Buyers or Desperate? The Bucks’ Tough Choices at the Trade Deadline and Giannis’ Future

Buyers or Desperate? The Bucks’ Tough Choices at the Trade Deadline and Giannis’ Future

The latest report suggests the Bucks are buyers at the trade deadline and leading up to it. The ripple effects that could cause. Camille and I dig into it coming up next on today's Locked on Bucks. You are Locked on Bucks, your daily Milwaukee Bucks podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome into Lockdown Bucks. My name is Justin Garcia, joined as always by Camille Davis. We thank you for making this your first listen of the day each and every day. Today's episode of Locked on Bucks brought to you by FanDuel if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season. Visit fanuel.com and place your NFL bets all season long. Uh we thank all of you for tuning in whether it's the first time every single day that you've been here with us this season. And I know it's it's been a challenge at times, but uh for your assistance in making the Lockdown Podcast Network the number one sports podcasting network in the industry. And as always, you can hear Camille weekly on our Locked On NBA coverage and the Technical File podcast as well. You can uh hear me on the Bucks Radio Network each and every game. I know this is um a lot of the feedback we've heard this season, Camille, is people are kind of sick of the trade discussions and the um the soap opera that's become Giannis's trade rumors, right? Um I think we're all fatigued by it as well. But days like today are are where you kind of say, "Look, I'm sorry, but there's nothing else for us to to get to dig into here." We did the postgame last night after a 45point loss to the um the Brooklyn Nets. Um we can pick apart, hey, what went wrong? What went wrong and what's continued to go wrong in a 45point loss in the season that seen you go 11 and 16 are things we have discussed every single day. We are going to do some more of that tomorrow. Uh, and I believe we're going to have Frank joining us with just a highle view of these first 27 games and whether or not we need to kind of reset expectations and level set where this team is headed and what that does for digging into do this differently and so on. But we did have a bit of an update on those rumors in uh yesterday's piece that posted to the athletic by our friend Eric Name who uh said which you know at this point Camille I don't know if it would be received as good news or bad news by Bucks fans that his intel and and his sourcing is telling him this team is looking to make another aggressive move to convince Giannis to stay. Um, we have certainly heard some names linked to this team already this season. We can dig into those and why it it I I wouldn't dismiss things that have carried a lot of smoke, but financially it may not be feasible or realistic. But when you saw the report that uh hey at this point they're leaning towards being buyers and making another aggressive move and that last line to convince him to stay. What did you make of that? >> I had a few reactions to it immediately. The first one was like okay that's business as normal. Like that is what the Bucks have been doing for years now. It is like we want to make sure that we can put together a team that makes a lot of sense to us on the floor that can compete and ultimately makes Giannis happy and makes him want to stay and feel like he can compete for championships here in Milwaukee. Like you don't have to go anywhere else for your help, Giannis. We're going to bring it to you. That's how the Bucks have been operating. I'm like, okay, that makes some sense. I'm not necessarily surprised that that's the approach for the Bucks heading into the trade deadline. But what I will say is that what made me keep thinking about was like with all the smoke uh that we've been having around if Giannis wants to be in Milwaukee, uh if his representatives are talking and according to Chris Haynes, Giannis is saying like I don't even have control over what my representatives are saying. Like it is just what it is. Like they're on their own, which I guess that's another conversation for another day. But if that is all that is going on, right, and we are unsure Giannis wants to stay, I am not as inclined or excited about the prospects of the Bucks utilizing additional draft capital um and making what could be seen as a desperation move to try to convince him to stay. Uh the move would have to make sense not only for this season, but the next few, I would think. Um, and I don't think that the Bucks should do something as like a lastditch Hail Mary of like we're going to mortgage our future and he might not be here. Like if you're going to make one of those swings that is seen as future compromising to a degree, uh, I would I would assume and hope that if they make that type of move that Giannis has indicated like, hey, you guys, you know what? Actually, all this smoke that you've been hearing, all this stuff, that ain't real. I'm going to be here. I'm staying here because otherwise I I'm just not as excited or interested in continuing to mortgage the future uh for somebody who might not be here for that future. >> Yeah. And I mean