There is no downtime for Milwaukee Bucks general manager Jon Horst in terms of tweaking and adjusting the roster, huh?
Even with a handful of games left in the regular season, the team added guard Luca Vildoza on a two-year deal and he’s expected to be activated by the start of the playoffs. Vildoza becomes the fourth true point guard on the Bucks’ roster and the signing is similar to that of Elijah Bryant from last year.
Given that the Bucks have been sniffing around point guards ever since around the trade deadline, this signing further confirms that there could be some goings-on this coming offseason regarding their backup point guard position.
What does the future point guard depth for the Milwaukee Bucks look like?
It’s worth noting a couple of things with Vildoza. First, is that he’s represented by Alex Saratsis of Octagon Sports who also represents Giannis and Thanasis Antetokounmpo as well as Georgios Kalaitzakis, so this could be a “do my client a solid” type of thing.
The second, which could be related to the first, is that Vildoza hasn’t played this season after having foot surgery and was the reason why he didn’t crack the New York Knicks’ roster after signing with them in the offseason and playing on their Summer League team.
The final one is that Vildoza’s deal for next season is non-guaranteed, similar to Bryant. This makes it wholly unlikely that he’ll be on the roster at the start of next season, but anything can happen!
Vildoza, though, represents the culmination of what has felt like a season-long search for some more depth or an upgrade at the point guard position behind Jrue Holiday. There have been plenty of names thrown around with Dennis Schroder, Goran Dragic, and even John Wall! They brought in Tyreke Evans with the Wisconsin Herd, but that ended after he suffered an ankle injury. Evans isn’t a true point guard anymore, but still another ball-handler.
They grabbed Jevon Carter, but he seemingly hasn’t been able to overtake George Hill for the backup role despite playing really well when given the chance.
Going into next season, Hill is under contract for $4 million guaranteed. As mentioned, Vildoza is non-guaranteed, and Carter is a free agent.
For all of the advocating I’ve done for Hill this season, saying that they didn’t need an upgrade when they’ve been winning his minutes by a lot all season (he still has the highest individual net rating for players that have played at least 40 games this season at 11.7), they could use someone else. Going into next season, Hill will be 36 and we’re already starting to see the decline.
If it were up to me (and thank goodness it isn’t), I’d bring Carter back without hesitation. He’s been a great fit both on and off the court, plus he wouldn’t cost a ton. He’ll be 27 years old when next season starts, which aligns with what the Bucks have done in the last few offseasons by adding prime-age players to keep the window open.
The issue with adding someone outside of the organization is that the Milwaukee Bucks simply don’t have a ton of space to work with so finding someone significantly better than Hill will be a challenge. Does Schroder want to take another below-market deal to sign with the Bucks? They pursued Austin Rivers on the buyout market last season (and frankly should have signed him), is that an option? Is Aaron Holiday even an upgrade?
They’ll have a first-round pick for the first time since 2018, perhaps you draft someone like Trevor Keels from Duke or Jean Montero from the Overtime Elite team? I’d prefer they look at a wing or big (Mark Williams, please fall) and take an upside swing at those spots, but there aren’t many avenues for the Bucks to look for an upgrade.
The backup point guard role is something I’ll have my eye on this offseason and how they’ll look to add to it because it’s clearly something that they see as an area to invest in.
For this season, though, the Milwaukee Bucks have three guys behind Holiday and are in a much better position compared to this time last season so let’s be thankful for that.