Not every move a general manager makes in the draft, free agency, or trade can be a hit. Every champion has a move or two where they look back and wonder how that happened, and they were still able to win the title. For the Milwaukee Bucks and GM Jon Horst, the most recent move was signing D.J. Augustin last offseason.
Augustin was brought in to be the backup point guard after the team traded away George Hill in the Jrue Holiday trade. It seemed like a pretty solid move at the time, with Jordan Treske originally giving the move a B letter grade. Augustin was a reliable option in that role for most of his career. He had played over 860 games before coming to Milwaukee, with nearly 600 of them coming as a reserve.
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He was never an elite player or even an elite reserve, but he found a niche with the Orlando Magic as a solid point guard that could admirably run an offense and knock down shots. On paper, that was exactly what the Bucks were looking for. In practice, however, Augustin never found his groove with his new team and simply wasn’t a good fit.
Augustin’s tenure as a Milwaukee Buck lasted all of 37 games before he was shipped off to the Houston Rockets in a package for P.J. Tucker.
In the end, that may have been Augustin’s best contribution to the Bucks, having a salary big enough that it could be used to acquire Tucker and create a trade exception. With that being said, let us regrade the Augustin signing with everything we know now.
The financial impact of the D.J. Augustin signing almost a year later for the Milwaukee Bucks
After notably striking out in acquiring Bogdan Bogdanovic, the Bucks had still had some holes on the roster to fill and had more resources to do so. After dealing away their former backup point guard in Hill, the Bucks went out and shored up their depth at that position by signing Augustin to a three-year, $21-million contract in free agency, using most of their mid-level exception.
Augustin had just turned 33 years old at the time, and there was plenty of concern among Bucks fans about paying a smaller, older guard that kind of money. As I said, Augustin had played over 860 games before coming to Milwaukee, and for a guard of that size, that mileage can take a toll. Add in the fact that Augustin was coming off a season where he shot under 35 percent from three and there was very much reason to be concerned about how he would fit with the team, especially considering his defensive limitations.
The one saving grace of the contract was that the third year wasn’t guaranteed, so there was an out if things went south and they couldn’t trade him. Thankfully that money came in handy near the trade deadline when Augustin was moved for Tucker, and it helped match salaries. Still, in the moment of the signing, this was quite the gamble from Horst, despite the team’s need to fill the position and Augustin’s potential fit.
The on-court fit for the D.J. Augustin signing almost a year later for the Milwaukee Bucks
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that a player who was traded after fewer than 40 games with the team he signed for in the offseason didn’t fit in very well with his new team. In just 37 games with the Bucks, Augustin averaged 6.1 points per game, his lowest since the start of the 2015-16 season when he was with the Oklahoma City Thunder before being traded.
If there was one thing I can give Augustin credit for in his short time with the Bucks, it’s that he had a bounce-back season from behind the 3-point line. After having a down year from three in his final year with the Magic, the 33-year-old shot a tidy 38 percent from three, and he took a ton of them, with over 67 percent of his shots being 3-pointers.
There were two big issues, though. The first one was something that anyone could have seen coming, and it was that Augustin was not a good defender. At 5’11” with a 6’3″ wingspan, Augustin was in stark contrast to the 6’4″ Hill with a 6’9″ wingspan, or Holiday at 6’3″. Per Cleaning the Glass, the Bucks were 2.1 points per 100 possessions worse on defense with Augustin on the floor.
Augustin was never expected to be a great defender or even a good one. But it was an especially poor fit when you consider what the Bucks were trying to do in the regular season last year with experimenting on defense. Augustin would benefit from specific defensive coverages that can help hide his deficiencies. However, he was asked to do more than he could very often, and it would have made for an even worse fit come playoff time when he most likely would have been unplayable on defense.
The other issue was that he couldn’t hit shots from anywhere other than behind the 3-point line. While Augustin’s overall 2-point percentage was bad enough at 34.9 percent (the lowest of any Buck who played at least 10 games), the most staggering number was that he shot 37.5 percent on shots less than five feet from the basket, according to NBA.com/stats. In comparison, Augustin shot nearly 50 percent on those shots in 2019-20, and Hill shot 67.9 percent the same season, per Second Spectrum. It just wasn’t a good time for Augustin in Milwaukee.
The final (updated) grade for the D.J. Augustin signing almost a year later for the Milwaukee Bucks
I don’t want to be too hard on Augustin (even though I definitely have been to this point). He wasn’t the one who offered the contract, he simply signed it. I’m sure he would have wanted to play better than he did with the Bucks, but it just wasn’t a good fit.
Bucks fans had gotten to see how good Hill was in the backup point guard role for almost two seasons. Bringing in a much different player in Augustin was going to be a bit of a culture shock from a playstyle perspective. Hill’s frame allows for him to do things that Augustin can’t, and what Hill brings to the table as a point of attack defender and finisher at the rim are just not strengths for a smaller guard like Augustin.
Again, even if Augustin didn’t miss a bunch of shots at the rim and was right around his career averages on 2-point field goals, the biggest issue would have still been his defense. The Bucks ask a lot out of their point of attack defenders, and having both Augustin and Bryn Forbes on the floor wasn’t going to last.
There was healthy skepticism when the initial deal was signed, both for the price and for the actual fit on the court. It turned out that almost all of the skepticism was warranted.
In his abbreviated stint with the Bucks, Augustin underperformed in addition to being an already questionable fit. Hopefully, for Augustin, he can get out of an obvious rebuilding team in Houston and find a home on a playoff team that can use him to his strengths more.
BTBP (Updated) Final Grade: D
This could be seen as Horst’s worst move as general manager, but at least he was able to move on from it relatively quickly.