2024 Trade Deadline

Hield goes to the Sixers. Interesting that the Pacers are considered a fringe contender, but are doing this trade which will help another playoff team in the East.

We will see what Horst does, and he's rumored to be very aggressive in discussions right now, but I think the Bucks are realistically a year away from being a contender with the retooled lineup and coaching staff. The problem is that Lopez, Middleton, Connaughton, and Crowder are already on the decline and may not be as good next year.

Horst made a bunch of decisions over the past off-season. Each on their own might have made sense, but the sequence was off because they didn't obviously know Dame was in play.

They hired Griffin to coach a Jrue Holiday/Giannis/Middleton team, he spends months planning for that, and then has to adjust a week before training camp when they ship out Jrue and Grayson Allen. Griffin showed he couldn't make adjustments (which probably indicated how he'd do in a playoff series against someone like Spoelstra).

The roster construction was also off. There are probably no point guards that you have to pair with other guys in the backcourt as different as Jrue and Dame. Beasley makes a lot of sense with Jrue, but not with Dame. Also, do you prioritize resigning Brook if you know you have Dame? Probably not. If you put Jrue and Brook in a pick and roll on defense, Brook can survive better in drop because Jrue is the best in the NBA in getting around screens and rear contesting shots. Dame just get obliterated on screens and, if Brook is in drop, the guy gets a wide open look every time.

So they ended up stuck with an inexperienced coach that couldn't adjust, and pieces that just don't fit well together.  Give Horst credit for firing Griffin when has the 4th all-time best winning percentage in NBA history. If you watched the games, you knew he was out of his depth. But, you can't expect to fix this on the fly with no practices, and now you are going to potentially shake flip out 2-3 members of the rotation also on the fly?

The fear is that Horst will panic and give away too much to try to fix something that, unfortunately, really needs a whole training camp and off-season to fix.

Good trade for OKC, given that Hayward is on an expiring and is a much better version of Bertans. 

Bucks get Beverley for Payne and a 2nd

He'll bring some defense and attitude, that's for sure.

Payne was only going to be a fringe rotation player in the playoffs anyway.

I'm not sure why the Sixers do this deal - unless they are pretty certain the Kyle Lowry is going to end up in Philly after a buyout.

Beverly can at least guard somebody. Offensively, he'll make Eric Bledsoe look productive, but Beverly's offense is still a lot better than Payne's defense.

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/...und-pick-per-report/

Sweet I like it.....like Steve Kerr says "the guy is a pest"

Grant Williams going to Charlotte for PJ Washington.

I'm glad Horst didn't ship Portis to Dallas for Williams as was rumored.

Big Bucks Trade!!

Robin Lopez to the Kings for cash, and then Kings will waive him.

LOL

Robin Lopez is hilarious.

Robin Lopez

@rolopez42

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7m

I enjoyed being teammates with Patrick Beverley for all of an hour and 45 minutes I'll never forget those times #Indelible

This feels like the right move for now.  Beverly is a pest and still very good defensively so he fills a need for sure.  Payne was expendable and may not have seen the floor much anyway.  

I agree that the offseason may bring about more changes, but for now this should help them.

The Bucks only have 6 players under contract that make more than the minimum next year.

Giannis 49 million

Dame 49 million

Middleton 31 million

Brook 23 million

Portis 12.5 million

Connaughton 9.5 million

The projected salary cap is about 150 million, so just their top 4 exceed that, so they won't be in play for anything other than vet minimums.

But, if the Bucks get bounced early in the playoffs (likely), Brook's contract becomes an expiring 23 million dollar deal which could be a valuable trade chip for other teams to acquire to be in play for stars in the 2025 off-season.

Theoretically you could package Brook, Portis, and Connaughton and almost get a max player back. But, I doubt that moves the needle for anyone.

What the Bucks desperately need is for at least one of their young players to emerge as a viable rotation guy. They don't need a star. They just need a guy that can play 20-25 minutes and not be completely overrun.

That means Rivers has to give Beauchamp, Jackson, and Livingston some real minutes and see if they can add something.

But, I'm guessing Doc will continue to run Connaughton out there for 25 minutes, just like Bud did. Coaches love guys like Connaughton because he is always in the right place and isn't necessarily terrible at anything (ok, maybe initiating the offense as a point guard). He's like a C- guy at everything at this stage and he's only going to get worse as he gets into his 30s.

Jackson, Livingston, and Beauchamp need to play so they can find out if they can contribute. I assume they were holding them out as cannon fodder for fringe trades the last couple of weeks as there is no other logical explanation to play Robin Lopez like they did against the Suns for that many minutes.

When Lopez gets played off the floor in a playoff series will Giannis/Dame/Middleton/Connaughton/Crowder be a more a competitive closing lineup than Giannis/Jrue/Middleton/Connaughton/Crowder.

I don't think either lineup beats the Celtics or Cavs this year (any maybe even not the Knicks), but the Jrue lineup was not going to score enough points - especially with the Celtics and Cavs having guys that can slow down Giannis.

Why is Jackson not being used at all?

Every time I've seen the guy play he's been pretty decent

With Dame and Middleton both out, there aren't many options to create offense (Payne is gone so there is no point guard active).

Gobert is completely dominating Giannis, too.

@Boris posted:

Why is Jackson not being used at all?

Every time I've seen the guy play he's been pretty decent

Maybe they were holding him out for a trade possibility?

Bucks on the verge of getting blown out. Down 13.

Beauchamp can't even get minutes so far tonight. AJ Green and Jackson get minutes in front of him so far. Only Thanasis is more buried on the bench.

Bucks down 10 at the half.

One of the first games I've watched in years where it feels like they have almost no real chance of winning.