Should the Milwaukee Bucks Pursue Jrue Holiday Again This Summer?

Should the Milwaukee Bucks reconsider Greg Monroe/Jrue Holiday talks with the Pelicans in the summer?

According to reports that have surfaced in the last couple of days, the Milwaukee Bucks may have tried to move center Greg Monroe to his hometown of New Orleans in exchange for the Pelicans point guard Jrue Holiday. As we all know now, nothing transpired at the deadline.

While I said before the trade deadline that the Milwaukee Bucks needed to keep their current roster in tact, finding a shooter is a must. Sean Deveney pointed out in his article referencing the rumored trade that the Bucks defense has been porous when Monroe and Parker are on the floor together, and it may be something that can’t be fixed.

Despite the overall Bucks team defense suffering this season, it is true that Monroe has been one of the team’s best offensive options throughout most of this season. Most would say Khris Middleton is the best player we have on offense, but Monroe has certainly been the team’s most reliable option next to him.

Monroe is averaging 16.5 points a game this year and 9.6 rebounds, which is slightly better than his career averages in both categories (14.6 ppg, and 9.3 rpg). With the emergence of both Parker and Giannis Antetokounmpo as of late, things have changed for Monroe though.

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Even though it has benefited the overall team success, Monroe has been delegated to coming off the bench in the last five games after mostly starting every game to begin the season.

Parker has flourished in the starting lineup in the last five with Monroe coming into the game later, and he continues to show explosiveness to the rim, as his recovery from his ACL injury suffered a season ago continues to go just fine.

If Parker and Antetokounmpo continue to grow this season and over the summer while taking advice from those around them, the need for Monroe’s offense will no longer be there. Although they have both made progress this season, they each need to make that vow to be the best that they can be as the athletic young core of the Milwaukee Bucks.

While, as Head Coach Jason Kidd pointed out, Antetokounmpo played well in his point guard role in Monday night’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Bucks could still potentially do themselves a favor by considering going after Holiday from the Pelicans again in July.

The Bucks missed out on acquiring Jeff Teague from the Hawks for a second time and they ultimately backed away from trying to pry Ricky Rubio from the Minnesota Timberwolves when they continued to ask for Middleton in return.

I think swapping Monroe for Holiday could be a good fit for both teams. The Pelicans could do themselves a favor by bringing in an offensive machine like Monroe to take some of the attention away from star forward Anthony Davis.

For the Bucks, despite some of his unquestionably injury-riddled seasons as of late, Holiday has been an above 35 percent three percent shooter for most of his career as well as displaying accomplished point guard instincts.

Even though he has missed games in all of the last three seasons, Holiday has been playing much better very recently. In his last 10 games he is averaging 19.6 points per game and 7.4 assists per game.

There’s certainly a risk there, but it could be one worth exploring.

While I’m still a believer in Michael Carter-Williams, I am also a believer in having more than one guy who can shoot the basketball at a high percentage.

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Carter-Williams has improved from a season ago, and may well continue to improve along with Parker and Antetokounmpo. While a move for Holiday would certainly reflect on MCW, it would equally be a reflection on Monroe’s shortcomings. Monroe will continue to be an offensive nightmare for opposition teams but his defense will continue to be suspect, and that means the Bucks would be smart to explore deals around him.