As they should, Jon Horst and company are looking at new star targets to hopefully build the foundation for their post-Giannis Antetokounmpo future. They've looked at a litany of different names to this point, some better than others, but the most recent one, according to NBA insider Michael Scotto, doesn't seem to help their needs at all: Bennedict Mathurin.
"While the Los Angeles Clippers remain interested in re-signing restricted free agent Bennedict Mathurin, the New Orleans Pelicans, Chicago Bulls, Milwaukee Bucks, and Dallas Mavericks have expressed sign-and-trade interest in the 24-year-old swingman, league sources told HoopsHype," Scotto wrote in a recent article.
To recall, Milwaukee has at its disposal two things: the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception worth $15 million and a $25.5 million traded player exception from the Giannis trade. So there's more than enough ammunition, at least financially, to go out and make something happen. If only that something actually took into consideration what their roster needs at this point in time.
Mathurin could make Bucks' roster problem impossible to ignore
As it currently stands, Milwaukee's backcourt is already bursting at the seams with the likes of Ryan Rollins, Brayden Burries, Tyler Herro, AJ Green, Kevin Porter Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, Caris LeVert and Kam Jones. That's eight players who can play the guard positions on a roster that is capped at up to 18 spots (up to 15 players on standard contracts and three additional players on two-way contracts).
None of this is to argue that Mathurin wouldn't be a value-adding player. Anyone who puts up 17.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game is obviously a talented basketball player. Let’s be clear: Mathurin is a talented 24-year-old scorer with a high motor and an aggressive, downhill attacking style. If you’re a team starving for wing punch, checking in on him makes complete sense on paper.
The only problem here is the position he plays. The Milwaukee Bucks are the absolute last team in the league that needs to add another ball-dominant, score-first guard to this roster. The abundance of guards looked like it could be their new identity, but if they keep adding more, it simply gets to a point where you have to question the decision-making.
If the Bucks are keeping all these guards in town and still intend to acquire Mathurin somehow, that can only mean fewer shots for the likes of Burries, Jakucionis, and Rollins. And that just simply goes against everything a rebuild should be about.
Obviously, the Bucks aren't building a roster to be competitive, so some may argue that a positional logjam isn't the worst problem in the world for a team that doesn't intend to win too many games. But one would hope that the Bucks vary their young pieces to avoid those same positional issues in the future once they do develop. And while they have the young Bucks to bring the franchise forward at the guard position, their wing and forward spots are still severely lacking.
Milwaukee needs to sort out its backcourt logjam as soon as possible
If the front office wants to use its financial flexibility wisely, throwing assets at a guard logjam while leaving glaring holes elsewhere on the floor feels like an unnecessary self-inflicted wound. Hopefully these reports are just signs of Jon Horst and company doing their due diligence.
Mathurin is a talented young player with plenty of upside, but for a Milwaukee team desperately trying to carve out a clean, coherent identity for the future, he’s the wrong answer to a question they shouldn't even be asking.
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