First reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the Milwaukee Bucks explored a move for veteran guard Spencer Dinwiddie before acquiring Jrue Holiday.
The Milwaukee Bucks are focused on preparing for the 2020-21 season, especially after going through many changes this offseason.
Despite that, so much speculation exists around the Bucks, whether it’s the questions centering around their own superstar in Giannis Antetokounmpo and now disgruntled Houston Rockets star James Harden. The Athletic’s Shams Charania ($$) was the first to report of the Bucks being on the preferred destinations in Harden’s list of title contenders he desires to be traded to as he’s looking to get out of Houston amid plenty of instability.
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But included deep within Charania’s report is that the Bucks had pursued veteran Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie during the offseason, along with mention their reported pursuit of Indiana Pacers star Victor Oladipo.
The news of their interest in Dinwiddie is certainly interesting to hear as he had not been previously mentioning as a trade target before pulling off the many moves they made this offseason.
Before ultimately landing Jrue Holiday from the New Orleans Pelicans for a massive haul of draft picks as well as Eric Bledsoe and George Hill in a deal that expanded to four teams, the Bucks had searched far and wide for an added dose of playmaking and shooting in their backcourt.
The Milwaukee Bucks’ reported interest in Spencer Dinwiddie only reaffirms the wide range of trade targets they had been linked to this offseason.
Milwaukee had previously been linked to the likes of Oladipo, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Patty Mills, Dennis Schröder before going all-in with Holiday before both the draft and the start of free agency.
As much speculation had followed the Bucks in their mission to improve their roster, the same could have been said of the Nets going into their interesting offseason and especially after the hiring of first-year head coach Steve Nash.
There had been some rumblings about Dinwiddie’s availability going into the offseason, especially as he can become a free agent next summer if he declines his $11.4 million player option. But as Nash discussed earlier this week, he and the organization still value Dinwiddie’s services going into a big year with the return of one-time MVP, Kevin Durant.
Steve Nash on how he feels about the idea of dealing Spencer Dinwiddie: “I’m heavy towards not trading Spencer Dinwiddie and the front office feels the same way.” Understands having an opt-out after this year complicates things but says it’d be tough to get a better player. #Nets
— Brian Lewis (@NYPost_Lewis) December 9, 2020
Given that the Bucks stand as one of the rivals that the Nets are looking to defeat to get out of the Eastern Conference this coming campaign, it’s fair to wonder how willing Brooklyn was in trading Dinwiddie to a direct competitor of theirs. And that’s without going into what could have been an interesting trade package to the Nets with how the Bucks’ roster was constructed at the time.
While the price was very exorbitant to land Holiday, the complete upgrade he poses to the Bucks shows how they couldn’t have afforded for anything less than what they end up getting. We’ll just have to see whether that price was worth it, considering what is at stake this season.