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

No. 1 – The Nikola Mirotic trade was a mistake by Milwaukee Bucks general manager Jon Horst

The Nikola Mirotic trade may have been the most detrimental to a Bucks championship run, but it is also the one Jon Horst deserves the least blame for. Mirotic was injured early on in his time with the Bucks, and injuries are something that you can’t predict. Still, the trade was a complete bust for Milwaukee.

Mirotic was supposed to be one of the knockdown shooters the team surrounded Giannis Antetokounmpo with. Unfortunately for the Bucks, he melted down when the team could have used his shooting the most.

In the 2019 Eastern Conference Finals against Toronto, there is no way to describe how Mirotic played other than horrible. Mirotic shot 6-for-31 (19.4 percent) from beyond the arc in the series. With Bledsoe shooting 5-for-29 (17.2 percent) from downtown in the series, Mirotic losing his touch could not have happened at a worse time.

The Toronto series introduced us to what has become known as the Giannis wall. Raptors coach Nick Nurse made an adjustment to send as many help defenders at Antetokounmpo as possible and make the rest of the team beat them. With most of those shots not falling in the series, the Bucks ultimately died by the three.

The Mirotic trade often gets passed over because 2019 was the first year of the Bucks returning to being a contending team, and it just felt good to be there. However, this one probably led to the Bucks not winning a championship the most.

Jon Horst has done many great things in his time with the Milwaukee Bucks, and fans should forever be grateful. Horst helped build great contenders and helped bring the Bucks their first championship in 50 years in 2021. For every miss Horst has had, he’s also struck gold plenty of times.

Stay tuned for updates on the Milwaukee Bucks this offseason, as some significant changes could potentially be coming.