Milwaukee Bucks: Greivis Vasquez Is Back

It’s been a long time, but the Milwaukee Bucks finally have a healthy Greivis Vasquez back on the court.

Greivis Vasquez returned to a team much different than the one he’d left way back in November. Vasquez last played with the Bucks on November 27th, in a blowout loss to the Orlando Magic.

Michael Carter-Williams was the Bucks starting point guard, Miles Plumlee was a benchwarmer who never saw minutes, and Jabari Parker was still easing his way back into action.

Vasquez’s next game with Milwaukee was March 30th. Giannis Antetokounmpo now runs the point for the Bucks, Plumlee is now seen as a potential center of the future candidate, and Parker is destroying rims nearly every game with electric dunks.

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Vasquez’s shooting slump seemingly carried over from November, one of the few aspects about the Bucks that did. He was 0-2 against the Suns on Wednesday, which is pretty acceptable all things considered.

His scoring was nil, but Vasquez did add three rebounds, three assists and a steal. His return to Milwaukee may be very important going forward, considering Jerryd Bayless injured his knee in that game against Phoenix.

Without Bayless, O.J. Mayo and MCW, the Bucks guard rotation is incredibly thin. Vasquez being back helps, but he won’t be able to play major minutes for possibly the rest of the season.

That leaves Tyler Ennis and Rashad Vaughn as other bench guards. That’s the end of the list. Vaughn has been awful this season, but Ennis has been a pleasant surprise of late.

Still, even if the Bucks want to lose and increase their draft stock, they don’t need to get embarrassed every night. Having an experienced vet like Greivis Vasquez out there with these young guards should help in that regard. Even if his shot stays off course for the remainder of the season, his passes have found their marks often in his time with the Bucks.

No member of the Milwaukee Bucks has recorded more assists per 36 minutes than Vasquez, who is currently sitting at 7.1. That provides a lot to the Bucks, maybe even more than his paltry 25.5 percent three-point accuracy takes away.

Only Giannis, Damien Inglis and Greg Monroe have made a smaller percentage of their threes than Vasquez out of Bucks to attempt at least one attempt from distance this season. John Henson and Miles Plumlee have yet to attempt a triple.

Finding his stroke will impact the biggest event looming on Vasquez’s horizon–the free agency period this summer. Vasquez will be an unrestricted free agent in the biggest salary cap year ever, but his awful season and injury problems in Milwaukee will lower his value significantly.

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That sucks for Vasquez, but some desperate teams will be left out of the first round of the free agency feeding frenzy. Those teams will need to bring something back to show for their deep pockets, and Vasquez could find himself profiting as a consolation prize.

He could even end up back with the Bucks, if they decide to offer him a fair deal early on and lock him in. With Bayless and Mayo both expiring, Milwaukee will need backups at the guard position.

It would certainly be a gamble to sign Greivis Vasquez to a long-term deal seeing as how this season went for him, but a long, cheap deal is the kind of thing that allows teams to spend more elsewhere later. With huge extensions for Giannis and Jabari looming, the Bucks need to strike gold on cheaper deals now.

Next: MCW's Uncertain Future With The Bucks

Vasquez may or may not be that guy, but it’s nice that he’s back in a Bucks uniform either way. Hopefully he can get back to form in these last few games, without causing Milwaukee to inadvertently win too many of them.

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Greivis Vasquez Makes A Triumphant Return For The Milwaukee Bucks

By Ti Windisch | Mar 31, 2016

It’s been a long time, but the Milwaukee Bucks finally have a healthy Greivis Vasquez back on the court.

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