The Milwaukee Bucks being linked to Zach LaVine again isn’t news at this point. His name is back in the Bucks rumor mill, and at this point, it feels less like strategy and more like habit. When a front office keeps circling the same flawed solution, it usually means the idea well has run dry.
ESPN insider Jamal Collier noted in late December that league sources say the team has been actively engaging in internal conversations about LaVine, "Whom they have had interest in and chances to acquire in the past."
That alone should raise alarms for one reason: this is the same LaVine the Bucks have sniffed around since the Jrue Holiday days. The same LaVine whose profile hasn’t changed nearly enough to justify the fixation.
The Milwaukee Bucks have monitored Zach LaVine for years now
Let’s be real about what LaVine actually is, despite his season averages for Sacramento so far of 20.2 points, three rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game on 48.7 percent from the field and 38.5 percent from distance.
He’s a high-usage scorer who needs the ball, doesn’t elevate teammates, and gives most of his value on one end of the floor. He can get hot and put up 30 on any given night. But just as easily, he can also disappear, settle for jumpers, and get hunted defensively in playoff settings. That’s not a theoretical concern at this point. We’ve seen it year after year in Chicago, and we're seeing it all over again in Sacramento. Calling him an “empty calories” scorer isn’t lazy discourse. It’s backed by outcomes.
The contract makes it worse. Trading for LaVine would lock the Bucks into his deal through 2027 at near-max money. That’s not a short-term gamble to win now. That’s a commitment through the latter years of Giannis Antetokounmpo's prime. And it’s a commitment to a core that, even in the best-case scenario, still doesn’t resemble a title contender.
What’s especially baffling is how un-modern this thinking is. The association in recent years has very palpably moved toward youth, flexibility, two-way wings, connective playmakers, and lineup optionality. The Bucks, meanwhile, keep gravitating toward name recognition and box-score appeal. LaVine certainly checks those boxes and then some with his scoring, but he does not solve Milwaukee’s real problems: pace, defense, lineup adaptability, and postseason scalability.
And if the goal is keeping Giannis Antetokounmpo bought in, this is the opposite of the move to make. Trading real assets for LaVine doesn’t signal ambition. It signals panic. It tells your superstar that the plan is to run back a slightly shinier version of the same flawed idea -- make difficult shots, score more, and defend later. All in the hope that the All-World talents of Giannis Antetokounmpo somehow cover the gaps.
At some point, repetition grows tiring. Being linked to Zach LaVine for multiple seasons on end just isn’t persistence. It’s stagnation that betrays a lack of imagination and adjustment on the part of the front office. And if this is the best idea the Bucks can come up with as the Giannis clock gets louder, the noise is only going to get louder from here.