This NBA Trade Deadline was perhaps the most chaotic yet, with huge names on the move as teams looked to add that piece to change the outcome of their season. The Milwaukee Bucks were one of those, and their moves have had some mixed reactions from the fan base and those within the basketball world.
Doc Rivers' team has a very different-looking roster for the remainder of the season following three moves that saw them part ways with key figures of the franchise.
The standout was Kyle Kuzma being exchanged for Khris Middleton and rookie AJ Johnson, which was tough for most to emotionally get over following the career Middleton has had in Milwaukee. Other smaller moves included Jericho Sims being brought in from the New York Knicks for Delon Wright, while MarJon Beauchamp also left the team in a deal that saw Kevin Porter Jr. arrive with the team that initially drafted him back in 2019.
Time will tell whether the Bucks got better or worse following the trade deadline, but here are three reasons why they got better and three reasons why they did not.
Better - New additions make the Bucks younger and more athletic
Middleton was solid when moved to the bench, but he is 33 years old and coming off double ankle surgery; it never felt like he was going to get back to his best. It is sad that we never saw him, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard have a postseason game together, let alone a series, but Kuzma is 29 and clearly more athletic.
If Middleton were to be injured again later on in the season, the ceiling of the Bucks would dramatically drop. The front office clearly felt they needed to move on for the betterment of the franchise. Sims is an ideal pickup for the team, with him having a ridiculous vertical, and, at 26, is in his best years. That ability to come in and add some sheer athleticism at the center position is something the Milwaukee Bucks have lacked all season long on both ends of the floor.
Wright never worked out for the team, so being able to get a serviceable and useful player in return is a positive move. All three additions will help the Bucks play younger and keep up with quicker teams, that has been a glaring issue all season and it has been somewhat addressed at the deadline.
Worse - Small forward and center depth issues
Looking at the depth chart, the Milwaukee Bucks have clearly tweaked their small forward and center positions.
Taurean Prince and Chris Livingston are the only traditional small forwards, which leaves a hole, with the latter only appearing 12 times this season. That leaves Prince with a lot to deal with as Middleton and Beauchamp both move out of the small forward position unless you look to Kuzma to play there in a big lineup or a guard if Rivers decides to go smaller.
The center position then differs, as suddenly, adding Sims has created a logjam at the five. Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis were both in trade rumors all week long. Yet, both remain on the roster. Giannis has spent time playing at center, so the issue of athleticism in the frontcourt has been addressed but without anyone at that spot being moved.
In a game where the Bucks are struggling, they suddenly may have to go small with Giannis at the five, but that makes Lopez, Portis and Sims almost redundant on the bench. Whether deals were there for those guys, who knows, but it could become an issue in some matchups.
Better - Porter and Kuzma bring extra scoring options
It is no secret that Kuzma has been struggling this season on what has been a historically bad Washington Wizards team, but there is no doubt he is able to score. This season, he is averaging 15.2 points on shooting splits of .420/.281/.602. That's not great, but on a team playing more meaningful basketball, the hope is he can find his best again.
In the previous two seasons, he has been a 21-plus point scorer and is a career .449/.334/725 shooter, so this season so far is hopefully just a blemish.
Porter is another player who has shown glimpses of being a capable scorer at the NBA level. Just two weeks ago, he scored 26 points and recorded seven assists and seven steals against the Boston Celtics. In the 2022-23 season, he averaged 19.2 points on splits of .442/.366/.784. Those have taken a dip to .423/.245/.645 this season, along with fewer game time with the Clippers.
Maybe the Bucks didn't need too much in the way of extra scoring, but adding two different shot-creators and an athletic big in Sims is a bonus for a team that needed a slight boost in those areas, with Middleton's shot-creating going the other way.
Worse - There is pressure on Kuzma to perform now
Moving on from Middleton was always going to be tough, and the initial reaction to getting Kuzma was not positive. The Bucks were rumored to be in on Zach LaVine and Jimmy Butler before they got moved, so missing out on those stars really does put a lot of pressure on Kuzma to step up.
When he is available to play, he will have to step it up massively from what he has shown with the Wizards, considering a franchise legend who had stepped up in so many big moments went the other way in the deal.
Kuzma was an integral part of the Los Angeles Lakers title win in the 2019-20 season, and he will have a similar role this season behind Lillard and Giannis' lead.
Defensively, it was tough watching Middleton at times, with him clearly not wanting to exert himself fully after his offseason surgeries. Kuzma, being younger, has the upper hand, and if he can play hard and hit shots when it matters, then the Bucks made the perfect deal. The pressure, though, has been upped with the expectations of Kuzma now being a potential season-changing addition.
Better - Financial flexibility for the offseason
This is not so much an instant factor following the Bucks' moves, but they now go into the offseason with more flexibility after making moves to be under the dreaded second apron. They are not in a position to sign any buyout targets whose pre-existing salary is over $12.8 million, but they do have a bit more movement when it comes to the offseason.
Kuzma declined some of his trade bonus to help financially and has a deal that lowers year on year. Middleton had a player option for $34 million next season, which he was almost certainly going to take. Sims and Porter won't make too much of an impact, but heading into the offseason, it feels like it may be a more "normal" free agency for Milwaukee as they don't have to deal with issues surrounding the second apron.
For the future, it makes sense. Whether it does for the present will be answered in the coming months.
Worse - Losing out on Middleton's playmaking and 3-point shooting
One of the key things Middleton provided during his time in Wisconsin was his playmaking and being able to be another facilitator. This season alone, he was averaging 4.4 assists, and almost every season with the Bucks, he has been between four and five assists per game. Kuzma and Porter almost combine to give you those numbers, and that is if they both were to play more than 30 minutes, which is very hard to see.
Another area the Milwaukee Bucks lose out on is with the 3-point shooting, despite being second in the league by percentage from deep. Middleton has been shooting over 40 percent from deep and as mentioned earlier, Kuzma and Porter have shown better than their 28 and 24 percent from deep, but they still fall short of Middleton's numbers.
What could be a real problem is if Kuzma comes into the starting lineup alongside Giannis and Andre Jackson Jr., there will be a reliance on Lillard and Lopez to hit shots from deep. That would be easy to gameplan against. Take Jackson out, and you lose your best perimeter defender, so there is experimenting that needs to be done and things to be tweaked to get this team closer to competing with the top three in the Eastern Conference.
As with every team that was active this trade deadline, there are always positives and negatives to those deals and how much better the team has become. The Bucks take on the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night before heading home to face the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday afternoon, so this weekend is when we will see the new faces and the new-look rotations.
Stay tuned for more Milwaukee Bucks news and analysis.