Milwaukee Bucks: Assessing the East landscape after the trade deadline
Looking at teams who could meet the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round
Overall, it was a busy trade deadline, especially for the teams in the East that could eventually face up against the Bucks in the first round of the playoffs.
The current sixth seed, the Atlanta Hawks, have been surging since replacing Lloyd Pierce with Nate McMillan. Thursday also saw them ship out Rajon Rondo for Lou Williams, which will obviously give them an added scoring punch off the bench.
The Boston Celtics exacted their revenge on the Bucks Friday night that ended the Bucks’ eight-game win streak. Currently a game behind the Hawks, the Celtics’ high-profile addition of Evan Fournier could give them a Gordon Hayward-like replacement around their cornerstones of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
Meanwhile, the Chicago Bulls made the biggest splash of any team on deadline day where they acquired All-Star center Nikola Vucevic from the Orlando Magic. While Chicago is hanging on to the tenth seed and in the play-in zone, could bringing in Vucevic spark on a late season run that will help them go above the play-in games? Time will tell on that front.
Next. 3 potential buyout targets for Bucks following trade deadline. dark
It certainly was a busy deadline day all throughout the league. While the Bucks certainly got better, there’s no question that some of the teams they’re bound to face in the playoffs made similar reinforcements.