The Milwaukee Bucks have backed themselves into a corner. Clearly, the team as currently constructed is not good enough to compete for anything — if that wasn't apparent before last night's drubbing at the hands of the Timberwolves without Anthony Edwards, it sure is now. It sort of feels like the Bucks are out of obvious moves to make — because of that, I think it's time for the Bucks to make all the moves. Just try everything. Make moves that don't make sense on the surface. Trade for everyone. Get crazy.
We're approaching DEFCON 1 here, folks, and playing it safe is not going to accomplish anything — neither for the future of this team or the present-day version of it. The front office waiting patiently for something to fall in its lap is delusional at this point. It's time to be proactive.
The first step is trade for Ja Morant (which I suggested they do), but that by itself probably wouldn't propel the Bucks into contention. The second step is probably to trade for Jerami Grant, who is a productive veteran with multiple years left on his contract. The third step is to add another depth piece, whether that
Bucks need to throw caution to the wind at the trade deadline
They've already gotten a mini miracle this year in the form of Ryan Rollins breakout. That hasn't been enough, obviously, but it's been fun nonetheless. Hoping for another miracle in that same ilk, though, will prove fruitless. There isn't even another young player on the team who fans could talk themselves into being that guy.
I think of the Bucks' situation the same way I think of the climate crisis threatening our planet right now. Everyone is pretending nothing is wrong, and by the time anyone acts, it will be far too late and the entire Southeastern part of the United States will be underwater.
Maybe that's a tad dramatic. But the Bucks are in a bind right now; the team isn't good, doesn't have the facilities to be good in the future, and has an increasingly impatient franchise player-sized elephant in the room. Waiting too long to do something will cause catastrophe.
So do something. Some things, actually, because the metaphorical polar ice caps are melting and once they're gone, they're not coming back. Worst case scenario is that, five years from now, fans look back and don't have to wonder how it was that the Bucks came unglued.