Nene Hilario, known to most simply as Nene, was terrific in the postseason with the Houston Rockets. Should the Milwaukee Bucks go after him in NBA free agency?
When the Houston Rockets picked up Nene Hilario for a very reasonable (read: cheap) salary during the 2017 NBA free agency period, it wasn’t major news. Nene was going to a team that was moving James Harden to the point guard spot and focusing on shooting–who cares about a big man on a team like that?
Most casual NBA fans probably didn’t and still don’t, but Nene was quietly excellent all season in Houston. His role was different than it’s been for most of his career, as the Rockets rarely ever ran post-ups.
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Houston posted up 2.1 percent of the time last season. That was an adjustment for Nene, who played on a Washington Wizards team that ran more than double the post-up plays the Rockets did.
Still, the Brazilian big man did well on his new team, and in a new scheme. He became a full-time center after drifting back-and-forth between the four and the five for much of his time with the Wizards.
Could the Milwaukee Bucks be the next team to grab Nene on the low and get a lot of production out of him? To gauge the likelihood of that happening, we’ll look through his strengths, weaknesses, potential salary and fit with the Bucks.
Strengths
Nene is a brute, and I mean that in the best possible way. Sometimes he can get a little too aggressive, but he’s going to add toughness to whatever team he’s on. He’s a little more extreme, less talented Greg Monroe in a lot of ways.
These days he’s not a scoring machine, but Nene was incredibly efficient in Houston. Almost all of his offense came on shots very close to the rim, which he had no trouble converting. Nene shot 61.7 percent from the field with the Rockets, and that number climbed to about 70 percent before he got hurt in the postseason.
Surprisingly, Nene might add more on defense than on offense. The Houston Rockets team was largely unable to play defense last season, as Houston allowed teams to score 106.4 points per 100 possessions. That number dropped all the way down to 102.8 with Nene on the floor, and climbed up to 108.0 without him out there.
He made the Rockets better on both ends while he played last season. Nene is no star player, but he’s the kind of risk/reward veteran that can really help a talented team’s second unit.
Weaknesses
Nene has always struggled to stay healthy. In 2010-11, he played 75 games. His total games played in following seasons are, respectively: 39, 61, 53, 67, 57, and 67. Any team signing Nene knows they aren’t getting 80 games of him.
As he ages, the risk becomes even greater. Nene will be 35 in September, and were it not for his fantastic campaign in Houston many might wonder if his career was winding down. Still, was he simply the beneficiary of a great offense making things easy for the backup center?
That grit Nene brings can get a little ugly sometimes. He got suspended in the postseason for choking Dewayne Dedmon, which is never a good look. That’s not the first time the Brazilian has pushed a little too hard — he’s racked up 53 technical fouls and six flagrant fouls over the course of his career.
Nene is kind of like a less subtle Zaza Pachulia in a lot of ways. The comparison would be perfect if Zaza went by just Zaza. Still, the man shot 60 percent from the field last season. Does that mean more than the red flags?
Salary
One of the biggest questions surrounding Nene will be if the Houston Rockets try to sign him right away to another deal. The fit was certainly there for both parties last season, although Daryl Morey is not exactly the most sentimental general manager in the world.
Unfortunately for the player in question, much of the positive Nene did this season will likely be ruled out by a combination of his injury history, age, and most recent affliction, a tear in a groin muscle.
Most 35-year-old centers with streaky injury histories don’t get long contracts, or very lucrative ones. With every team clamoring for wing shooters at the moment, big men like Nene might slip through the cracks, although there seems to be some market for Greg Monroe out there.
All this is to say any team signing Nene to a contract is likely signing him to a deal similar to the one he got last season: one-year, $3 million. Maybe a team option gets thrown in, or a non-guaranteed second or third year, but it’s hard to imagine anybody going crazy to sign Nene this summer.
Fit With Bucks
A lot of Nene’s potential fit with Milwaukee depends on what the Bucks front office does this summer. If Greg Monroe sticks around, it doesn’t make much sense to add Nene, unless John Henson gets dealt in a deal that doesn’t return a center.
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With Thon Maker figuring to start from here on out, Milwaukee would need to lose one of Henson or Moose to add Nene. Assuming there is a spot in the big man rotation for him, the pairing of Nene and the Bucks could certainly work out.
Especially if it’s Monroe that is no longer with the team, Nene makes for a decent replacement on the cheap. He’ll probably miss some games and make some plays that Bucks fans will refer to as gritty and 29 other fanbases will refer to as dirty, but it’s hard to argue with the impact Nene had on the Houston Rockets last season.
He benefitted from playing next to a star player in James Harden, but there’s nothing preventing Giannis Antetokounmpo from providing Nene with those same easy looks against partial second units.
Relying on him is usually not the best idea, but the Bucks don’t need Nene to start and the team will likely have at least one other decent center on the roster. Having him in a low-risk role like that could help the Bucks going forward, especially if he wasn’t costing the team that much.