Milwaukee Bucks: Five Potential Trade Partners To Take A Center

The Milwaukee Bucks have too many big men, both in terms of salary and playing time purposes. These five teams may be able to help out.

It’s fairly obvious through just nine games this season that the Milwaukee Bucks erred by signing Miles Plumlee to a $50 million deal after paying both John Henson and Greg Monroe significant amounts for this season, and possibly next season as well.

Plumlee was good in his last several games with Milwaukee last season, but is there any way a player averaging five points per game can be worth over $12 million a year? Even if the answer to that is yes, there is no way three players who cannot split time and who aren’t essential to the team can be worth a combined $41,913,444.

And yet here we are, with Plumlee, Monroe and Henson making that much this season, as per The Vertical. That’s nearly half of the $94 million salary cap this season. The number stays roughly the same next year–Henson’s deal goes down, but Monroe’s goes up. And he might not opt out after all.

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The salary cap next season is up in the air pending the revision of the NBA collective bargaining agreement, but it’s projected right now at around $100 million. Between the three centers and Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s deal, the Bucks are at over $60 million between four players.

Throw in money guaranteed to Khris Middleton, Mirza Teletovic, Matthew Dellavedova and Jabari Parker, and the Bucks are over $100 million after factoring in just eight players. Clearly, something (or more than one something) needs to change.

The most likely scenario involves the Bucks dealing a center and still ending up over the cap next season. Only two of these players are truly necessary, and truthfully Milwaukee could get by with one of them and a cheaper alternative on the bench.

To that end, we’ve looked at five teams who could provide relief to the Bucks by trading for one of their centers. Keep in mind that Plumlee can’t be dealt until January, so for now only trades including Monroe and Henson make sense to consider until the New Year.