By Adam Roberts – 11/17/2020
We’ve known since the bubble season ended for Milwaukee that Giannis was going to need to see some movement by the front office before he would consider signing the super-max. Needless to say, GM Jon Horst and team ownership heard that message.
After missing out on Chris Paul, the Bucks made a couple of moves to bolster the starting lineup for next year. They include trading Eric Bledsoe, George Hill, and 3 future 1st-round draft picks to the New Orleans Pelicans for Jrue Holiday and trading Donte Divincenzo, Ersan Ilyasova, and DJ Wilson to the Sacramento Kings for Bogdan Bogdanovich and Justin James.
Looking at the numbers, Holiday is a slight improvement shooting threes over Bledsoe, and he also averaged 19.5 points per game in 61 games played in 2019-20. Bogdanovich meanwhile is on the up and up, with career-highs in points per game and rebounds per game. He’s a career 43% shooter and shot 37% from 3 last year.
With these moves, the Bucks’ starting five is now Giannis, Khris Middleton, Holiday, Bogdanovich, and Brook Lopez. Losing George Hill will sting a bit due to his outside shooting presence, but acquiring Holiday is a net positive for the organization. Some people might raise an eyebrow at giving up three future firsts, but if the team is now built to win for the next few years, those picks likely won’t be very high up in the draft order.
Giannis now has until December 21st to mull over whether or not he will sign the super-max, which is one day before the targeted start of the 2020-21 NBA season.