3 key goals for the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2022 offseason
Every offseason for every franchise is important for several reasons whether it be to shed salary, add draft picks, add big-time talent, or in the Milwaukee Bucks’ case, it’s to tweak a championship roster.
No matter if you’re looking long-term and keeping the window open for as long as possible or maximizing the short-term window to get another championship as soon as possible, this is an offseason that the Bucks’ front office cannot afford to screw up.
There are key free agents that they need to re-sign, players on the roster could be expendable, and they have a first-round draft pick that’s a very fascinating asset for a couple of reasons. These are the three biggest goals for the Bucks this offseason to come back next year primed to get their title back.
The Milwaukee Bucks need to re-sign Pat Connaughton & Bobby Portis this offseason
This one is pretty straightforward. These are the Bucks’ two best reserve players and they can sign them to contracts that allow them to continue to go over the cap.
Are there better options than someone like Bobby Portis available? Probably, but given the Bucks’ limited resources, it would be incredibly difficult to acquire them. The Bucks have early Bird rights on Portis and can sign him to a new contract starting at $10.9 million which is certainly a nice bump up from his $4.5 million player option that he has for next season (that he’ll decline in all likelihood).
Because we’re all prisoners of recency bias and will remember Portis more for his shooting slump to end the season and into the playoffs, it feels worth reminding everyone that he’s shot nearly 42 percent from 3 on 3.6 attempts per game in his career with Milwaukee.
He is an incredibly valuable floor spacer on offense that has proven willing to be aggressive and go at mismatches when teams try to put a smaller player on him. Defensively, we saw a big step forward from Portis and he got noticeably better at defending pick-and-rolls whether it be hedging or switching.
Portis gives them a different element in their big man room than Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez. Also, he’s 27 and will be when the season starts. Having guys in their prime age around Antetokounmpo’s timeline is huge.
Pat Connaughton is the biggest free agent they need to re-sign given his age, position, shooting, and general fit.
After trading away Donte DiVincenzo and how Grayson Allen looked in the playoffs being hunted in switches, bringing back Connaughton is a priority now. They can re-sign him for whatever they’d like, essentially, with his Bird rights and it seems as though he’s open to staying with the Bucks.
Connaughton also has a player option for next season that will be declined I’d imagine, so both players will be getting decent raises this offseason which means going further into the luxury tax but ownership has reiterated they’d do so for a championship team, which this still is. Hopefully, that doesn’t change when it comes to bringing these two back.