Update 11/21: While George Hill and Bledsoe are still leaving in exchange for Jrue Holiday (despite the fact that the deal has slightly changed otherwise), the Bogdan Bogdanović sign and trade is in serious jeopardy if not altogether dead.
I don’t know how to feel.
Eric Bledsoe, my wife’s favorite player, is gone. But we had months to prepare for that, since everyone and their mom knew it was coming.
It goes so much further than that, though. George Hill, Bledsoe’s backup, is gone. Ersan Ilyasova, eternal Buck, is gone (though he’ll surely come back yet again in a few years to take a few more charges and break a few more noses (mostly his)). Donte DiVincenzo, ever-hyped “potential” player and Great White Hope, is gone. D.J. Wilson, who showed flashes of brilliance before being apparently altogether forgotten by Coach Bud last year, is gone. Three first-round draft picks are gone (but I don’t watch college basketball, so I can only pretend to be so upset about that).
What’s left? Well, sure, we still got Giannis Antetokounmpo, who in all likelihood directly asked for these trades and will accordingly be re-signing. Sure, we got Khris Middleton, who was 16th in VORP and 12th in Win Shares/48 minutes last year, yet still spends most of his time getting yelled at by people online. And yes, we have the newly-acquired Jrue Holiday and Bogdan Bogdanović, who will both certainly bring balance to the offense, while Brook Lopez will still anchor the starting lineup at center. Not a bad starting lineup, and one that does seem objectively more well-suited to a deep playoff run than the ones which faltered the last two seasons. And yes, the Bucks do have a ton of cap space now, so for all I know they could be bringing in some additional exciting new players very shortly.
Maybe it’s the uncertainty that has me feeling uneasy. After accounting for the aforementioned starting lineup and all the players that have been traded, only Kyle Korver, Wesley Matthews, Robin Lopez, Pat Connaughton, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Frank Mason, and Cameron Reynolds are left, but none of them have signed contracts for this upcoming season; Robin Lopez and Wesley Matthews have both already declined their player options. Sure, any of these players could (and a few surely will) end up re-signing, but some could just as easily be playing for different teams next year. So where does that leave the Bucks?
I don’t know! Let’s say the starting lineup is a definite upgrade. Well, as of now, the bench is almost completely depleted. Sure, the Bucks’ much-hyped depth didn’t end up helping much at the end of the last two seasons (and may have even contributed to Coach Bud’s reluctance to play his best players), but it doesn’t feel good to say goodbye to so much of the Bench Mob; however, I must note again that the roster is far from finalized, and as of now they have at least three spots to fill. Yes, Jrue Holiday is better suited for the Bucks’ offense than Bledsoe was, but I think people are also forgetting that Bledsoe was First Team All Defense just two years ago, so Holiday’s defense can only be so much of an upgrade. Will it end up having been worth giving up both Bledsoe and his backup? Only time will tell.
Luckily, though, we won’t have to wait that long. Yes, it will take months to see whether this team can have as strong a regular season as the last two teams, and yes, it will take even longer to see whether they can eclipse the playoff success of those two teams. But these moves are only somewhat about the playoffs. More than anything, they’re about Giannis. Like I said earlier, it’s very possible that Giannis dictated these moves in exchange for his signing the supermax. If so, we will see Giannis re-sign very soon, and Bucks fans everywhere will be able to fully exhale for the first time in about two dozen months. And if he doesn’t re-sign basically the moment he can (once free agency opens up this Friday), well, it’ll definitely be an interesting season for the Milwaukee Bucks.