The Milwaukee Bucks have made a trade that has shocked the NBA landscape.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Milwaukee Bucks acquired Damian Lillard in a three-team deal on Wednesday. This move immediately makes Milwaukee the favorite to win the title this season. The team needed to add a point guard who would not only help them compete for a championship but a go-to guy in the fourth quarter.
What the Milwaukee Bucks traded for in the Damian Lillard deal
This is the second time in franchise history the Bucks have made a league-changing move. The first was before the 1970-71 season when the team acquired Oscar Robertson from the then-Cincinnati Royals. Robertson teaming up with Kareem Abdul-Jabaar helped the Bucks capture their first title in 1971. This move is the same as the one made 52 years ago because Lillard gives Giannis Antetokounmpo a running mate similar to what Robertson provided for Abdul-Jabbar over 50 years ago. This trade is rare for a multitude of reasons.
Two of Milwaukee’s greatest players (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Giannis Antetokounmpo) have been homegrown. Those two carried the franchise for the bulk of their tenures, but there is one similarity: they needed another elite player to help them win. Giannis and Khris Middleton, two years ago, were considered Batman and Robin, but with Middleton’s injury history over the past two seasons, that was no longer a duo that could be relied on to win another championship for the franchise.
Adding Lillard, Milwaukee is getting an elite shot-maker, one of the greatest shooters in NBA History, and a player who will help Milwaukee win championships once again.
The past two seasons for Lillard haven’t gone the way he wanted to, but now not only does he get a change of scenery, but he’s reuniting with his old head coach; Terry Stotts, who was hired as an assistant coach for the Bucks this offseason.
What the Milwaukee Bucks traded away in the Damian Lillard deal.
As part of the three-team deal, the Bucks traded Jrue Holiday, two pick swaps, and an unprotected 2029 first-round pick to Portland. The team also moved Grayson to Phoenix as part of the trade.
Trading away Grayson Allen is a footnote on this trade because while Allen showed signs of being a knockdown 3-point shooter, he wasn’t consistent enough offensively, and he didn’t defend at an elite level. Trading away Jrue Holiday was a tough decision to make.
The NBA is a brutal business, and Milwaukee had to trade away Jrue Holiday, who expressed a desire to finish his career with the team. That’s what makes this trade so hard.
The draft picks aren’t an important part of the equation because Milwaukee is still in a championship window, and they don’t need to stockpile young players for this veteran roster.
In 2020, General Manager Jon Horst made the swing of the century by acquiring Holiday for Eric Bledsoe and draft picks. In his first year with the team, Holiday helped Milwaukee capture their first title in 50 years by being a part of the greatest play in franchise history.
Known as the “Valley Oop,” the Bucks were up 120-119 with less than 20 seconds left when Holiday stole the ball from Devin Booker and raced up the floor most point guards would have pulled the ball out and waited to be fouled instead, Holiday sees Giannis Antetokounmpo get behind the defense and throws a risky alley-oop pass that everyone thought was too high, but Giannis jammed it with two hands and drew an and-one from Mikal Bridges. Thus, the Valley-Oop lived in infamy as one of the defining moments of the Bucks’ championship run.
During his time in Milwaukee, pundits started to take notice of how good of a player Jrue Holiday is. He became one of the best two-way players in the NBA, and he helped turn Milwaukee from a team that was known as only being good in the regular season to a team that was talked about as a championship contender every year.
The Milwaukee Bucks’ addition of Damian Lillard helps them in more ways than one. Giannis will likely finish his career in Milwaukee, the team will be competing for championships long-term, and now there’s a new Big 3.
Milwaukee did a good job in free agency of picking up complementary bench players to help the organization win. At times last season, the team relied too much on Giannis, and the offense had gone stagnant. With Lillard, the Bucks will have at least three playmakers on the floor and could be a top-three offensive team in the NBA.
In 58 games with the Blazers last season, Lillard averaged 32.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 7.3 assists. During his last two years in Portland, the team was in the midst of a min-rebuild, and while Lillard in the past, expressed a desire to win in Portland, the team was unable to meet his goals, and this past offseason, Lillard finally requested a trade out of Portland.
The Miami Heat were the favorites to land Lillard, but after their package wasn’t suitable enough, the Bucks ultimately emerged as the winner of the Lillard sweepstakes.
The Milwaukee Bucks, with this move, set themselves up nicely to win a championship next season. With the amount of talent Milwaukee has on the roster, it’s a great time to be a Bucks fan.
BTBP Final Grade: A+
It’ll be interesting to see how Damian Lillard fits in with the Bucks.