NBA Trade Deadline: The Milwaukee Bucks Stand Pat
By Ti Windisch
The NBA trade deadline has officially passed, and the Milwaukee Bucks elected not to deal anybody. Where does the team go from here?
It’s over. NBA trade rumor season is officially done with, now that the 2 PM central time NBA trade deadline has passed. The Milwaukee Bucks stuck to their script from earlier this week, and did nothing.
There were reasons given for the Bucks holding onto two players: Miles Plumlee and Michael Carter-Williams. Plumlee may be needed to cover for the ailing John Henson over the next 28 games, and the market for MCW wasn’t presenting any options that made Milwaukee feel inclined to trade him.
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A weak market may also be the reason Greg Monroe is still with the Bucks. Although New Orleans apparently had much interest in Moose, no deal was reached. Monroe was supposedly made unavailable by Milwaukee in the days leading up to the deadline.
That might be posturing on Milwaukee’s part after not seeing anything they wanted in trade talks regarding Monroe, but either way he’s here to stay until at least April, when the Bucks will be able to trade once more.
There were two Bucks rumors that got the most attention on deadline day. The first is that Milwaukee was apparently interested in trading for Dwight Howard, and talks mainly fell through because Dwight was unwilling to opt-in to be a Buck next season.
The other, much more sane close call involved Bucks guard Kendall Marshall. Apparently talks got pretty serious between the 76ers and Bucks over Marshall, but ultimately were cut off by the teams being unable to settle on terms before the deadline.
The biggest story to actually affect the Milwaukee Bucks on NBA trade deadline day did not involve any trades. Jerryd Bayless hurt his knee in practice, and is scheduled to get an MRI later today according to Charles Gardner.
Latest Bucks injury news: Kidd says Jerryd Bayless suffered knee injury in practice Wed. night and is having MRI exam today.
— cfgardner (@cf_gardner) February 18, 2016
According to Bucks head coach Jason Kidd, Bayless hyperextended his knee. Kidd, as far as we’re aware, is not in fact a medical doctor.
Kidd on Bayless: "He just hyperextended his knee in the practice. He went in and had his MRI today. We'll see what the feedback is."
— cfgardner (@cf_gardner) February 18, 2016
That could explain the Bucks interest in Marshall right quick. Without Bayless, Milwaukee has Michael Carter-Williams, Rashad Vaughn and Tyler Ennis as bench depth at the guard positions, assuming O.J. Mayo continues to start at point guard (which is a smart assumption, according to Gardner).
Kidd says he will stay with same lineup Friday he used in victories over C's and Wizards last week. That means Monroe and MCW off bench.
— cfgardner (@cf_gardner) February 18, 2016
That’s not ideal. None of those three are close to the bench scorer that Bayless is. If John Henson is indeed out for a while too, that leaves that trio along with Greg Monroe, Johnny O’Bryant and Chris Copeland as the extent of Milwaukee’s bench.
Aside from Monroe and Carter-Williams, that’s a disaster area. Outside of Vaughn, none of those players can shoot the three-pointer reliably. Adding a guard would’ve certainly helped matters there, although if Bayless’ injury is as mild as Kidd describes it hopefully it won’t be too much of an issue.
As far as the playoff picture goes, despite what the Bucks are saying it’s very unlikely Milwaukee gets a postseason berth. The Bucks would need to go 20-8 over their next 28 games to reach 42 wins, which is likely in the neighborhood of where the Pistons and Hornets will end up.
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Milwaukee would have to beat both of those teams out to get a spot in the postseason. Based on how this season started for the Bucks, that just doesn’t seem feasible. The good news about that is Milwaukee is currently slated to get the seventh pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, and could drop down to sixth if New Orleans gets their act together in the second portion of the season.
The goal for the rest of the season is simple for the Milwaukee Bucks. As long as key core players like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jabari Parker and Khris Middleton keep on improving, the Bucks are moving in the right direction.
If they end up with a top seven pick at the same time, that’s gravy. Milwaukee has a better chance of getting the first overall selection than they do of making the playoffs at this point.