Trade Deadline Thread: Milwaukee Standing Pat, or Preparing a Big Splash?

With the trade deadline looming on Thursday, little movement has been attributed to the Milwaukee Bucks.

John Hammond might have gotten three team’s calendars mixed up, given that there has been little but silence coming from Bucks HQ ever since trading Miles Plumlee for Spencer Hawes and Roy Hibbert. Maybe he had his thumb over the “3” and thought the deadline was February 2nd instead of February 23rd? In any case, the Bucks simply haven’t been (publicly) active...so far.

There have been a handful of rumors regarding Minnesota’s interest in Tony Snell, and Milwaukee’s (alleged) attempts to include Matthew Dellavedova in a deal involving Ricky Rubio. There was also this Woj-Firecracker regarding the Houston Rockets, making Bucks fans immediately run to the ESPN Trade Machine to find a deal for John Henson:

And as always, some nonsense rumor started by...nobody knows, exactly...gets picked up and dominates the conversation on social media. This year’s version includes talk of Damian Lillard getting moved to Milwaukee:

Yeah, I don’t see it happening, and I would love to see another source on this one. As Frank Isola says...this is tough to believe.

Other than that, there hasn’t been much else coming out of Milwaukee lately. In the aforementioned Zach Lowe piece, he implies that Milwaukee is choosing to fill the role of a “seller” rather than a “buyer” this time around, and the Bucks have more than a few wares worth shopping around. While due diligence is valuable, it’s usually more constructive to go to other teams seeking a specific piece, rather than going door-to-door selling Dellys and Tellys.

Nobody would be upset if the Bucks made a move in the next 24 hours, but it doesn’t feel like the team is going to make a trade for the sake of making a trade. With Jabari Parker sidelined with an injury and Khris Middleton continuing to work back from one of his own, most fans’ to-do list for the remainder of this season is short: Watch Giannis Antetokounmpo do dope stuff, get lots and lots of playing time for Thon Maker, and hope nobody else gets hurt. Making the playoffs or the lottery would be cool for their own reasons, but this trade deadline doesn’t feel like an opportunity to make a big jump one direction or the other.

Of course, we could be wrong. As noted by Frank Madden and Eric Nehm in today’s Locked On Bucks podcast, the Brandon Knight trade came out of nowhere two seasons ago, and we’ve seen Hammond and Co. play things close to the vest before.

If I had to make a guess right now, I would venture that the Bucks stand pat, and that no further deals will be made for Milwaukee. I’m not saying they shouldn’t find ways to make the team better and/or improve their future cap situation, but I can’t see how cold-calling teams about John Henson, Mirza Teletovic, or Roy Hibbert’s expiring deal results in an actual trade with so little time left on the clock.

What do you think? Will the Bucks hold off, or will another trade come through our Twitter feeds? Should they hang back, or push to make a deal? Let us know in the comments!