NBA Trades: Grading 5 Jrue Holiday proposals for the Milwaukee Bucks
By Dalton Sell
Grading a trade proposal between the Milwaukee Bucks and Minnesota Timberwolves
While most of the trades on this list revolve around the Bucks looking for players on the wing or in the backcourt, this one involves the center position.
Excluding Brook Lopez, it would be hard to find a center who fits better alongside Antetokounmpo in the league not named Karl-Anthony Towns. He’s among the best shooting centers to ever play the game, having hit 39.5 percent of his triples on 4.2 attempts per game in his career. Averaging 23 points per game in that same timeframe, he’d be a great complement on offense to take the pressure off of Milwaukee’s stars. At 27 years old, he’s also young and still has yet to play out his prime years. He and Antetokounmpo could be an exciting one-two punch for years to come.
There are layers to this, as if the Bucks were to do this trade, they would also likely lose Lopez in the process, as having him, Antetokounmpo, Towns, and Portis in the frontcourt would make for some problems. Still, some would say it would be worth it to get a younger player who can score the ball at over 20 points per game nightly with ease.
Towns is not a perfect fit for the Bucks, as he would be a significant step down from Lopez on the defensive side of things. Portis is not known for his play on that end either, so Antetokounmpo’s importance would increase mightily, forcing him to exert even more energy on that end. The Milwaukee Bucks would also have to scour the market for a new point guard to lead the backcourt.
The Timberwolves could consider this because of the ability to add a defensive-minded guard in the backcourt alongside Anthony Edwards. The guard is starting to develop into a legitimate star, and adding an All-Star in Holiday to play with him could help accelerate that development. There are also questions regarding Towns’ fit alongside Rudy Gobert, which has forced the former to play power forward more often. That’s not his strength at all, and no one will be taking on that Gobert contract, so perhaps they would consider moving Towns if they could get impact pieces. A guard who was an All-Star and a first round pick might be a nice starting point.