mortgaging the future um >> what's left of our future. >> It's it's more doable in the summer than it is now. Like on draft night they can trade three first round picks. Again, whether or not those should be on the table is a different conversation we may get to today, but you can get more um out of that over the summer when three picks the day of the draft become available for you to send out. Right now, it's just one pick that you can trade out and that's the 2031 pick. Um at this point, you're in position to have a a a decent pick in the first round this year. Like I think every simulator so far has the Bucks drafting se or drafting 12th which you know right now you're on the outside looking in missing the lottery uh missing the playoffs I should say and that's going to continue to be an interesting thing to monitor because we're still I would guess two weeks away from Giannis making his return that we said you're going to have to tread water. They haven't and we said you're going to have to ideally go seven and four in this stretch. They're not on their way towards that. when you lose games like you lose to the Brooklyn Nets and in the fashion that you lose to that Nets team. Like again, it's too early, and this is where I may contradict myself a bit. It's too early in the season to call anything a must-win game. And and quite frankly, I I hate using that term for anything that isn't the playoffs or late season possible elimination. But the games that you have left going back to Sunday, the games you have left on the the the schedule against the Brooklyn Nets, the Washington Wizards, the Hornets, the Indiana Pacers, the Pelicans, we're approaching the same territory with the Kings and the Clippers, too. Like those honestly with the hole you have put yourself in, those have to be non-negotiables. We need to win these games. We're gonna have to beat the really bad teams in the league. understanding full well you are now one of those teams. You're going to have to beat those teams and you're going to have to steal wins from teams that are in front of you in the standings. And just to go back and clean something up, they're 10th because the Bulls are in this constant hold my beer off with them and and lost as well. So, you're effectively tied with the Bulls in the standings. You have a better win percentage, but you have more losses. And that's going to be a larger conversation we get into um in a segment or two down the road here, Camille. But yeah, I just I didn't know what to make of it when I saw they're going to remain aggressive because it has and it can carry the have a baby to save the marriage vibes in that. >> Okay, well, somebody's going to have to take care of this kid if things go south here that we're we're responsible for this. And that's what you're looking at with these next couple of years of making a potential move. So, we mentioned what it is that the Bucks could trade over the summer versus what they could trade right now, the outlook of the contracts that are out there and more of the message that's being delivered from the organization to Giannis and vice versa. We'll get into that coming up next. NFL Sunday, move fast. One big play and suddenly everything feels different. That's what makes live betting with FanDuel so exciting. 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Join the Everyday Club. Get locked on Bucks with no interruptions. Members only Discord access and more. All for just $5 a month, $50 a year. The uh URL to do so is pasted in our show description. the uh the assets >> that this team has. So again, just one draft pick is available to trade right now. I forget where it was. I saw somebody else mentioning like, yeah, honestly, just look at smaller move and like send out second round picks for rotational pieces that'll help this team. If you know where those second round picks are located, I'm all ears on that and and I'm open to that move. But here's the other challenge. um right now and and we talked about the importance of maybe breaking up the contracts on the roster a bit and not just being so topheavy with um you know your max deals in Giannis and Dame and and higher value deals and Chris and Brook Lopez and then just all minimums. Good news and bad news is the Bucks still have a lot of those lesser value deals moneywise in minimum contracts, but they're still incredibly topheavy. Uh you got Giannis making 54 plus million dollars this season. Then you have Miles Turner at 25.3 million. Uh B Kyle Kosma at just over 22 million. You have Damen Lillard's money. That's not a player, but that's another salary slot basically that's being used. And then 13 million for Bobby Porter. After that, there's nobody making more than $5 million, which is Kevin Porter Jr. Now again, the good news is you would assume uh that breakdown of contracts is going to change next year when Kevin Porter Jr's annual salary I would assume starts with a one. Um but that's the other challenge to all of this is yeah, you're still pretty topheavy because you got 20 plus million dollars tied into Damen Lillard that otherwise would have been a player in like a mid-level caliber contract. That's just dead money. So, it's you you swap that out for a minimum