Analysis: The Milwaukee Bucks Added Eric Bledsoe, More to Come?

The Milwaukee Bucks decided that coffee wasn’t the way to wake people up on a Tuesday morning, so they found a better method.

After Eric Bledsoe had tweeted that he didn’t want to be here, the big question was where would he end up, and what it would take to acquire him. Milwaukee was always one of the top suitors, but Phoenix had wanted Thon Maker and/or Malcolm Brogdon to swing the deal. As we learned today, Milwaukee was able to hold out and only send Greg Monroe and a pair of heavily-protected picks, which for many Bucks fans was just fine.

Three Thoughts

• This trade was a statement that the Bucks wanted to make. As it’s been discussed in the past week, the Bucks’ overall talent leaves a lot to be desired. While Milwaukee has a superstar and Top-5 caliber player in Giannis Antetokounmpo, there is a significant drop off after that. Khris Middleton is a very good player but there were whispers that maybe he’s not enough to get Milwaukee over the hump. The Bucks do have the talent to make the playoffs, especially in the Eastern Conference, but not enough to push for home court in the playoffs. Milwaukee’s guard rotation was a significant weak point with Brogdon being the only NBA quality player this season, and adding Bledsoe gives Jason Kidd options to alleviate pressure off of a bench that was struggling.
• Milwaukee’s center rotation is now in the spotlight with Greg Monroe departing. Currently, Milwaukee has Thon Maker and John Henson as the main bigs, with Giannis able to fill in sporadically. Milwaukee has been struggling with rebounding this season (sitting near the bottom in rebounding percentage), but the other issue is the penetration other teams are achieving through pick and rolls. Henson has stated the team needs to work on it, but with only two centers, it’s more vital than ever him and Thon take a step up defensively. If the team has to bank on Joel Bolomboy coming up from the G-League and fix these woes, this might be a long season.
• Yes, the cap is now tighter than ever before, but this seems to be the first domino in what I believe may be a series of moves. The addition of a guard will make the benefit in moving Delly more pressing than finding a way to deal Henson. This also will be an influence on a potential deal for Jabari Parker next summer. Bucks GM Jon Horst will have a challenge in front of him, but it seems like now he is taking the steps to make moves to help now than what has been seen in the past.

Three reactions from Bucks Twitter