Photo Credit: Erik Drost (Flickr CC)
A lot of things can happen over the course of a long NBA season, but if you make the right moves and stay the course, success can follow. The Milwaukee Bucks have surprisingly made the necessary choices to become a real contender in the Eastern Conference. It certainly helps when you have a continually rising superstar in Giannis Antetokounmpo, who just turned 24 last week, to build around. Giannis certainly gets a lot of the credit for the Bucks’ 18-8 start this season, and deservedly so, but how about the job second year general manager Jon Horst has done in such a short time.
In less than a year, Horst fired head coach Jason Kidd, took a risk in acquiring disgruntled point guard Eric Bledsoe for a first round pick and let former number two overall pick Jabari Parker walk in free agency for literally nothing in return. It sounds crazy, but it’s all starting to come full circle.
Horst got the coach he wanted in Mike Budenholzer, signed role players that fit with the Greek Freak and just over the weekend was able to unload two ugly contracts in Matthew Dellavedova and John Henson…at the same time! Not only was he able to shed some much-needed salary moving forward, but he also upgraded his team in the process by getting veteran point guard George Hill in return. Sure, he had to surrender another first round pick to do so, but freeing up $18 million in cap space for next season is certainly worth the price and then some. Especially when you consider the pick is more than likely to be outside the lottery.
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Getting a guy like George Hill certainly presents more value for this season than what Matthew Dellavedova was giving them. Delly, who is currently in the third year of a four-year contract worth nearly $40 million, had fallen out of the rotation and was clearly not in the team’s future plans. Hill can provide stability and insurance in the backup point guard role, which should give the Bucks plenty of options moving forward. His high IQ, along with outside shooting and unselfish style of play, should transition well into Bud’s system. The kicker of this whole deal is that despite having another year left on his deal, the Bucks could release Hill before July 1, 2019 to only be on the hook for $1 million of the $19 million he is set to be owed. It appears more than likely that this is going to be a rest of the year rental for the 32-year-old guard who is a career 38% shooter from downtown.
Not going to lie, losing a guy like Henson gives me mixed feelings. Henson has never fully lived up to his potential as a lottery pick, but he has had his moments, especially during the playoffs believe it or not. Even going into this season, he knew his job was in jeopardy if he didn’t develop an outside shot and become more active on the defensive end. I give him credit for making an effort, as he was hitting threes at a 36% clip in 14 games after shooting a combined 1-13 from deep in his first six seasons. But with injuries keeping him in and out of the lineup the last couple seasons, along with his $12 million a year salary, it made sense to move on. As much as Henson failed to live up to expectations, he wasn’t a bad front court option off the bench in relief of Brook Lopez and Ersan Ilyasova. It will be up to Thon Maker and veteran Jason Smith, who was acquired from the Washington Wizards in the same three-team trade that brought Hill to the Bucks, to now hold that void moving forward.
Bottom Line
Winning in the NBA is never a given, and doing it consistently is even harder. The Bucks are still figuring out ways to win, but have found a formula that’s worked in their favor. After a 7-0 start, they’ve played relatively .500 basketball, going 11-8 including 8-4 in the last three weeks. In their eight losses this season, they’ve only lost by double digits twice, including a 10-point home loss to the Warriors last Friday. It was a game where they had one of their worst shooting nights going just 7-39 from three. Considering they kept themselves in the game says a lot about who they are as a group. They rebounded with an impressive road win over the 21-7 Raptors on Sunday night, giving them an important 2-0 series lead over the current top team in the Eastern Conference. They followed that with a double-digit win at home over the Cavs without Giannis, who was resting with a sore neck.
The Bucks have had a couple bad losses to teams like the Knicks and Suns in overtime, but haven’t let that bother them. Although six of their next nine games come on the road, Milwaukee still has a great opportunity to continue to stack wins against inferior opponents. Don’t sleep on the addition of Hill, who could turn out to be extremely underrated and the perfect veteran to lead the second unit moving forward.
