Milwaukee Bucks: Torrey Craig remarks on brief time in Milwaukee
The Milwaukee Bucks‘ great roster reshuffling continued into the 2020-21 season after they had acquired veteran P.J. Tucker last week.
In came Tucker, Rodions Kurucs and a couple of draft picks, including their own 2022 first rounder that had come to Houston as part of the James Harden deal, and the Bucks sent out D.J. Augustin, D.J. Wilson and a pair of draft picks. Oh, the Bucks weren’t done there as they made a separate deal that sent Torrey Craig to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for cash considerations, which helped them
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The latter move ended what was a very short-lived stint for the 30-year-old wing and whom the Bucks had made a priority of after Craig had his qualifying offer pulled from the Denver Nuggets in a surprise move during free agency.
Having since made his debut with the Suns, Craig recently remarked on his brief time in Milwaukee and why things didn’t work out for him this season to Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic:
"“Just bad timing, man,” said Craig, as he averaged 5.3 points on 45.1% shooting in his three seasons in Denver. “Injuries part of the game. Obviously I got injured pretty early. I was out a couple of weeks, a month or so. Never was able to get back in the groove of things with the Bucks.”"
Torrey Craig didn’t receive much playing time with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Craig’s right in that a groin injury suffered during training camp derailed his ability to get up to speed before things got underway. A broken nose suffered in the third game of the Bucks’ season further made a mess of things in that regard.
Never having gotten into that groove, Craig played just a total of 201 minutes while in Milwaukee this season and averaged 2.5 points on .391/.364/.500 shooting, 2.4 rebounds and 0.9 assists.
Whatever grand plans that the Bucks had in mind with how Craig could come in and fill a valuable defensive role never came to fruition, despite the hope that Bucks officials had for him as The Athletic’s Eric Nehm disclosed on the ‘Weitzman Can’t Jump’ podcast:
"“I think the Bucks strategically targeted Torrey Craig as soon as he become available and the Nuggets let go of his contract and he became an unrestricted free agent. I remember talking to people in the organization that were like ‘We got to get him. Torrey Craig is going to unlock this.’”"
There’s no question that the Bucks hold similar expectations for Tucker after making the plunge to land him ahead of the trade deadline and while far from productive, his debut showed a few glimpses of how he’ll look to impact the Bucks.
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Unfortunately, things just didn’t work out for Craig as both he and the Bucks would have liked to. In the end, the Bucks acquired what they feel is an upgrade and Craig has a shot to play with a Suns team that will look to make some noise in the playoffs after a lengthy playoff drought.