Pros and cons of the Milwaukee Bucks trading Jordan Nwora

There is a little over two weeks to go until one of the biggest days on the NBA calendar, the trade deadline, and one of the hottest names in trade rumors among Milwaukee Bucks fans is second-year wing Jordan Nwora.

Seeing as the Bucks are squarely in win-now mode, fans have been quick to throw Nwora into fake trades to help acquire a player that can help the team defend their title.

The 23-year-old has played sparingly as of late after being given the opportunity to grab a hold of a rotation spot to begin the season. These are the trials of a second-round sophomore player on a championship team, however, and although Nwora has shown some brilliant offensive creation flashes, he likely won’t impact the Bucks’ title defense this season.

However, any time you’re considering moving any young player, especially one who has shown the offensive creativity that Nwora has, there are always going to be pros and cons to such a move.

Con: Jordan Nwora is a young, controllable asset for the Milwaukee Bucks

One of the ways that a contending team remains a contender over multiple years is by finding diamonds later in the draft and having them eventually step into rotation roles on relatively inexpensive contracts. I’ve made the case to not move him for this very reason.

Nwora is in the final year of his rookie contract and will be a restricted free agent. No matter how you rate Nwora right now, it would ultimately be in the Bucks’ best interest to hang onto Nwora purely for the reason that they can keep him around and continue to develop him.

While there have been bumps in the road for Nwora this season, I’ve been impressed with how he has developed his overall game from last season.

He had seven total assists last season and a 3.6 percent assist rate. He’s up to 38 assists and a 7.5 percent assist rate this season and while that is still a relatively low assist rate, it’s good to see that he’s trying to become a more willing playmaker.

There’s still a ways to go for Nwora to become the player that we’d like to see him be, but the development is there and I’ve liked the flashes that we’ve seen so far.