He may not be a franchise-altering superstar, but there aren’t many point guards more solid than Jeff Teague available in NBA free agency.
It’s fair to say that the Milwaukee Bucks have a history with Jeff Teague. Back in 2013, the Bucks inked Teague to a four-year, $32 million deal. Since Teague was a restricted free agent, the Atlanta Hawks had the option to match the offer.
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They waited a while to do it, but Atlanta did end up keeping Teague and matching the offer. Three years later, the Hawks dealt Teague to Indiana as part of the same deal that sent George Hill to the Utah Jazz.
After an ultimately disappointing season with the Pacers, it’s certainly possible that Teague would like to move on and start afresh, this time with the ability to pick his own team instead of being moved somewhere.
The one-time All-Star is generally regarded as a good-but-not-great point guard, which seems condescending but not entirely inaccurate. Not everybody can be John Wall or Kyrie Irving.
Could the Milwaukee Bucks be his next home? We’ll look through Teague’s strengths, weaknesses, potential salary and fit in Milwaukee to find out.
Strengths
All of the things one would expect an NBA-level point guard to do, Teague does. He’s a very capable passer who averaged 7.8 assists in an Indiana offense that was, uh, not so great last season.
Teague scores at a moderate level to go with his passing–he’s averaged between 14 and 17 points per game for the last five seasons, topping out at 16.5 and putting up 15.3 last year. That’s hardly a blistering total, but it’s certainly enough for a guard who passes as much as Teague does.
He’s a capable shooter who knocked down 35.7 percent of his three-pointers last season. That number is decidedly average, and happens to be very close to Teague’s career three-point percentage of 35.5.
Aside from the impressive assist total last season, Teague was right around average in just about every way. His defense is more of the same story–he’s certainly solid and a smart defender, but he’s not going to make a run for an All-Defense team or anything like that.
Teague tends to stay healty, as the most games he’s ever missed in a season is 12, and he’s missed just three contests over his last two seasons combined.
Weaknesses
Jeff Teague’s strengths are also kind of his weaknesses. He’s not horrible at anything, but he’s also not amazing at any one NBA skill either. Since average is in-between good and bad, we’ll include it both in his strengths and weaknesses.
He did distribute the ball at a very high level last season, averaging just 2.6 turnovers per game to go with his 7.8 assists. Those are really strong numbers for anybody, and Teague deserves credit for his career year.
Outside of that, though, everything else around him is unremarkable. Putting up 15 points, four rebounds and just over one steal per game isn’t a poor contribution by any means, but it’s not stellar either.
Teague is a really nice auxiliary piece. That should be a strength, but the way many view basketball is that being a role player is a bad thing. That’s tough, considering so many NBA players are role players by definition, but being unremarkable will count as a weakness here considering the salary that Teague will likely command this summer in NBA free agency.
Salary
Point guards get paid. Teague, who shot 50-plus percent from three in the NBA Playoffs, will undoubtedly get paid too, unless he forgoes a large salary for a more desirable destination, which is always an option.
Reggie Jackson signed a five-year, $80 million deal a couple of years back. Here is a comparison of Jackson’s 2014-15 season, the one that directly proceeded his big payday, and Teague’s last season.
| Rk | Player | Season | Age | G | MP | FGA | FG% | 3PA | 3P% | eFG% | FTA | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PF | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reggie Jackson | 2014-15 | 24 | 77 | 29.5 | 12.9 | .434 | 3.1 | .299 | .470 | 2.8 | .830 | 4.2 | 6.0 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 2.4 | 2.2 | 14.5 |
| 2 | Jeff Teague | 2016-17 | 28 | 82 | 32.4 | 11.1 | .442 | 3.1 | .357 | .492 | 5.1 | .867 | 4.0 | 7.8 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 2.6 | 2.0 | 15.3 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/12/2017.
Aside from age and raw rebounds per game, Teague has Jackson in pretty much every department. Situations matter too, though–the Detroit Pistons looked to have a young core of Jackson, Andre Drummond and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope they wanted to lock in long-term.
The Pacers would love to keep Teague and Paul George, presumably, but keeping PG-13 might not be an option for Indiana. That would give the Pacers far less incentive to pay up for Teague, an older veteran who wouldn’t be helpful to a rebuild.
Somebody else could and likely will pay Teague, even if the Pacers don’t, though. The San Antonio Spurs seem to be in the market for a point guard, and maybe he can meet up with George in Los Angeles in a season or two. Either way, it’s tough to imagine Teague isn’t going to at least double his $8 million annual salary from his last deal.
Fit With Bucks
Milwaukee obviously felt that Jeff Teague was a good fit in 2013 NBA free agency, when the Bucks signed him to a contract. Is that fit still there, or have times changed too much for Teague to make sense in Milwaukee?
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He’s older than most of the core Bucks, but Teague would make sense with this team. He’s a more-than-capable floor general who will set up his teammates with good looks for them to convert, but he’s not going to shoot the Bucks out of many games with poor decision-making.
It’d help if he was just slightly better from long-range, but Teague is certainly good enough to suffice. Even if he’s not likely to make any more All-Star teams in the coming seasons, Jeff Teague would be a nice addition to the Milwaukee Bucks.
The problem is that he would be a nice addition for a lot of teams. meaning there will be competition to sign him, unless Indiana swoops in right away with the right offer. The Bucks would have to make significant, difficult to make happen moves quickly to be able to afford Teague this summer.
Next: Free Agent Profile: Rudy Gay
If only the Hawks hadn’t matched. We could’ve seen how these two work together for the last four years .