Milwaukee Bucks: Assessing what needs midseason additions cover

Austin Rivers gives the Milwaukee Bucks an added scoring punch

The Bucks’ addition of Teague certainly was interesting while there has plenty of links between the Bucks and journeyman guard Austin Rivers.

Still standing as the frontrunners to add Rivers once he clears waivers late Tuesday afternoon, the Bucks have replenished their guard depth with both Rivers and Teague coming aboard at this point in the season. Whereas Teague fills a necessary role to spell Holiday and offer more cover at the point guard spot, Rivers brings more of a score-first mentality.

Having fallen out of favor with the New York Knicks after signing a three-year, $10 million deal in the offseason that was non-guaranteed in the second and third seasons, Rivers’ scoring pop could be elevated alongside Antetokounmpo, Holiday and Middleton. Having shot 36.4 percent from 3-point range this season, Rivers went 17-for-48 on his catch-and-shoot triples this year (35.4 percent), per NBA.com/stats.

Of course, Rivers’ shotmaking easily veers into ISO-ball and trying to keep his scoring instincts in check will be necessarily to maximize his role in the rotation.

Still, at his size and shooting capabilities, Rivers brings something the Bucks didn’t have previously before their recent roster shakeup and especially with Augustin’s struggles in mind. The fact that he’s in line to come to Milwaukee with plenty of familiarity of switching schemes dating back to his time with the Houston Rockets will be key to staying on the floor and potentially even earning crunch-time minutes if that opportunity presents itself.

Now whether the addition of Rivers goes as planned remains to be seen, so we’ll be on the lookout of whether that is made official soon after Rivers clears waivers.