincenzo
For the final two trade assets, Divincenzo and the first-round pick, trading them would be a move signaling that they’re going all-in on next season. This is because the Milwaukee Bucks simply don’t have much young talent. D.J. Wilson and Sterling Brown don’t seem to have panned out, Frank Mason isn’t the future either, and Dragan Bender, the clear answer to all the Bucks youth problems, was cut to free up a roster spot for Marvin Williams. DiVincenzo and this first-round pick are really all the youth they have.
Still, because of that youth, they are probably the most interesting pieces to other teams. The only trade I can envision the Bucks making involving Donte is for a bigger star like Chris Paul, Jrue Holiday, or Buddy Hield. Hield is the youngest, at 27 years old, but also possibly the most unrealistic as Sacramento is probably looking to keep their core together.
DiVincenzo will be entering his third year of a four-year rookie scale contract, and he’ll be a restricted free agent after that, so the Bucks could keep him for at least two more years and even more if they felt it was worth matching whoever offered him a salary. This is why I see them hanging onto their young role player for at least another year.
He missed much of his rookie campaign with a heel injury, and it took him a while to acclimate to the NBA, but he does everything right on a basketball court. He’s in passing lanes on defense, makes great cuts, crashes the glass on offense, and makes hustle plays everywhere on the court. He’s also shown strides in his outside shooting where he had issues like most rookies with the further three-point line but shot 38.5 percent in the playoffs this season.
He’s set to make another big jump in year three and could be a high-level sixth man or a starter next season, and the Bucks could get even more value out of him at that point. Trading him while he’s just shown the tip of the iceberg of his potential might be irresponsible, and knee-jerk moves like that don’t tend to pan out well.