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As this Bucks season keeps plugging away, there have become fewer and fewer reasons to think that a finish outside of the bottom five in the league is even possible anymore. To the majority of the remaining fan base, this is a good thing. The Bucks positioning themselves--even if it was by accident--for a prime spot in the upcoming draft is what dreams are made of for them.
However, the past habit of making not-so-subtle moves to improve the short-term while slowly fracturing the long term continues to leave a lot of fans skeptical about the motives inside the front office. No matter how many times anyone could assure them, there is always the fear that a move is out there to fire up the ferris wheel of sadness. Luckily (again, probably by accident), there may be no move out there like this worth making come February's trade deadline, leaving the Bucks in a peculiar (and fortunate) spot. They have found themselves in a position to really either play out the season with what they have and let the chips fall where they may, or do what they haven't felt the need to do in the past in taking calls and being sellers to contending teams in an effort to genuinely and specifically build a roster with their pool of young talent.
Sadly, this is a lot harder than it sounds. The players that don't spring to mind when you mention the young pieces (read: not Giannis, Henson, Knight, Middleton, Wolters, Sanders (maybe)) that some would like to see gone aren't playing very well at the moment. Whatever you get in return for those other players probably won't net you as much as you'd like, but does that mean that the Bucks should keep them and let things depreciate further? Is it best to let the Mayo/Neal/Ridnour/Ilyasovas go for whatever they can get back or keep them and hope some sort of continuity emerges within the young group that the others can benefit from and work well with?
The Bucks, for all of their current troubles, do have a couple valuable pieces on their roster, even if it looks lost in the overall mess. Arranging their deck around these cards seems like the beginning of a good hand, but what do the Bucks need to do to make sure they play their best hand going forward? Are they capable of doing it? That's where we'd like to hear from you. If you have specific ideas on what type of moves (or lack thereof, I guess) you'd like to see happen come February, drop them in the comments. Even though the consensus is that we'd like to see the team sell a little bit, get a little more specific this time around. Who would you like to see go, if anyone? What type of return would you like to get? Where do you want the roster to be post-deadline? That's what we'd like to see.
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Speaking of chatting, we'll also be holding a chat tonight in the same comments section with Cleveland Cavaliers and college hoops writer Sam Vecenie about some of the top prospects in the 2014 class and how they would fit in with the Bucks. This chat will start at 8 p.m. CST tonight, so make sure you're by your computers for that. Do you think Embiid is better than Wiggins? Is Parker the best prospect? Would Exum be the best fit for this roster? IT WILL ALL BE DISCUSSED, I SWEAR. It should last an hour, but you just never know with these things. It could go later. It may never ever end. YOU JUST DON'T KNOW.
IMPORTANT BUSINESS MATTERS: We ask that you take advantage of our rec feature for this discussion. We're expecting a lot of feedback on both topics, so using this feature will give us a better idea of what topics stuck out and what (or who) Bucks fans are most passionate about. The more we use it, the better. It would be much appreciated.
We look forward to hearing what you have to say on both matters. Let the discussion begin!