basically is the way to view it. So, um I hate getting into players specifically for obvious reasons. There's two things I hate doing. I'll let you do it as much as you want, Camille. Individual players with trades and all that that chatter of trade for this guy and trade this guy out. Uh which I would assume people can understand how it puts me in a difficult spot. And the coaching criticism, which again, you're free to do it. We've seen the comments. I can't disagree with a lot of what I've seen, but that's as far as I'll go. Um, the Kings are a team that's come up the most. So, here's why. I I I just don't know what this Hail Mary play is for the Bucks. I'm not saying there isn't one because we've seen John Horst do some things in the past we didn't think were doable. There's been a lot of smoke. Just as we said, there's been a lot of smoke around this Giannis stuff, so we at least can't dismiss it. You would have to apply the same logic to some of these trade rumors. For a guy like Demar D Rozan or Zack Lavine that we continue to see pop up. I didn't have to look Camille. I could see you roll your eyes when you when you heard the name Zack Lavine. And I'm sure a lot of listeners are thinking the same thing. I don't think it's a feasible deal because number one, it's just if you're doing it in season, a 2031 first round pick that you could trade. Whether or not he's worth more than that at this point in his career is he's uh basically the same age as Giannis Bobby Portoris, you know, he's not a player that should be fetching multiple firsts or arguably any first round picks. Why the Kings would do this is if they could get multiple picks. So, there's that. How the Bucks would get there. Uh you don't have many first rounders to offer. You just have the one. So, you can't say, "Well, we're not going to give you great value players or assets. we'll just bull you over with draft picks. They don't have that. And then getting to the 47 plus million dollars to put this deal together is we just went through the Bucks roster. It's almost impossible unless you really reverse course here. So everybody pointed to well Kyle Koozma and Bobby Portoris and you throw that in there and you throw a first round pick to the Kings for Kyle Kosma. That's $35.5 million. I believe that falls just outside of the range of the what 120% that you could bring back more so than what you send out. So that deal wouldn't work to have Kyle and Bobby go into Sacramento for um Zack Lavine. So you'd have to throw in a third guy. Then you're looking at okay well then we're doing a three for one trade. How is this really fitting us when we're going to have to add something else out there? It's not a financial constraint in terms of the aprons or cap that the Bucks would be facing, but still. All right, now we got to add another guy. Well, look at the Kings roster. Maybe you could add someone else maybe. But it would have to be, you know, like a Maxine Rayod or something like that or Isaac Jones to make the money work for everybody to point to, well, Keon Ellis. >> You know what? Um, I'm not going to argue with Keon Ellis, the player. What I would say is, have we not seen for 27 games, this team has kind of already cornered the market on players on the perimeter that are 6'4, 6'5? Now you're adding another one to the mix. Sure, he's a better individual defender than than the guys that you have. >> Um, but how exactly does that help turning this around? How does that fix your rebounding? How does that fix everything else? Is is Keon Ellis and Zack Lavine the pieces that you would say don't do anything yet Giannis hang on we got something okay here it is these two guys that's our new big three that's what's getting there >> I think the point that you just made is is where I normally start and Keon Ellis is somebody who I've like hey if Bucks get Keon Ellis that would be cool it's just that when you look at the current roster construction and ultimately all those things can change like if the Bucks decide to consolidate their 6-4 guards and they're like, "Actually, you know what? We're going to try to move off of one of these guys and we want Keon to be in here instead." That's a different conversation. But I keep looking at what the Bucks need. And I know it's like, hey, like Zack Lavine, the offense, you've seen how poor the offense has looked without Giannis on the court. But I'm also kind of like, well, this was a team designed around Giannis. If there is no Giannis, it's not going to make sense. And because of that, I view a trade for somebody like a Zack Lavine or even a Demar De Rozan who's a little bit taller. But those scream to me like this is a desperation move. This is like a hey, here is a name, you know, a career you can respect. Let's bring him over here because we know what he has been and what he can do. Buckets, which is cool. And I'm not saying they're bad players. It's just that when you look at what this team is missing and where this team needs to improve, those two players and players of that ilk do not help with the problems that the Bucks have, they don't help with the defense. They don't help with the rebounding aspect of things here necessarily. So like Dear more so than Zack gives