Milwaukee Bucks Big Splash Trades Prove they’re All-in
By Kenny Jilek
The Milwaukee Bucks mortgaged their future to make a scary starting lineup, signaling that they are going all-in to win a championship this season.
It’s been almost 50 years since the Milwaukee Bucks last brought home a championship. The parallels are shockingly similar. They had a dominant big man who could score around the basket better than anyone in a game. They had a great scoring wing in Bob Dandridge, who in this narrative corresponds to Middleton even though Middleton is a superior player, and they traded their starting point guard at the time, Flynn Robinson, to upgrade to an even better one that would put them over the top, just like Eric Bledsoe for Jrue Holiday.
The Bogdan Bogdanovic trade netted them their new Jon McGlocklin, a sharpshooting wing who can give them a great scoring punch to follow their stars. These Milwaukee Bucks are following the same blueprint and gearing up to finally bring back home another championship.
In the first trade of the night, the Bucks traded Eric Bledsoe, George Hill, three first-round picks, and two pick swaps in exchange for Jrue Holiday. Then, they kept the train moving by swapping Donte Divincenzo, D.J. Wilson, and Ersan Ilyasova for Bogdan Bogdanovic and Justin James.
These trades are Jon Horst moving all of his chips to the middle along with his neck. These moves were ones that had to be made after two very disappointing playoff exits. The players that Milwaukee parted with had created some exciting times, but they simply weren’t good enough, and at a certain point, a business decision needs to be made; it’s time to move on and liquidate those assets for big-name players.
Holiday gives this Bucks team a lot of things that Bledsoe just simply didn’t bring to the table. The most notable of these is his ability to shoot from the outside. Eric Bledsoe’s jumper has been absolutely abysmal in the playoffs as he shot 24 percent from behind the arc in the last two postseason runs. Holiday is a career 38.7 percent three-point shooter in the playoffs. It’s not just that, though. He is also a superior playmaker, averaging 6.4 assists per game in his career to Bledsoe’s 4.8. The Holiday-Antetokounmpo pick and roll is going to be a thing to behold, and I personally cannot wait to see it in action.
Holiday is only under contract for two more seasons, and the second of those is a player option. That option is only about $26 million, which is likely not enough for him to stay unless he buys into the culture in Milwaukee, and the best way to do that is to win it all. This season, the Bucks will be playing to hold onto him because he can almost certainly get more money elsewhere in free agency, another signal that says, “we’re all-in on this season.”
Speaking of the Greek Freak, these moves are absolutely pivotal in keeping the two-time MVP in Milwaukee. The front office needed to show Giannis that they are committed to winning a championship now, and Monday night, they showed that they are 100 percent all-in on doing just that.
There is no doubt that these moves were discussed, at least in some capacity, with Antetokounmpo and that he gave some approval and confidence that he would stay with these moves being made. Horst probably wouldn’t have traded away all the picks and his best under-25 asset in Donte Divincenzo if he wasn’t pretty sure his centerpiece was sticking around.
Moving on from the first bombshell trade of the night to the second, Bogdan Bogdanovic is coming to town in a sign-and-trade. He’ll be slotted in at shooting guard to round out the starting five along with Holiday, Middleton, Giannis, and Brook Lopez. Somewhat surprisingly, he has the least NBA scoring prowess, even with his 15.1 points per game. Every other member of this lineup has averaged 20 points per game or more for a full season.
There was a big emphasis this offseason on getting reliable outside shooters, not just mediocre guys who could chuck them up there. Bogdanovic is a career 37.4 percent three-point shooter on 5.5 attempts per game and took 7.2 threes per game last season, converting 37.2 percent. This shooting serves multiple purposes. For one, it pulls defenders off of Giannis when he drives to the hoop or punishes them if they crash inside. It also gives the Bucks steady shot-making and makes them less prone to prolonged offensive dry spells, especially with the Greek Freak off the floor.
While Bogdanovic lacks the athleticism to break down defenders and blow past them for a high-flying dunk, he is a savvy scorer and has a high basketball IQ. He also will be playing the shooting guard position at 6’6″, which is a good size for the position, and that can get him some good looks over smaller guards. Similar to Middleton, he’s extremely adept in the 16-23 foot range. Last season, he shot 55.2 percent from that area, making it actually a pretty efficient shot. When the bigger stars are off the court, he’ll be a huge fixture in keeping the offense moving.
The biggest thing that the Milwaukee Bucks are getting with these two trades is two certified bucket-getters. It’s highly debated, but Giannis just doesn’t have the jumper or smoothness in his dribble moves to make him what people would traditionally call a bucket getter, and teams can collapse on him in the paint. Middleton is one, and he showed he can carry a team sometimes when he won game four against the Miami Heat, but they needed more.
The Heat had Butler, Dragic, Herro, Nunn, Crowder, Iguodala, and others that could go get two points when they needed it, and that carried them to the finals. Jrue Holiday and Bogdan Bogdanovic give Milwaukee two more guys like that, and the importance of that, especially late in games, cannot be measured by any advanced analytics. In every close NBA playoff game, there comes a point where the best players have to take over and just play ball. Milwaukee now has four guys that can do just that, not to mention Lopez in the post.
So, what does it all mean? The Milwaukee Bucks have just traded away five players, three first-round picks, and two pick swaps to get two big starting lineup pieces. Their bench will likely be mostly filled in by minimum contracts and other bargain bin players, but there’s still some hope to add a couple of valuable playoff contributors.
Either way, this starting lineup is built to win a championship, and that’s really the only thing that would make this season a success now because if they can’t do it, they still don’t have draft picks to retool, and they’ll be deep into the luxury tax. So in the words of the fictional Jake Taylor from the movie Major League, “I guess there’s only one thing left to do. Win the whole thing.”