Should the Milwaukee Bucks trade up in the 2022 NBA Draft?

One of the big criticisms with the Milwaukee Bucks keeping their pick at number 24 overall is that they won’t be able to draft a player who can impact their team right away. It’s a fair critique and although there have been great players taken 24th overall, it’s not a prime spot to acquire an impact player.

It’s not the likely scenario in this draft, but if the Bucks really want to take advantage of having a first-round pick for the first time since 2018 and snag a player they like, then trading up would be on the table for them.

They don’t have many resources to do so but there could be a couple of teams that would be interested in a swap with Milwaukee.

What are the realistic trade-up scenarios for the Milwaukee Bucks?

Of course, to trade up, you’ll need to entice the other team with something in addition to the 24th overall pick. Perhaps the best (and most realistic) trade chip that the Bucks have is Grayson Allen.

He’ll be 27-years-old when the season starts and is coming off of a career-best season. He averaged 11.1 points (career-high) on 61 percent true shooting (tied career-high), with 3.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists. He shot 41 percent from 3 on almost six attempts and became a very lethal shooter for Milwaukee as he developed chemistry with Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The problem for the Bucks is that he may not be able to play in a playoff series past the first round which is an issue for a team that wants to go compete deep into the playoffs every year while they have their core in place.

A very interesting team that could use Allen’s services is the Chicago Bulls at 18th overall.

They had an obvious flaw last season in that they shot by far the fewest 3s per game at 28.8, per NBA.com/stats, but did shoot them reasonably well at nearly 37 percent. They could certainly use an infusion of shooting into their rotation and Allen would absolutely give them that based on, well, what I said above.

He would be able to play alongside DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine (should he re-sign) since he doesn’t need the ball in his hands and showed the ability to move into open space to create passing lanes for those ball-handlers.

The wrinkle here would be that Allen is hated by the entire Bulls fanbase after the incident with Alex Caruso. There’s still also confusion as to whether or not Allen apologized to Caruso so I’m unsure how welcomed he’d be into that locker room.

The San Antonio Spurs have two picks and 20th overall would be much more likely than their top 10 pick. They also shot a very low volume of 3s at 32 per game (sixth-lowest) and could use some shooting in their rotation as well.

They nearly cracked the play-in this past season and Allen’s shooting could help them reach that point as they look to take the next step in their rebuild.

On the other hand, they may not want to take on extra salary in addition to moving down four spots.

It’s a tricky spot to move up in the draft for a team like the Bucks since there’s really no guarantee that the player they get in the middle of the draft will hit either and then you’re looking at giving up a rotation player that could either help you or help get another rotation player in a trade.

While there is an appeal in moving up, it doesn’t seem like the right situation for the Milwaukee Bucks given their lack of assets to sweeten the pot.