Grade the trade: Bucks land reputable backup guard in swap with Pacers
By Franco Luna
The Milwaukee Bucks roster is capped out for the time being at 15 players, but they’re also entering next season without a tertiary point guard backing up Jrue Holiday.
If the Buck went into next season with the roster, they’ll need one of Andre Jackson Jr., TyTy Washington, or Lindell Wigginton to play meaningful playmaking minutes whenever Holiday takes to the bench. While freshman coach Adrian Griffin does have a few playmaking options available at his disposal with most of the team having decent to good playmaking abilities outside of the point guard position, the reality is that the Bucks have no established true point guard on their lineup. Not even their starting point guard is what you would call a natural, pass-first point guard who can facilitate an offense and keep the ball moving.
Because of this flawed roster construction, trade machine suggestions have not stopped circulating on social media among the Milwaukee Bucks fandom proposing moves to land better, more established point guards to take on playmaking duties for this role.
In this article, we’ll break down one such trade proposal, this time proposed by Behind the Buck Pass site expert Dalton Sell in one of his most recent articles.
Grade the trade: A Milwaukee Bucks’ trade package for T.J. McConnell
In this trade, Milwaukee trades Grayson Allen and a second-round pick to the Indiana Pacers, and in exchange, they get TJ McConnell. The validity there is immediately apparent: while the Pacers are in the middle of their transition from rebuilding mode to winning more basketball games, the contending Bucks are in great need of secondary playmaking to bolster their title hopes this coming season.
There’s a lot to like with a trade like this for both sides. McConnell is a seasoned professional with a strong track record who can fill that position off the bench with solid playmaking, defense, and all the hustle and intangibles you could want. For his part, shooting guard Allen is a youthful and gifted score-first player, but his recent playoff performances with the team show that he may not be ready to contribute at a top level right now.
Let’s grade the trade by looking at how the teams involved are affected and who these players are at this point in their respective careers. After that, we will hand it a letter grade.