Ranking Milwaukee Bucks’ 4 biggest trade mistakes in the Jon Horst era

No. 2 – The Jae Crowder trade was a mistake by Milwaukee Bucks general manager Jon Horst

When Jae Crowder was first rumored to be on Milwaukee’s radar, you couldn’t have asked for anything better as a fan. Crowder finished his collegiate career at Marquette, who play in the same arena as the Bucks. It was a dream scenario for Crowder to return to where his NBA dream started.

The team has been looking for someone to fill the void left behind following P.J. Tucker’s departure after the 2021 championship run. The Bucks hoped to get some of what they got from Tucker in Crowder. Sadly, that is not what Crowder provided.

Objectively, Crowder was decent in the regular season for the Bucks. Regardless, the Bucks added Crowder to help them win a championship, and his play during the postseason did not allow them to get that done.

Some blame for Crowder’s disastrous playoff performance could be the lack of minutes he received. In a rare defense of former Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer, Crowder did not earn any more minutes than what he got. He played so poorly that he may have been given too many minutes.

For a team already decimated with a severe lack of draft capital, the Bucks gave up five second-round picks for Crowder and got out of the contracts of George Hill, Serge Ibaka, and Jordan Nwora. Losing all those picks for half of a season and a bad playoff run from Crowder may be one of Horst’s biggest regrets.

Crowder has been on the record questioning precisely what the reason was that he was brought to Milwaukee. Perhaps a miracle happens, and new head coach Adrian Griffin is a swaying point in keeping Crowder, and he plays better with an entire season to get his legs under him. For now, we have to call the trade as it is, a mistake by the Bucks.