Following their title-winning season, the Milwaukee Bucks have done an admirable job of improving their roster through free agency and trade this offseason.
Among those moves was signing free agent George Hill, who returned to the Bucks on a two-year deal worth $8 million. It was a solid signing for Hill as he most recently completed a brief stint with the Philadelphia 76ers, and he would fill the team’s vacant point guard spot. The Hill signing alone is a great one, but it appears that it could have been a two-for-one as he was recruiting a former teammate to the team as well.
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That player would be Danny Green, who spent time with Hill this past season on the 76ers. Before signing a two-year deal worth $20 million that will see him stay with Philadelphia, Green revealed that Hill was among a few former teammates that tried recruiting him to sign elsewhere in free agency. While Green would have certainly been a dream target for the Bucks, he was well out of their price range after they gave most of their MLE to Hill and newly drafted Giorgos Kalaitzakis.
The Bucks did reportedly reach out to Green in free agency to potentially see what his stance was and at least show their interest, but any chance of them getting him always seemed small. Now, he will stick around playing against Hill as the two find themselves playing for two of the premier contenders in the Eastern Conference.
This is not the first time George Hill has been found recruiting players for the Milwaukee Bucks
As many Bucks fans will remember, Green is not the first player to be mentioned in recruiting rumors when it comes to Hill.
Of course, Hill reportedly played a key part in trying to recruit then-restricted free agent guard Bogdan Bogdanovic to the Bucks during the 2020 offseason. Hill and Bogdanovic had played together as teammates with the Sacramento Kings previously, and with Milwaukee’s interest in the Serbian guard through the roof, Hill did his part to make a pitch.
However, The Athletic’s Sam Amick (subscription required) noted that once the Bucks traded for Jrue Holiday, a deal that shipped Hill off to the OKC Thunder, things changed quickly. Trading away his friend in Hill was likely a gut-punch considering he had been doing the recruiting, which likely changed his perception to some degree. However, Amick wrote how the addition of Holiday may have weakened Bogdanovic’s interest because he might have seen a minimized role alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, and now Jrue Holiday.
There are a million different rumors that have been circulating around this story since it happened, but in short, Bogdanovic signed a four-year deal worth $72 million with the Atlanta Hawks and the Bucks were fined a second round pick for tampering. The story of what exactly happened behind closed doors between the Bucks and Kings involving the fateful botched sign-and-trade will likely never reach the surface, which is just fine. Lesson learned.
Back to Hill, it seems like he has been doing recruiting work behind the scenes with the previous Bogdanovic rumors and now these recent reports from Green. Although he is 0-for-2 on these attempts, it is interesting to see he is still hard at work with them.
Keep an eye out for any names that might pop up in the future regarding connections to Hill and the Bucks.