Milwaukee Bucks Acquire Grayson Allen for Sam Merrill & Picks in Trade

Cover your ears and close your eyes Wisconsin Badgers fans, still in need of added guard depth, the Milwaukee Bucks have traded Sam Merrill, and two future second-round picks to the Memphis Grizzlies in return for Grayson Allen—yes, that Grayson Allen.

Allen is entering his fourth NBA season and the final year of his rookie deal—he is extension eligible, by the way.

Allen had appeared in 76 games during his first two seasons in Memphis with only two starts, but last season he saw a big uptick in playing time, appearing in 50 games with 38 starts.

Averaging 25.2 minutes per game instead of the 18.9 from the previous season, as expected, it was a career year for Allen in most major categories.

He would finish the season averaging 10.6 points per contest with 3.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and nearly a steal per game. From the field be shot 42 percent on over 8 shots per game. From 3, Allen hit 39 percent of his 5.5 attempts per contest, and from the free-throw line, he made almost 87 percent of his attempts.

Allen also finished last season with a defensive rating of 112.9, according to NBA.com. For some context, Jrue Holiday’s defensive rating was 108.9 while Pat Connaughton’s was 114.7.

Bobby Marks of ESPN would add that the Milwaukee Bucks are using their $4.9 million DJ Augustin trade exception to pick up Allen’s $4.1 million salary. The Bucks luxury tax penalty will also increase from $36 million to $44 million.

At this time, we don’t know which future second-round picks were sent to Memphis. Merrill appeared in 30 games as a rookie averaging 3.0 points, 1.0 rebound, and 0.7 assists while shooting 44.7 percent from 3 over 7.8 minutes per game.

This move should be an instant upgrade for the Milwaukee Bucks bench.