Milwaukee Bucks: Grades for D.J. Augustin’s three-year, $21 million deal
The Milwaukee Bucks reportedly agreed to a three-year deal to bring in D.J. Augustin over the weekend. How does the pact grade out though?
They say there’s no rest for the wicked and that certainly applies to what has been a frenzied offseason for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Among their many additions over the weekend, the Bucks were able to fill in their backup point guard spot by agreeing to a three-year, $21 million deal with journeyman guard D.J. Augustin. As The Athletic’s Eric Nehm tweeted Sunday afternoon, the third year of Augustin’s deal is non-guaranteed.
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Considering Augustin is stepping into the role left behind by George Hill as he heads elsewhere as part of the Jrue Holiday blockbuster deal, Augustin has big shoes to fill when it comes to replace the Bucks’ previous sixth man.
To his credit, though, Augustin brings many of the same qualities as well as the scoring spark that could help him enjoy success in Milwaukee while occupying a similar role to that of Hill.
With that in mind, let’s dive further into the reported signing of Augustin, look at the various ways he’ll impact the Bucks and hand out a final grade on the agreement.
The value of D.J. Augustin’s deal with the Milwaukee Bucks
Having recently turned 33 years old, shelling out a three-year, $21 million deal to Augustin does have plenty of risk to it. Especially as he has 21,638 NBA minutes under his belt at this stage in his career, both regular season and playoffs combined.
As Nehm reported, though, having that non-guarantee in the final year of Augustin’s deal gives the Bucks much needed flexibility, especially amid all of the questions that surround the Bucks’ long-term future. That keeps with the M.O. that Bucks general manager Jon Horst has historically done in past multi-year deals in free agency with George Hill and Ersan Ilyasova, among others.
That doesn’t change the addition of Augustin completely, but it certainly leaves Bucks fans breathing a sigh of relief that the Bucks have an out at the end of the contract, depending on how it is structured as well.
Still, Augustin stands as the biggest free agent signing the Bucks have made this offseason as they used most of their $9.3 million non-taxpaying midlevel exception to bring in the former Longhorn. That’s not an insignificant factor to consider and the Bucks fans that may be skeptical of Augustin’s signing may be wondering if the Bucks’ best free agent resource would have been best spent elsewhere.
That may or may not be justified, but it will all be determined by how Augustin fits into the Bucks’ foundation and he’ll have an ample amount of minutes to do so.