The Milwaukee Bucks have done a solid job of upgrading their backcourt this summer.
With the additions of Delon Wright and Gary Trent Jr. via free agency and AJ Johnson via the draft, the team has gotten younger, more athletic and more defensive-minded, which were some of the most glaring problems it had last season. Yet, if they want to lean a bit more toward that direction and keep adding similar players, there are some things they could do.
Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes has proposed a mock trade that could make that happen. The Chicago Bulls are in a weird spot where they seem to be willing to rebuild but are maybe a bit too good for that, so contenders could find there some pieces to strengthen their rosters with. Zach LaVine is the most discussed one, but Hughes has a different idea that we can break down next.
Analyzing the mock trade between the Bucks and Bulls
In this trade, the Bucks get Ayo Dosunmu, sending Pat Connaughton and a 2031 first-round swap in exchange. This way, Milwaukee would add a promising young player to the roster while moving away from a veteran who was already in trade talks before the trade deadline.
Being just 24 years old, Dosunmu is an interesting player that has probably caught some team's eyes, but it's unclear what the Bulls want to do with him.
He looked very good last season, but he's not the kind of player you'd build a team around, so Chicago might be looking to trade him and get some draft capital. Although not as glaring as recently traded Alex Caruso, he looks like the kind of player who's built to be a solid role player in a winning context, so if they're going into tanking mode, he might not fit at all.
He could be in a similar position as P.J. Washington was last year. Nobody in Charlotte thought Washington wasn't a good player; he just wasn't on a team where he could thrive as he did in Dallas, where he was assigned the 3-and-D role.
The Hornets saw he was a bit older than their current young core and his market value was probably at its highest, so they decided to trade him for a first-round pick they could use in the future. The question now is do the Bulls see Dosunmu in the same way?
We'll get to that later, though. First, let's start breaking down this mock trade by analyzing the point of view of both parties involved.
The Milwaukee Bucks' POV
As we've said, the Milwaukee Bucks have already added some valuable pieces to their roster. Do they need another one then? Well, they might.
First, there are remarkable differences between Dosunmu and the new players that make them fill different roles. Trent is more of a scorer, mainly a shooter, and Johson seems to be more of a classic guard, so Dosunmu wouldn't be replacing either of them. Also, Johnson is probably still too young to consistently play at an NBA level, so he may not even count as an actual backcourt addition.
Dosunmu could overlap a bit with Delon Wright, though. They can both fill the defensive combo guard role with some offensive contributions, so you could say he has nothing new to bring to the team. There are, however, some reasons to disagree with that.
First, some Wright overlapping is something the team might want. Wright has been a tad injury-prone in the last few years, playing just 50 and 47 games in the 22-23 and 23-24 seasons, respectively. If he misses a long stretch again, the team will struggle. Having Dosunmu makes that problem non-existent anymore, getting more depth at the backcourt without really losing it anywhere else.
More importantly, Dosunmu is just a better player at this point, so there's no reason not to get him because Wright is already there. He grew a lot last season, mainly on offense, while Wright hasn't looked his best. Maybe that's because he hasn't played for a clear-cut contender, and luckily, he will shine again this season, but Dosunmu is at a point in his career where his impact seems bigger.
Dosunmu scored 12.2 points a game last year despite not being nearly the main offensive reference. And that's huge because he wouldn't be close to that in Milwaukee either, so him still being able to contribute on offense with not that many touches is crucial.
His offense is aided by his improved shooting, which makes him a somewhat versatile player who can drive to the rim and also score from behind the line. He shot a career-high 40.3 percent from three last season (40.6 percent on catch and shoot), which makes his case for being a good fit for the team much stronger.
We also need to address what the Milwaukee Bucks would be giving in exchange, which doesn't feel like a lot. Pat Connaughton has just played arguably his worst season since he got to the team, and even if he bounces back, there aren't a lot of things he does better than Dosunmu (maybe just rebounding). The 2031 pick swap doesn't look like such a high price either, although it could be if the front office has blown up the team at that point and is trying to rebuild.
That risk is probably worth taking, though. The best way to ensure you still have a solid project seven years from now is to get promising young players who can keep the team alive when the current superstars age. Dosunmu can make that happen.
