Milwaukee Bucks Trade Rumors: Sending Talent To South Beach

The latest Milwaukee Bucks trade rumors have Miles Plumlee heading down to Miami.

The rumor mill sure is fun. The very first of the Milwaukee Bucks trade rumors to float around this season was Miles Plumlee being placed on the trading block, and although he hasn’t been moved yet he’s still being floated around in all sorts of rumors.

One such rumor, created by Adam Fromal over at Bleacher Report, involved sending Plumlee’s talents to South Beach. Although Plumlee’s price surely isn’t too high as Fromal notes in his piece, the Heat’s assets are at an all-time low.

Miami sent away almost all of their draft picks for the next four years already in a series of trades to stay in title contention, and have very few players that the Bucks would want in return for Plumlee. Bucks fans have pined over Josh McRoberts for many months now, but he’s currently hurt and a straight up Plumlee for McRoberts deal won’t work–some other players would need to be involved.

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The Heat desperately want to move Chris Andersen, and there certainly could be something there that I’ll get to later in my most likely trade scenario. But Andersen is hurt too, although that doesn’t really matter considering he won’t really play in either city.

Guys like Beno Udrih and Udonis Haslem both have similar cap hits to Plumlee, but Haslem is a member of the Miami Heat for life and Udrih is, you guessed it, hurt. Udrih may only be out another few days, but it’s unclear why Milwaukee would want to add yet another mid-tier point guard to their roster at this point.

He’s not a bad player by any means, but there’s no reason to take minutes from Michael Carter-Williams or Jerryd Bayless for Beno Udrih, and it’s possible that Greivis Vasquez enters that mix sometime soon as well. Unless it was for a legitimately good point guard, the Bucks probably aren’t interested in any floor generals right now.

Related Story: Is Greivis Vasquez Coming Back Soon?

All those limitations really only leave one trade option on the table–handing the Heat a capable center in Miles Plumlee in exchange for Chris Andersen’s big cap hit and a draft pick or two. Hopefully Milwaukee uses their leverage here to make this potential deal work for them.

The Bucks don’t need to get rid of Plumlee, but every dollar Miami can shave off of their luxury tax bill helps them greatly. This team doesn’t really seem like a contender this season, so saving a few million dollars would be something the Heat would have a lot of interest in.

That’s why my trade suggestion is trying to get Miami to give up Andersen, a 2018 second round pick, and the option for the Bucks to swap first round picks in 2019 for Miles Plumlee.

That 2018 second round pick is the only sure thing Milwaukee gets out of this, but if they had to pick between the two picks they should leap at that 2019 swap. The Bucks should be a good team by then, and most of the Heat’s current core will probably be gone.

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This is the kind of deal that a smart team makes now, knowing it doesn’t help at the moment but will down the road. Boston and Atlanta made deals like this years ago, and both of those teams are in very good spots at the moment.

Maybe Miami wants no part of sending up to two picks away for Plumlee, but you never know unless you try. The Heat have shown a willingness to throw away draft picks in the past to stay relevant now, and the double-win now for them is getting a real backup center and saving luxury tax money.

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Even getting a future pick swap OR a second round pick for Miles Plumlee would be nice, after Milwaukee got nothing in return for Zaza Pachulia and Jared Dudley. And yes, those trades will be brought up almost every time that people talk about Milwaukee Bucks trade rumors, because they were that bad.