Compelling Serge Ibaka trade packages with 3 interested suitors
By Jon Conahan
Serge Ibaka and the Milwaukee Bucks have agreed to part ways and find the veteran center a new home before the NBA Trade Deadline. Shams Charania reported that Milwaukee granted his wish and a Serge Ibaka trade should happen sometime within the next few weeks.
With that coming to light, there have been other rumors that suggest teams are interested in acquiring him. Trading Ibaka could get tough for the Bucks, unless they decide to get a third team involved. Whoever they trade him for likely won’t be a player that can make an impact if it’s a one-for-one deal, but still, trading him needs to get done, even if it returns just a second-round pick.
Miami, Atlanta, and Brooklyn are the teams that are reportedly interested in adding Ibaka. While a deal with those teams seems difficult, let’s break them down and see if there’s any value in one of these deals for the Bucks.
A Serge Ibaka trade between the Milwaukee Bucks, Miami Heat, and Phoenix Suns
Since the Miami Heat seem interested in Serge Ibaka, it looks like it would have to be a three-team deal to figure something out. Milwaukee could get back Nikola Jovic, Udonis Haslem, Max Strus, or Gabe Vincent if it were a one-for-one trade.
While Milwaukee would certainly take Jovic, Strus, or Vincent, it doesn’t seem likely that Miami would be interested in parting ways with any of those players.
It’s been reported that the Suns and Bucks have had discussions on Crowder, so adding in Pheonix here to help match salaries is the best possible outcome for Milwaukee. However, it seems highly unlikely that this deal would get done when factoring in Duncan Robinson’s contract. Phoenix likely won’t want to deal with that contract.
Milwaukee, however, would likely do this deal in a heartbeat. This is a huge trade that would be sending multiple guys away, which we don’t always see in the regular season. Perhaps Phoenix gets a bit desperate and trades Crowder for less than what they had envisioned when he first asked to be moved.
Trading Serge to Miami doesn’t seem possible unless Miami is willing to do something no one is expecting, which they haven’t done in the past.