Grade for Bucks: A
The Chicago Bulls' POV
Grading this trade from a Bulls' perspective is much harder. We know what the Milwaukee Bucks want this season, which is anything that will help them win a championship. What is Chicago looking for? There's no clear answer for that at this point.
If this trade is happening, we may be able to assume a few things, the main one being the Bulls are tanking big time. Not only because they would be getting worse but because they would be implying that a player who's currently 24 years old doesn't fit their timeline. And if that's the case, it's because they aren't trying to grow yet.
Chicago has just drafted Matas Buzelis, a promising yet uncertain young prospect whose stock has lost some value over the last year. He looked like a potential first pick a year ago but ended up falling to pick 11 because teams were skeptical about his development. So, even if the Chicago Bulls have bet on him, they probably don't think this is a sure bet.
The 2025 Draft does look like a sure bet, though. While scouting reports talked about the 2024 Draft as one of the worst in recent history, next year's seems to be stacked, and Chicago will only keep its first-round pick if it's 10 or lower. They might have no other choice than to throw the season away, become one of the worst teams in the league and be in a good spot to pick a great talent who can grow next to Buzelis. This trade would move them in that direction.
Chicago has, in fact, already leaned towards that position with the DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso trades, so it would make sense for them to go all-in with it. They are already exploring Zach LaVine's market. Could they do the same with Dosunmu?
Even if they do, we need to address the Bucks' offer, which might not be a needle-moving one. With Connaughton mainly as a salary filler, Chicago would trade Dosunmu basically for the 2031 pick-swap. Is that the best they can get?
It depends, again, on what they're looking for. If they want to get more 2025 picks because this is a promising draft, this offer gives them nothing. And they could want that. They can already have the Blazers' first-round pick, but that's only the case if it's 15th or further, so they won't likely be using it next year, meaning if they want more tickets for the lottery, they still need to get them.
The Milwaukee Bucks' pick-swap would go a completely different way, betting on the Bucks to not be very good by 2031, which could actually happen. Damian Lillard and Khris Middleton will be 41 and 40 years old by then, so they could not be in the league. Giannis will be 37, meaning we could expect him not to be the best player in the world tier anymore.
We have seen some teams manage to renew their projects and extend their window when their superstars age, but that's no simple task, so the Bucks might find themselves as one of the worst teams in the league by that point. And in that case, the swap suddenly becomes way more valuable.
Some could argue this is too late for the Bulls to get a pick like that, because, since they're trying to rebuild now, they're likely to be in a strong position by 2031, where they'll want immediate impact players rather than young draft prospects. And that's probably true, but let's not underestimate the value of a good draft pick. It could serve as a trade asset that can get them a valuable player, or, if the rebuild doesn't go as well as they'd like, it could help add more young stars.
That said, it's probably still a weird move right now. Dosunmu is as old as Coby White, so there's no reason to not consider him part of the young core, and it just seems that LaVine is the player to trade if they just want to get bad. The pick-swap is a tempting one, though, so there is something to this trade. But it might not be the kind of draft capital Chicago wants right now.
Grade for Bulls: C+
Grade the trade: The verdict
This one isn't easy to grade since the 2031 pick means everything we can say now is uncertain because the trade could age poorly in both ways. If the Bucks find a way to still be good by that time (or if Chicago doesn't improve as much), the Bulls will have undersold Dosunmu. Yet, if Milwaukee is trying to rebuild by then (or if Dosunmu's impact isn't that great), it might be too high of a price.
You can see a purpose here, which you can't say about every trade that's made. Both teams would be pushing the rosters in a way that makes sense for them given their current situation, but we need to ask ourselves if this is the best way to do that. And the answer is probably not the same for both.
It kind of feels like a big risk, big reward trade for both sides. It just feels better for the Bucks because there are not many ways they can get a player like Dosunmu right now, while the Bulls can sure find other ways to get draft picks to rebuild the team.
Dosunmu's market value is probably at its highest after his great 23-24 season. If that's the case, is Pat Connaughton and that pick swap the best they can get? We don't have an answer for that. Not yet. The shorter the lifespan of the Milwaukee Bucks project, the better this move gets for Chicago. So now, we'd be better off playing it safe and not overreacting.
Overall grade: B
Stay tuned for more Milwaukee Bucks breakdowns and rumors.