you some size on the wing, but it's not as if Dear D Rozan is known for being like a lockup guy either. So, for me, if you're going to make that type of swing for a player that has a name, uh, honestly, I think it probably have to be somebody whose name is still growing to a certain degree of like they're not exactly where we think that they are going to be in a few more years, but we see the potential because they fit into what we currently are looking for in a wing player, which is some positional size, which is someone who can defend, rebound, really be a star in that particular role. Because again, when Giannis is on the court and he comes back, the whole flow of that offense is going to change again. Like we've already seen Ryan Rollins trying to adjust to Kevin Porter Jr. being back in the lineup and finding his spots and the two of them developing their chemistry together. Both of them, Kevin and Ryan, are going to have to adjust again when Giannis hits the court because he's going to have the ball in his hands a bit more than, you know, what any other player on the team has so far with them sharing the court. So ultimately for me, if I see a trade for a Zack Lavine in particular, um that is one for me where say, man, this feels very desperate uh from the Bucks in my opinion. Um and not the type of target that they should be going after. >> Yeah. I mean, the other names that have and this isn't so much smoke surrounding the Bucks as much as it's Bucks fans, and I get why that are trying to create these uh these flames here. But the other names that you've heard quite a bit about are the New Orleans boys and Herbert Jones and um Trey Murphy. That's more the same too of like look I would I would love to have either one of those players. >> Yeah. and especially Trey Murphy. You look at the age, it's okay, if this is a two timelines thing. If we're going to sell Giannis, we're going to bring in Trey Murphy. Um, and we're going to start to build around those two, uh, Kevin Porter Jr., Ryan Rollins, and we'll have to reexamine what we're doing with some of our principles and the way this that we're playing. And I think that's undeniable that the how would we put the the the strategizing the the way that this team is played that has to be re-examined. If you're you're selling Giannis on we're going in we're making another move we have to change the way that we played because this quite frankly is not working. And I think you've got enough of a sample size leaving the last year and a half prior to this season out of it. the 27 games this season to show you >> the league has changed. >> Yeah. >> You cannot play the way that and it's not just Doc, but coaches that have been around as long as Doc has. You cannot play this way anymore. It's not as simple as, okay, we made the adjustment and we're just going to take more threes and we're going to hit those. And we champion that all through the summer and we overlook some other things, too. It's possessions are the most important part to the game. Your true shooting attempts, that's where the Bucks are routinely losing. So, you're gonna have to fix that. And, you know, one of the ways to do it if you're not going to have guys Doc has always always maintained the teams that can offensive rebound are teams that have guys that are good at offensive rebounding, the guys that can do it. I don't disagree with that as a whole. I think there's a lot of truth to it. I don't think it's entirely true. Um, you know, we're we're seeing other teams that take threes and get rebounds. the Boston Celtics. Who would have thought coming into the season, Boston looks like an offensive rebounding team to me? Mimi Kada seems like he's going to be one of the best at it in the league. So like, yeah, there are guys that have that inherent knack, but there are also guys that we can put them in a position to do this. And if you don't have guys that are going to create free throw attempts and juice your true shooting attempts there, you better limit those attempts from your opponent. And one way to do that is to number one be a better defensive rebounding team and then a way to to enhance yours is to get more offensive rebounds that I I I do really wonder. We've heard about and I don't even wonder Camille. I think it's a foregone conclusion. We heard pace coming into the season. Everybody's going to play at a faster pace. Miami did that. It felt very much like a gimmick and it's starting to seem like they're starting to take on water on that boat now. The big thing you are going to see next year, and we've seen it already this year, but next year I think it's going to be wholesale teams are going to lean into offensive rebounding. So, you better embrace it because otherwise the way things are shaping up, you know, next year, even if you keep Giannis, you may be one of like five teams that's we're going to play at a slow pace and we're not going to crash the offensive boards. You know what's really crazy about that is thinking of like heading into this season, we were like, "Hey, the Bucks look equipped to play a more modern style of basketball than what we've seen before." And it still feels like they're a step behind where actual modern basketball