The Milwaukee Bucks finally made a move on the trade deadline date.
According to The Athletic's Shams Charania, Milwaukee is acquiring Patrick Beverley from the Philadelphia 76ers and sending Cameron Payne and a 2027 second-round pick in exchange, getting a much-needed perimeter defender to try to boost their chances of winning another ring.
This feels exactly the kind of move the team needed, but it feels shocking because Beverley never seemed to be in the mix with all the other names that were rumored. He's been a solid part of the 76ers' rotation, and nobody expected them to get rid of him, but general manager John Horst saw an opportunity and went for it.
Now the question is: how much does this move improve Bucks' ceiling?
What the Milwaukee Bucks got in the Patrick Beverley trade
Beverley has always been a defensive-minded guy and a very aggressive one indeed. He's the kind of player you never want to play against because he can be very uncomfortable to match, getting pretty close to his man either on-ball or off-ball, having quick hands, and never giving a breath. He's also very vocal, always trying to pump up his team and disrupt his opponent in every possible way. The 'love him as a teammate, hate him as an opponent' kind of player.
We were able to see his impact last year when he was traded to the Bulls mid-season and really raised their defensive ceiling. According to NBA.com, Chicago became the best defense in the league after the trade, getting from a 112 defensive rating to a 110.1 and becoming a play-in team that was pretty close to beating the Miami Heat, who ended up going to the NBA Finals.
He's probably not going to have that big of an impact this year since the Bucks' defense is worse than the Bulls', and he's likely having a lesser role. But, even if, at 35 years old, he's passed his prime, he has proved to be a reliable defender, something he's done this year with the 76ers, too.
A part of his game that doesn't feel that reliable now is his 3-point shooting, where he's having the worst season of his career, hitting just 32.1 percent of his tries. However, he's also shooting fewer threes than he's ever done, so maybe in a well-spaced offense, he can have better numbers and become a player you can't just let wide open.
Something worth noting is that he's played for Doc Rivers before, so we can assume he'll be able to maximize his impact on the court. They were together on the Clippers from 2017 to 2020, and Beverley was always a key part of the rotation, so this doesn't look like a bold choice, and it's probably a player that Rivers is fine with to try to improve the defense performance.
It would be interesting to see how big of a role he can have, though. Being 6-foot-2, he's not likely to share a lot of minutes with Damian Lillard, which can be a problem in playoffs due to the rotations getting shorter and Lillard being on the court most of the time. We've seen Beverley match bigger players. He even got to defend Kevin Durant during the 2019 playoffs, but this feels like a different environment, so we'll have to wait and see how he fits.
What the Milwaukee Bucks traded away in the Patrick Beverley deal
It really doesn't seem the Bucks are giving a lot in exchange for Beverley, which is something that makes this trade feel a bit better. The 2027 second-round pick is a pretty cheap asset, so Cameron Payne is basically what Milwaukee is sending away. It's important that the Bucks kept their 2024 second-round pick over this one, as it is projected to have more value.
Payne has had good games, but he wasn't what the team needed in its backup point guard. He seemed to fit better when Jrue Holiday was on the roster, but when the Lillard trade happened, the backcourt lacked a defensive effort he just couldn't provide, making him probably the least essential player from the rotation.
Payne's performance has mostly relied on his shooting, where he's had his ups and downs. Shooting 39.7 percent from three, Malik Beasley and AJ Green are the only players on the team who were shooting better than him, but he was far from being the kind of player you would rely on when playoff time came. Maybe he wasn't even going to play most playoff games, so it doesn't feel the Bucks are losing that much.
Milwaukee says goodbye to Payne after a short stint. He got to the team as a free agent a few weeks before the regular season started and got traded after 47 games in the Bucks jersey. He averaged 6.2 points and 2.3 assists per game in these games.
The grade for the Milwaukee Bucks trade for Patrick Beverley
This is a trade nobody would go crazy for, but it feels solid. Beverley's impact on the court doesn't go unnoticed, and the Bucks really needed what he could bring, so it feels like a good move to make. Given the lack of defense on the roster, Beverley over Payne is close to a no-brainer, and the Bucks went for it.
All five Bucks' starters have a better defensive rating than all of the usual bench players this season, which has been a huge problem. But Beverley can do his part to try and make sure that's not the case anymore, which is a step in the right direction. He will not change things entirely, but he could certainly help this second unit to some degree.
It would also be interesting to see how he can impact a young player like Andre Jackson Jr., who feels somewhat like a taller Beverley in the making. He's an aggressive defender with a reliable 3-point shot who can grow next to a veteran like him, which is also a nice touch.
But it's fair to say that this trade doesn't feel like a game-changer. And since it's the only move the Bucks have made now that the market is closed, it's hard to be very high on it. That doesn't mean it's good by any means. It's not that the trade lacks something as much as that it seems that the team lacks something. But as an individual trade, it is solid enough.
BTBP Final Grade: B-
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