Did the Bucks Do Enough To Make Themselves Favourites In The East?

This image is a derivative of Milwaukee Bucks by Michael Tipton (CC BY-SA 2.0)

In trading for Jrue Holiday, the Bucks have done away with any pretence of a slow-build, removing any possibility for an alternate path that's anything other than disaster.

As far as such moves go – the “panicked acquisition to convince a superstar player to stay” move – it's an improvement from the last one, when Cleveland tried to convince LeBron James to stick around by trading for Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance, Rodney Hood and George Hill. And the time before that, when Cleveland tried to convince LeBron to stick around by trading for a washed up Antawn Jamison.

The Bucks have mortgaged their future for Holiday, giving up two first-round picks and the swap rights to two more. 

Holiday is on the outskirts of All-NBA calibre and has fetched a package in the same universe as those sent for Paul George and Anthony Davis. Holiday isn't that level of player, but he might as well be if his arrival seals Giannis Antetokounmpo sticking around.

RELATED: Inside Milwaukee's massive post-season meltdown

Through the trade, Bucks will lose nothing on defence, despite losing one of the league's best defenders in Eric Bledsoe. Holiday is just as good on that end and comes with so much less angst on offence. 

Where Bledsoe was painfully reluctant and rigid, and prone to nightmares of decisions, Holiday is smooth and decisive, a much better pick and roll player and passer, who slithers around the half-court, getting to the hoop with slick hesitations and pace and size. He is not a lights out shooter, but when the ball comes to him and he's open, he will not resemble a tortured character in a Russian novel like Bledsoe did each year in the playoffs.

Simply through the lens of replacing Bledsoe and George Hill with Holiday, the Bucks are better on the court this season. The problem is everything else that has happened outside of Holiday.

The Bogdan Bogdanovic acquisition then non-acquisition is a debacle that might have ripple effects around the league for years, if it contributes to Giannis eventually going elsewhere. Bogdanovic would have been perfect for Milwaukee – a welcome brand of something different. He’s a wonderfully fluid, knockdown, quick-trigger shooter who also has excellent vision and can run pick and rolls. He feels the game and passes incisively.

The defining image of everything going wrong for the Bucks has been Giannis driving into a wall of defenders and kicking out to the perimeter, where a hesitant shooter who couldn't really dribble would make the reluctant choice to either shoot or dribble.

Adding both Holiday and Bogdanovic would have ruined that image. They’re both capable shooters and creators from the perimeter. Paired with Khris Middleton, the team would have had three capable playmakers around Giannis – the floor would have felt so much larger and full of more angles and possibilities.

Instead, the Bucks had to pivot and regroup, and they did so with an uninspiring cobbling together of Bobby Portis, D.J. Augustin, Torrey Craig and Pat Connaughton. This crew is plagued by weaknesses that can’t be run away from him in the playoffs. 

Portis and Augustin can’t defend and Craig can’t shoot. Connaughton doesn’t move the needle. By missing out on Bogdanovic and going down Path #2, the Bucks will perhaps be better in the regular season with more competent depth and scoring, but their ceiling for a championship is lower now. Donte DiVencenzo is the most important piece for the Bucks in this non-Bogdanovic reality – having initially been a part of the trade to Sacramento. DiVencenzo’s ability to reliably hit threes in the post-season will do much to determine how far Milwaukee can go.

A starting five of Holiday, Bogdanovic, Middleton, Giannis and Brook Lopez would have been basketball's best lineup since Kevin Durant was on the Warriors. There would have been no depth, but if you have those five players, you have the luxury of figuring everything out later. Now everything is a little strangled and uneasy. The Bucks have no clear best closing line-up to get to without question marks. Putting DiVencenzo or Craig in Bogdanovic’s place cramps the floor. Putting Augustin there gives teams a defensive bullseye to attack.

RELATED: What Can Be Learned From The Lakers Championship?

The Bucks still got Holiday, and more to the point, they still have Giannis. Most importantly, other contenders in the East took a step back. Boston lost Gordon Hayward and Toronto lost its front-court. With or without James Harden, the Nets will be a work-in-progress with tantalising disaster potential. The Sixers are a piece away, and the Heat, though they can do it, will be hard-pressed to repeat last season’s improbable run.

All of this makes Milwaukee the favourite in the East, but they’re not nearly as ominous as they briefly looked like being last week. 

The Bucks will go as far as Giannis can take them. 

The past two seasons have ended dismally for him. Both times he’s been made to look depressingly mortal and able to be schemed out of dominance. There is the sneaking thought that he needs another superstar next to him – an elite playmaker who can shoot.

He still doesn’t have that. The gap between him and Middleton (or Holiday) is bigger than any gap between the two best players on any contender. 

Perhaps this is the perfect situation for Giannis? To go join Luka Doncic in Dallas to chase a ring would devalue Giannis in some way. It’s better, and much cleaner, if he wins it on an imperfect team like these Bucks.

He is still 25 years old. A two-time MVP, defensive player of the year, and maybe the most improbable athlete in NBA history. The road to a championship looked suddenly very clear but now is veering a little wildly – Giannis’s talents will need to get his team back on track.

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