3 Recent trades that should have worked out better for the Bucks

The Nikola Mirotic trade

In 2018-19, the Milwaukee Bucks burst onto the scene as contenders. Giannis Antetokounmpo, who would soon win his first MVP, led the Bucks to the best record in the NBA as they plowed through the opposition in the regular season, looking like a true title contender. At the trade deadline, they beefed up their roster even further with the acquisition of Nikola Mirotic.

In the deal, the Bucks traded Thon Maker, who had already requested a trade, to the Detroit Pistons, along with Jason Smith and four second-round picks to the Pelicans. At the time, this looked like a homerun trade for the Bucks, given that Maker and Smith were not key members of the rotation and that they didn't have to give up any first-round draft capital to get Mirotic.

At the time, Mirotic was playing the best basketball of his entire career in New Orleans, averaging 16.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.1 assists while knocking down 36.8 percent of his triples on 7.2 attempts per game. Shooting, scoring and rebounding like that had all of the potential to put the Milwaukee Bucks over the top. Of course, things didn't turn out that way.

Mirotic's production nose-dived in the postseason, where he averaged 9.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 0.7 assists while shooting 37.6 percent from the floor and a grueling 28.9 percent from 3-point land. His shooting was flat-out abysmal, going 10-of-32 (31.3 percent) on his "open" 3-point attempts and 8-of-29 (27.6 percent) on "wide-open" ones, Per NBA.com/stats. His fall-off made no sense.

A trade that had the potential to be the P.J. Tucker deal before the P.J. Tucker deal in terms of impact turned into a massive swing and a miss. Still, given how well he was playing before the trade, no one can fault the Milwaukee Bucks for bringing him in.

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