Milwaukee Bucks: Breaking down the 4 potential big-name trade targets

Breaking down 4 potential trade targets for the Milwaukee Bucks

We’re heading into the most important Milwaukee Bucks off-season of my lifetime. Giannis Antetokounmpo is set to become a free agent after the 2020-21 season and the Bucks have to convince him to stay in the meanwhile. He won’t be demanding a trade so they have the whole season to try their best.

Being one of the contenders doesn’t keep superstars in town anymore (Kawhi Leonard, 2019) and the Bucks have to show that they can get better this season if they hope to keep their best player since Kareem in the 1970s. It’s basically an NBA Finals berth or bust for the Bucks. Because they’re strapped for cap space, the Bucks can really only improve via trade.

Here’s where the fun stuff starts happening baybee! There has been decent chatter regarding Bucks trade rumors in the past week or so and we’re going to analyze them here. Each analysis will have four parts to it:

1. Player Examination: We’re going to look at the rumored target’s 2019-20 stats, contract, and more to see if they’re a fit and an upgrade.
2. Roster Rounding Opportunities: When the Raptors traded for Kawhi before the 2019 season, they got Danny Green basically at no cost to match the salaries being traded. He started all 80 games that he played that season and contributed to their title run. With the Bucks likely giving up a lot for an upgrade, they’re going to need to be able to get a Green or someone similar in these trades to minimalize the cannibalization of their depth.
3. Trade Possibilities: We’re going to run through a couple of trade scenarios (verified by trade machine) to see what they would look like and what the remaining roster/cap space is.
4. Verdict: We’ll decide if this direction would be worth it for the Bucks.

(*Note: Yeah I refer to myself as ‘we’ in the third person a lot in these articles, get over it. If you watch Love Island, it’s like when they refer to themselves as ‘us’ in the singular. If you don’t watch…*shrug*.)

In my opinion, the only untouchable players on the Bucks should be Giannis, Khris Middleton, and Brook Lopez. Lopez isn’t as elite as the other two but he’s a center that plays defense, shoots 3’s, and didn’t get played off the court by any small-ball lineups during the season. Unless you’re packaging him for another bonafide superstar, you don’t trade those types of players. Let’s get to the trades!