Milwaukee Bucks need to focus on adding wing depth in buyout market

That was certainly quite the trade deadline, huh? Although the Milwaukee Bucks weren’t overly active (no offense Serge Ibaka), they improved their roster and now have some holes to fill via the buyout market.

It’s not even that they have significant holes to fill, they quite literally have to fill some of the open roster spots to get to 14 players. So, the focus shifts now to the players who didn’t get moved and whether or not the non-contenders will buy them out.

Many will be looking at names like Goran Dragic (who has been connected to the Bucks already) and Dennis Schroder (who has yet to be rumored as a buyout candidate from the Houston Rockets), but the focus should be on upgrading their wing depth above all else.

Which wings should the Milwaukee Bucks target in the buyout market?

I mean, I’m not going to say no to Dragic if I’m general manager Jon Horst, you never turn down talent, but I’d make my number one priority to add wing defense. It’s what I’ve prioritized for the Bucks since the beginning of trade season when I wanted Thaddeus Young on the buyout market.

That clearly can’t happen now, so what’s left for Milwaukee? Who can fill in on the wing and give them minutes in a pinch?

Well, the idea of acquiring that big wing defender role is most likely dead. There isn’t a player that’s going to become available in the mold of Young, P.J. Washington, P.J. Tucker, etc. What there are, though, are guys who can defend wings credibly and help Grayson Allen, Pat Connaughton, and Wesley Matthews.

I’ll start with someone who’s already been bought out: DeAndre’ Bembry. In the wake of the massive James Harden-to-Philadelphia deal, the Brooklyn Nets were left with too many players on their roster and they (surprisingly) waived Bembry.

He’s been somewhat of a positional swiss army knife for the last couple of seasons with the Nets and Toronto Raptors, spending minutes at every position except center. He’s primarily played small forward the last two seasons (about 60 percent of his minutes), but he spent 20 percent of his minutes this season at the four.

Bembry has guarded a ton of positions from Darius Garland (3-of-9) to LeBron James (3-of-7) to Steph Curry (1-of-6) to the Chicago Bulls duo of DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine (5-of-15), all shooting numbers from NBA.com/stats.

Offensively, he’s not much of a shooter but is 12-of-22 on corner 3s, so he can spread the floor but he’s more of a rim finisher that crashes the offensive glass (hm, sounds familiar).

An interesting wrinkle is that Bembry was signed to a minimum contract and if the Bucks don’t want to compete for him on the buyout market, they could simply claim him off waivers. There are going to be plenty of teams ahead of them that will like him as well, but it will be interesting to see if a team does claim him instead of fighting for him as a buyout player.

Someone who won’t be claimed off waivers, should he be waived, if Gary Harris of the Orlando Magic. He was someone that drew interest from teams at the deadline, but ultimately his $20 million salary was too much for contenders to want to cobble together salaries to match as well as entice the Magic with draft compensation.

The Athletic’s John Hollinger (subscription required), has Harris as one of his top three buyout players and it’s easy to see why with how he’s played this season.

He’s averaging 11.7 points on 57.4 percent true shooting, 2.2 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 0.8 steals. He’s shooting nearly 39 percent from 3 on almost five attempts and is very much having a resurgent season in his contract season.

Harris isn’t as versatile as Bembry, mostly playing between the two and three for his career, but largely it has been at shooting guard. He has guarded point and shooting guards for the most part and has fared… relatively ok. He’d primarily be fill-in some of Donte DiVincenzo’s vacated minutes, but he wouldn’t overtake Connaughton and Allen.

There are going to be teams with cleaner fits for Harris, so it’s a little unlikely that they’d be able to snag him if he’s looking for the chance to compete as well as real rotation minutes, but he’s very much one of the most attractive options as a wing player for the Bucks.

There are other big wings or medium-sized wings like Paul Millsap or Jarrett Culver that could be available, but they’re either old and washed or young and unproven. Bembry would be my ideal acquisition for the Bucks, but I definitely wouldn’t be mad if they got Harris instead.

Stay tuned for more post-deadline buyout market action from the Bucks!