How the Milwaukee Bucks offseason decisions impact trade deadline plans

The Milwaukee Bucks not choosing to re-sign P.J. Tucker and Bryn Forbes

One of these is significantly more controversial than the other and it’s not Bryn Forbes.

Although the shooting that Forbes brought last year was great (over 45 percent on nearly five attempts per game), his defense was suspect and he wasn’t a threat to do much else on offense aside from shoot.

He was solid this season for the San Antonio Spurs before being traded to the Denver Nuggets where he’ll benefit from playing with Nikola Jokic, but the addition of Allen offsets this loss.

Tucker is the notable departure here and his play for the Miami Heat this season has only made fans miss him more. He is shooting over 47 percent from 3 on three attempts per game and that percentage is a career-high mark.

Tucker shot a little over 32 percent from deep for the Bucks in the playoffs and that was one of the reasons I was ok with letting him go. The defense was great, but if he wasn’t going to hit shots and the defense didn’t need to focus on him, then that wasn’t enough for me to justify paying what the Heat did.

However, clearly, he still has lift in that jumper and has been a fantastic addition for the Heat. The Bucks could sure use an impact defender like Tucker that can allow them to truly unlock their small-ball, Giannis-at-the-five lineups and that will be a big focus at the deadline is finding someone who can fill that role reliably because of Tucker’s departure.

They thought they had a player like that in the batch of free agents that they signed, though.