is at the moment. And not even just because of like the offensive rebounding, but just the concepts. Like we mentioned before the Celtics game, like, hey, this is going to be a really interesting matchup because just watch how the Celtics offense operates. Just watch how they're able to generate all these three-point shots even though they're without Jason Tatum. Like, yes, they still have a Finals MVP and Jaylen Brown that's running the show, but just watch how they generate their offense. And then you see like the Bucks and what you saw like in Brooklyn and you're just like what is this? What is this offense? What is happening? Like in addition to the fact that some of the players might not make perfect sense altogether on the court. It doesn't feel to me like they're either be they're also not being utilized in the best possible way that they could. Like when you're down someone like a Giannis in this situation, like you have to be very creative in making sure that you are putting your team in positions where they can try to thrive and the Bucks just haven't gotten that. And to be honest with you, even with a trade for certain players, like if that aspect doesn't change of like we're going to put players in positions that make sense and the style of basketball that they're playing continues to be a style where it is fast-paced, you are getting up your threes, you're trying to get extra possessions, whether that's from offensive rebounding or forcing turnovers and getting out there and running. Like, if you still can't do that with new personnel, like what does it matter? >> Yeah. There is one other issue right now. We we mentioned caught off guard. Hey, the Bucks are back into 10th. But we do need to take a really hard look at the standings and what the ceiling is right now. Barring a massive turnaround for this team, whether it be personnel or just the way they do things and stylistically how they're playing. We'll take a look at the elephant in the room with the standings coming up next. 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Here's the important part uh to keep in mind for everyone. You've heard me on the radio shows on the radio network on this show to uh champion a couple of things. Number one, I'm not a big plus minus person. Uh, I understand it. Sometimes it does tell the story. It doesn't always tell it. It's not my thing. Raw numbers, the county numbers, rebounding totals, also not for me. I'm more of a rebounding rates guy to look at what percentage of the rebounds available to you did you get, yada yada yada. For standings, always look at the loss column. There is nothing you can do to erase that number. >> Yeah. >> And remove from it. You can add to wins. Losses you're stuck with. And right now the Bucks have 16 losses. Uh now thankfully they they didn't pull the Clippers and hit 20 losses before you hit 10 wins, but 16 losses. And just looking around the Bulls 15 losses. The team that's behind you right now only 15 losses. Hornets and Nets each have 18 losses. Pacers and Wizards 20 losses. So right now the Bucks are as close to the Washington Wizards in the standings as they are the team that is directly in front of them, the Miami Heat, ninth in the Eastern Conference. You're four losses back of the Heat. You're four losses in front of the Wizards. Uh in terms of getting out of the playing tournament, now here's the good thing. You have this lump of teams from three through nine that is >> seemingly like on average 15 and 11, I would say for the record. The Raptors are 16-11. Celtics and Magic are 15-1. Uh Sixers are 14-1. You got the Cavs and Hawks 15 and 12. And then the Heat 14- 12. So there is this lump of teams that all you got to do is put together two weeks where the Bucks went five out of their last six, something like that, and all of a sudden you're right around 500 and you're right back within striking distance of those teams. Here's the problem. We have seen nothing since October to show you this team is capable of doing that. The other sobering thing, Camille, is they have not won back-to-back games. >> October. >> Since October what? 28th. October 30th. >> Yeah. >> That's it. Like we're approaching two months since they have won backtoback games. You're not going to move past the 10 seed. you are stuck at 10th or not making the playoffs if that doesn't change immediately because hey congratulations you played 500 the rest of the year >> so you finished the season 36 and 42 >> it it just so one of the comments after the Nets game said that Camille sounds like a disappointed parent and um I was like I I enjoy that vibe cuz that's how I feel right because it's like you as you just played out. It's still in front of you. Like the season is not lost by any means. It's just that you have to play better. >> The flip side to that is just like you said, but what have you shown us to give us the confidence that you can play better? It hasn't happened. Like to start this season, we heard Giannis talking a lot about, oh well, you know, good teams don't lose two games in a row. We got to bounce back. We got to bounce back. Ultimately, that's a lot of pressure to put on any team to start the year of like, hey, if you're if you lose