Milwaukee Bucks: Why Malcolm Brogdon will haunt Milwaukee for years to come

The decision not to re-sign Malcolm Brogdon continues to haunt the Milwaukee Bucks

As important as the Jrue Holiday trade was for the Milwaukee Bucks, letting Malcolm Brogdon walk after the 2018-19 season will be more impactful in a regrettable way than Jrue’s impact will be a positive for Milwaukee.

Milwaukee fans will say, “We had to trade for Jrue to re-sign Giannis!” They might not be wrong, again this isn’t about the Holiday trade being bad, as it is more of an indictment on the Bucks for not signing Brogdon to an even cheaper deal as he is the more impactful player.

Let’s compare numbers thus far, Brogdon averages 23 points, five rebounds, and seven assists while Holliday averages 15 points, four rebounds, and five assists. Brogdon’s numbers are better than his across the board, Ouch. Although the numbers don’t compare this season, it is a small sample size, but again it’s not about the numbers. It’s how they lost Brogdon and how they acquired Jrue.

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Milwaukee’s first mistake was extending Eric Bledsoe to a four-year, $70 million deal heading into the playoffs. Bledsoe, an undersized guard who struggles with his jump shot, was fresh off of a messy scenario in Phoenix which ended up getting him traded to Milwaukee in November 2017.

For all of Bledsoe’s faults, he did play well in the regular season. Last season, he averaged 15 points, five assists, and just over three rebounds per game. Not bad, but not great either for a guy who makes roughly $18 million a year.

The playoffs is what poses the biggest problem with Bledsoe; his numbers dive, he makes losing plays, and he’s not a clutch shot-maker.

Meanwhile, in the 2018-19 season, the Bucks made a run to the conference finals before losing to the eventual champs, the Toronto Raptors, in six games.

Here’s mistake No. 2, Brogdon is a free agent coming off of a 50/40/90 season which only a few players have ever done. Here’s the list of 50/40/90 guys in NBA history: Larry Bird, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Reggie Miller ,Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, and Mark Price.

Those players were pretty good, right? Milwaukee didn’t see it that way. Did I mention Brogdon won the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award too? Sorry to Milwaukee fans if it seems like I’m rubbing it in, but how many signs do you need that this guy is going to be special?

Fast forward to the 2019 offseason, Brogdon gets an offer sheet from Indiana for four years worth $85 million and Milwaukee decides to let him walk. What happens next? Milwaukee has a phenomenal regular season capped off with a shocking five-game second-round playoff loss to the Miami Heat.

While Brogdon takes a less talented Indiana team to the first round, averaging 17 points, seven assists, and five rebounds. Would Brogdon have gotten the Bucks over the hump, maybe not, but he gives you a better option than Bledsoe for just a few more million per year.

Mistake No. 3 is the most recent and the most tricky. Giannis has yet to sign the super-max deal with Milwaukee, the Bucks front office promises to get him more help and commit to building a better team around him. So they go out and get Jrue Holiday, and shortly after Giannis commits to Milwaukee for the five year max.

So if you look at it that way, signing Holiday is a no-brainer. But the issue is everything it took to acquire Holiday; three first-round picks, two pick swaps, Eric Bledsoe, and George Hill. Not to mention the last two years of Holiday’s five-year, $126 million contract

When all this time you could have had Brogdon’s production last year, this year, and the next two seasons for less money plus all the draft picks back. Not to mention Brogdon is the younger player, only by two years, but hey that’s two more seasons they could possibly get out of him than they could with Holiday.

Having Holiday gives them a shorter window; it’s basically this year and next year before they’ll have to figure something else out to be a contender.

Bad trades and bad signings are part of the NBA. In this case, the mistake was not signing the player. I feel that not having Malcolm Brogdon is already haunting the Milwaukee Bucks salary cap-wise; I wonder if it gets worse as time goes on.