Milwaukee Bucks: Grades and reactions for the George Hill trade
By Adam McGee
What the Bucks traded for
In the grander scheme of things, what the Bucks traded for on Friday, more than anything else, is likely improved cap flexibility and a wider range of free agency options. More on that later. For now, let’s begin by focusing on the more tangible elements of the deal’s incomings for the Bucks.
George Hill and Jason Smith join the Bucks’ cause for chasing championship contention this season, while with picks outgoing, the Bucks at least managed to land a 2021 second round pick from the Cavaliers and have the protections lifted from their ongoing second round pick saga with the Wizards.
As trading first round picks is realistically off the horizon until after 2022 — the pick owed to the Suns will most likely convey in 2020, and the Stepien rule ensures the Cavaliers will then likely have to wait until 2022 to have their pick convey — second rounders grow in importance for Milwaukee.
Whether as ammunition for further trades along the margins of the roster, or as one of the few reliable outlets Milwaukee will have to add cost-controlled end of rotation players as their salary bill soars at the top end, the Bucks will need to rely on maximizing second round picks better than ever before.
The Bucks will lose their second round pick to either Philadelphia or Sacramento after this season (dating back from the 2013 Luc Richard Mbah a Moute deal), but with the Nuggets flying high in the West, the top-55 protected pick from the Roy Hibbert deal may have a real chance of landing in Milwaukee.
The Bucks own all of their second rounders beyond this season with the exception of the 2021 selection headed to Cleveland in this deal, but that will be immediately replenished with the Cavaliers’ own second rounder from that same year. Meanwhile the restrictions lifted by the Wizards ensure the Bucks net a bonus pick in 2020, when they’ll almost certainly lose their own first rounder.
The Bucks’ pick situation is far from ideal and will make for an unbearably grim situation if everything goes south for the Bucks over the next five years or so, but below the surface Milwaukee has done some nice work with their second round reserves that certainly could ease that toll over time.
As for players, with Eric Bledsoe and Malcolm Brogdon generally sharing the floor together, the Bucks had a need for a backup point guard. That was flying a little under the radar with the team’s positive start, and the encouraging lack of injuries for both Bledsoe and Brogdon, but with this deal there’s no question that Hill makes for a significant upgrade over Dellavedova.
Hill’s on the wrong side of 30 and expensive in the short term, but he comes equipped with deep reserves of playoff experience, and a style of play that will fit perfectly into Milwaukee’s long-armed defense and willing three-point shooting.
Hill is a career 38.4 percent three-point shooter, who is currently tracking for his fourth straight season shooting better than 40 percent from deep. Beyond that, the Indianapolis native is a skilled operator out of the pick-and-roll, with a great eye for picking out teammates and a nose for rebounds.
The Bucks’ second unit becomes considerably more accomplished with Hill at the helm, and whether through injuries or dips in form, he also provides an additional option for spot starts. With an existing relationship from their shared time in San Antonio, Mike Budenholzer should be able to help Hill to hit the ground running too.
As for Jason Smith, another experienced big in light of Henson’s departure is by no means a bad thing, although it remains to be seen just how much of a role the 32-year-old will play.
Smith has posted perfunctory numbers as a journeyman frontcourt player for a number of years at his multiple stops around the NBA, but at the very least he has always shown a willingness to step out beyond the arc and space the floor.
Maybe even more importantly considering the personalities of the players the Bucks lost in this deal, Smith is known as an outstanding locker room presence and a well-liked teammate, as the Washington Post’s Candice Buckner outlined in her trade write-up.
On the whole, the Bucks should get better in the short term with this deal. It comes with major risks for the long-term, but it also opens up routes to major roster upgrades that previously weren’t going to be available to Milwaukee.