Tracking the larger sentiments of Bucks fans week by week
After a week off for New Year’s (read: there was also an early game last Tuesday, so it fell by the wayside), we’re back with another Tuesday Tracker as the Bucks are trying to remove themselves from their recent skid. And with the trade deadline one month from yesterday, rumor SZN is off to a strong start, as Milwaukee is reportedly considering an entry into the Jimmy Butler sweepstakes. That’s exciting, right?
But as I outlined yesterday, there are very few avenues for the Bucks to complete a Butler trade, which would have to involve at least one additional team. Putting aside how difficult it would be to acquire Butler, I will register here my disapproval of trading for him, as unlikely as it is. Butler continues missing time with injuries: 22 games last year and 12 games this year. He’s long been a questionable teammate who has burned bridges in previous stops. Being older than both Damian Lillard (nearly a year) and Khris Middleton (two full years), he would make a team many chastise for being too old, even older. That’s enough for me to firmly say no, despite what he could bring them on the court.
Plus, would his superior defense and isolation scoring make up for the creation they’d lose if the outgoing piece is Damian Lillard? I doubt that. While an outgoing package of Middleton, Bobby Portis, Pat Connaughton, and a minimum salary may indeed represent an upgrade on the wing, the Bucks would then be in a very tough position, needing to fill two roster spots while being hard-capped. In that situation, they’d have just $2–3m to work with and two weeks to get to the 14-man minimum. Promoting Ryan Rollins to a standard deal would be a cap hit of over $1m at this point, and they’d need to add a big man with the remainder, not to mention replace Portis’ scoring. That’s all going to be very tough.
As always, this poll will be open until midnight Central on Friday, and we’ll post the results later that day. Thanks for voting!