Milwaukee Bucks Add to Depth & Bring Back Wes Matthews
By Paul Bretl
The Milwaukee Bucks continue to churn their roster.
It was first reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic that the Bucks were waiving Georgios Kalaitzakis. Kalaitzakis was the 60th pick in this year’s draft and spent time with both the Bucks and the Wisconsin Herd. With Milwaukee, he appeared in nine games and averaged just over five minutes per contest while averaging 1.8 points.
However, just a short while after that news broke, Shams would also report that the Milwaukee Bucks were reuniting with free agent Wes Matthews.
Free agent Wesley Matthews plans to sign a deal with the Bucks, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. The 12-year veteran, who spent last season with the Los Angeles Lakers, is set to return to Milwaukee.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 3, 2021
Matthews, of course, spent the 2019-2020 season in Milwaukee after signing as a free agent at that time. He started 67 games and averaged 24.4 minutes that season. Matthews finished the year averaging 7.4 points per game with 1.4 assists and 2.5 rebounds. He would also shoot 36.4 percent from 3.
Matthews would join the Los Angeles Lakers for the 2020-2021 season, where he would struggle to find any sort of rhythm. He appeared in 58 games with only 10 starts and posted 4.8 points per contest with 1.6 rebounds, less than an assist per game, and his 3-point percentage dropped to just 33.5 percent–a career-low.
Until signing this deal with the Milwaukee Bucks, Matthews had been a free agent up to this point in the current season.
As far as fit, there are several reasons why this move makes sense for Milwaukee. Matthews is relentless on the defensive end, and he knows Mike Budenholzer’s system. He will also give the Bucks another player with some 3-point prowess, hitting nearly 38 percent of his career attempts.
The addition of Matthews bolsters the Bucks’ wing depth and gives them an additional physical presence there as well.
While we don’t know the exact details of Matthews’ deal at this time, Spotrac’s Kieth Smith reported that this addition does “cost them (Milwaukee) a good chunk more in tax money than Kalitzakis would have”–showing that ownership is willing to spend extra to help this team win.
We will have to wait and see where and how Matthews exactly fits into this year’s Bucks rotation. But we do know that he won’t need to be relied upon as heavily as he was during his last stint with the team.