more than two games in a row, you're not good. Like that. >> Who who knew we had to flip that statement entirely and say bad teams don't win two games in a row? >> Cuz the Bucks ain't did it in almost two months. And the part that's even more irritating about that is like when you do look at the 11 wins the Bucks have and some of the teams that they beat along the way, you're like, "Okay, hey, you knocked out Toronto early. You beat the Knicks. You beat the Warriors without Giannis. You beat, you know, uh, Detroit. >> I mean, yeah, you beat Detroit. You beat Boston those first five games, too. Like those two wins against the Warriors and the Knicks, and of them without Giannis. I don't, we don't want to do moral victories, but hey, like, all right, you looked much better against Cleveland, a team that gave you a ton of problems the year prior. You beat Toronto, so there was a lot to feel good about, and then it just vanished. But then you lose to teams where you're like these should not be games that you are losing like and and that's the part for me that's the most like frustrating. It's like we can see when you guys are putting in certain effort. We can see what it looks like when it works. We know this team has the bones at the very least to be competitive. We just have not seen it in execution. And that's the part that is just so irritating about where the Bugs stand because it's like the way that Bucks fans have been talking about this team and like just the emotion around it, you would honestly think this is a team that's like has the Pacers record or something like that right now. But they're still in this part where it's like if you can just string together the wins, you're back in the conversation. The season is not lost. We still have twothirds of the season to go. But like I'm also at a point where I currently just don't have the confidence in them being able to do that because we haven't seen it. Like the Bucks have to start showing something something. Show it and then like once you knock one win out win two games in a row. Let's start there. Win two games in a row and then let's see what can happen going forward. I I mean I at this rate I I think I I would say I expect them to beat the Raptors on Thursday, but then who knows what happens after that. And then you you get two more days off and then you embark on the five-game road trip, which at this point for all the chatter that we've heard about they're still open to and exploring, adding things uh and making that move to basically sway Giannis, hey, you want to stay here and we can compete. uh that five-game road trip is probably going to determine what you do in your season because if it's a disaster, um let's say you beat the Raptors, so you're 12 and 16 and all right, can we build some momentum and then you go one4 on this road, >> right? >> You're you're 13 and 20 then. Um, I mean at that point it's like you're starting to get closer to 10 games below 500 than you are other oh you're almost there. And we talked about the importance of like can you at least guide this thing to within a game or two of 500 at the end of the calendar year and just say look it was a disaster. We had injuries. We didn't play well. We may not have the right scheme in place here and how we're approaching how we play on both ends of the floor, but it's January 1st. It's a clean start. We got Giannis back and we've kind of targeted the things we need to change, we need to do differently. We're going to do it. And this is a different twothirds or so of the season, a different close to things. Although, you know, by the time you're in the first week of January, I think you're basically halfway through the season. but different year. Let's turn the page and we know what we need to do differently. If you're not there leading up to December though, I I mean I I don't think that conversation even happens that at that point if we're talking about something like that worst case scenario or I mean even worse if we're talking about a sevename losing streak >> going into the u the month of um well sevename losing streak going into New Year's Eve when you return home. But if we're talking about that where the road trip is that much of a disaster and you don't beat the Raptors, then you're 11 and 22. If that's the case, like at that point, I think the answer has been given to you of this is a lot of work to dig out of and we do know we have a first round pick this summer. Last time I checked, the other team that's tied to that pick is even worse than we currently are. Um, so this could be potentially like a top four pick and that's what we're just going to have to lean into if that's the case. So like we we said at the start of the month, December is going to give you your answer. >> Um, that part hasn't changed. Although the the process to how we got here has changed for this team. >> It has. And just as we wrap here, I know some people, a lot of people based on what our comments have looked like from the everydayers and everything like that, uh, the fire dot camp, right, that's out there. Um, and again, I understand the why behind it. I do just want to offer some some dates up, uh, just to kind of keep something in mind because if you