The Milwaukee Bucks have actively been seeking roster upgrades without having to give up members of their core rotation. We found out that the Bucks were given credit to speak with Jae Crowder recently and have an offer on the table of George Hill, Jordan Nwora, Serge Ibaka and draft compensation on the table to the Suns. We’ll have to wait another eight days until the trade deadline to see exactly how much the Bucks roster differs from the way it looks today.
Recently on the Please Don’t Aggregate This podcast, Marc Stein reported that the Milwaukee Bucks are looking for a defensive-minded veteran wing player making between $10-11 million this year. Jae Crowder certainly fits that bill but what mystery players could the Bucks pivot to if the Suns aren’t interested in taking the salary filling players they have to offer regardless of how many picks the Bucks include? Here are three potential options:
Milwaukee Bucks trade target wings not named Jae Crowder: Robert Covington
The Milwaukee Bucks have checked in on Robert Covington before and given that his performance has remained steady it’s hard to imagine the interest Jon Horst previously had in Covington waning. Robert Covington is a versatile defender standing at 6’7″ and weighing in at 209 pounds. At his size Covington is slightly taller and about 25 pounds slimmer than Jae Crowder.
There would be a multitude of similarities in impact between the two however, both are versatile defenders, both are 32 years old and both can knock down threes at a reliable rate despite not being the type of player you think of when you think of a long range marksman.
Covington is on the books for $12 million and may be just out of reach for the Milwaukee Bucks price wise if they’re looking to retain their key rotational players and trade from their roster depth.
The Clippers would make sense as a trade partner however as the Clippers have been named as a team interested in acquiring Serge Ibaka from the Milwaukee Bucks.