Milwaukee Bucks: 3 questions to answer following the P.J. Tucker trade

Third question the Milwaukee Bucks must answer following P.J. Tucker trade — What will happen to Rodions Kurucs?

In addition to Tucker, the Bucks also acquired Rodions Kurucs from Houston in their recent transaction. Kurucs was certainly an afterthought in the deal as a throw-in piece, and it will be interesting to see what the team does with him in the coming days, given his off-the-court issues.

The Latvian international has an impending domestic violence case stemming from a September arrest in 2019. As reiterated by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Jim Owczarski, the Bucks are aware of everything taking place:

"“The Bucks organization takes allegations such as these extremely seriously and we were aware of the situation in deciding to complete this deal. We will refrain from commenting further at this time.”"

The simple solution would be killing two birds with one stone by involving the 25-year-old in a trade for a point guard, but that is far easier said than done. Rules dictate that Kurucs cannot be included alongside other players from Milwaukee’s roster in a trade, and his $1.8 million salary leaves the front office with little to work with.

For now, it seems that they will keep him on the roster and potentially use him in some capacity. Throughout 126 career games, the forward has career averages of 6.1 points on .442/.323/.735 shooting splits, 3.2 rebounds, and 0.9 assists per game.

Kurucs will likely not find himself as a prominent member of Budenholzer’s rotation, given the collection of talent on the currently constructed roster. Trying to find minutes for the former second round pick ahead of Khris Middleton, Pat Connaughton, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, and even Jordan Nwora will be an uphill battle.

Kurucs will likely be a spectator on Milwaukee’s bench for the remainder of the season, but only time will tell how the organization plans to proceed. Whether he remains on the roster or not, do not expect to see much playing time for Rodions Kurucs this season.