go back under horse, there's been a couple of coach firings um, two end season with Jason Kid um, and then Adrien Griffin. The Jason Kid firing happened January 22nd, 2018. So, didn't happen in December. Had enough time to at least kind of get halfway through the year or whatever the case may be, right? The Adrien Griffin firing happened January 23rd >> and then we had Joe Prunty as the interimm coach before Doc Rivers came on a few days after that. So, I I want to put those dates out there because I know there's going to be a subset of fans and people who were like, "We'll just fire the coach." I would be very very surprised if the Bucks did that in the year of 2025 is what I wanted to say. Um, as we wrap and just talked about where this team is at and things of that sort, but if it happens in 2025, if it happens at all, I would be completely shocked. >> Yeah. I I don't anticipate any move like that to happen certainly in this calendar year and this is probably another show in itself but it is a larger conversation then of um before you make a move like that you would have to look at well realistically what else happens this summer and if if the the nuclear option happens where your best player is no longer here. Does an older coach that has been associated with winning teams throughout his whole career, does he want to stick around for a rebuild than a team that's going on differently? So, like there is that to take in consideration. There is the fact that you are currently paying uh one other coach, not two, I'm pretty sure, not not two, but one other coach yet through next season. and if the ceiling of this team is going to be more of the same and like all right well we put ourselves in too big of a hole that we're the eight seed at Basser we're the nine seed now that's not the team the type of team that you pay three coaches for so >> I mean like I'm not excusing it I'm just saying like we do have to keep these things in mind and and say realistically what are going to be the motives of the organization to say like well maybe the die has been cast and we kind of know where we're at so let's just roll this into the summer and wholesale changes that we do decide to make, it will occur then. But to your point, yeah, traditionally it is uh it is not until you get into the the second portion of the season in that next calendar year or in the case of some teams last year, not until the final like five games or three games of the season. Yeah, >> you make that deal. Um but yes, so leave your thoughts on your reaction to the report from Eric that as of right now, the Bucks are actually looking to be aggressive and to be buyers. What does that mean? Who are the guys that are on your list? We went through the obvious ones that came up. Um, but realistically, what can the Bucks do too with just that one draft pick you'd be trading in season? So, leave your thoughts on that. And we'll get to those on an upcoming show, probably tomorrow's show. As I mentioned, I think we're going to have Frank Madden with us tomorrow on the uh the show to get his reaction to that report to the thoughts he couldn't share in real time after the game in Brooklyn against the Nets. So, we'll get into that coming up on tomorrow's show. Make sure you subscribe and follow Locked OnBucks so you get all the latest podcast. If we made your Spotify wrapped, prove it on social media and you can get a free month of our brand new Everyday Dare Club. Tag the National Lockdown Podcast Network account on any social platform. We'll drop you a code. You can be one of the first to join the Everyday Club and get your favorite show ad free and exclusive access to the membersonly Discord channel. For those of you on video, we'll to the first ever 247 National NBA YouTube channel. on audio. Make sure you make that your second listen. NBA game night on Locked on NBA hosted by Camille on today's version of it that you'll be hearing. So for Camille, I'm Justin. We'll talk with you guys once again tomorrow on Locked on Bucks.

Milwaukee Bucks weigh aggressive trade deadline moves as the front office aims to convince Giannis Antetokounmpo to stay. Is the team on the brink of a major shakeup, or will desperation mortgage the future with risky deals? Justin Garcia and Camille Davis debate possible trade targets like Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and New Orleans’ rising stars, questioning whether these moves really solve defensive and rebounding weaknesses.

With the Bucks languishing in 10th place, a negative point differential, and no back-to-back wins since October, the pressure mounts. Can Giannis’s imminent return catalyze a turnaround, or are coaching changes and roster overhauls inevitable? The latest report from The Athletic sparks conversation on future draft capital, personnel challenges, and the impact of upcoming games, as the Bucks face a pivotal point in their season. How far should Milwaukee go to keep its franchise superstar and stay competitive in the Eastern Conference?

0:00 – Bucks Trade Deadline Strategy
3:27 – Giannis’ Future and Trade Risks
15:54 – Trade Targets and Roster Construction
24:03 – Bucks Playoff Outlook & Coaching

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