Ranking Bucks' Top Trade Targets After 2023 NBA Playoff Loss
Well, that wasn't what the Milwaukee Bucks had in mind.
The NBA's regular-season wins leader and Eastern Conference's top seed couldn't even make it out of the opening round and was instead ousted by the eighth-seeded (and undermanned) Miami Heat.
Just like that, this could be a huge offseason in the Badger State.
Maybe Milwaukee won't react to a single series, but with Brook Lopez headed to free agency and Khris Middleton potentially joining him (player option), the Bucks could consider reshuffling their roster around Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Having said that, major changes don't feel particularly likely, so if this team hits the trade market, look for it to lock onto rotation-quality role players.
3. Buddy Hield, Indiana Pacers
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The Bucks always look to flood the floor with shooters around Antetokounmpo. As they should.
They have a slew of willing and able sharpshooters, but they don't have a quantity-plus-quality marksman like Buddy Hield. Though, to be fair, few teams do.
Over the past five seasons, the 30-year-old has averaged 3.6 three-pointers per game. For context, Milwaukee's all-time franchise record is 3.3 triples per outing, set by Ray Allen in 2001-02, per StatHead. Hield, a career 40.2 percent three-point shooter, has topped that mark four different times.
He's a different tier of shooting threat than Grayson Allen or Joe Ingles. Hield would have a stronger gravitational pull on defenders, which would give Antetokounmpo more room to operate.
2. Gary Harris, Orlando Magic
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While the Bucks could use more shooting—just like every modern NBA team—what they really need are players who can space the floor without tanking the defense.
Too often, they've been forced to make a decision on the wings and go with offense (Allen, Ingles) or defense (Jae Crowder, Wesley Matthews).
If they can pry Gary Harris away from the Magic, which doesn't feel impossible since they're still rebuilding and he's turning 29 this offseason, they wouldn't have to make that choice.
He is a pesky, disruptive defender who, thankfully, found his way back from a three-year cold spell with his outside shot.
Between 2018-19 and 2020-21, his shooting touch abandoned him, and he slumped all the way to a 33.7 percent connection rate. But the lightbulb finally clicked in 2021-22, and he's been splashing 40.4 percent of his long-range looks ever since.
1. Dorian Finney-Smith, Brooklyn Nets
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Given the Bucks' trade budget—they owe about a zillion picks over the coming years—Dorian Finney-Smith is probably as good as they can get.
That's good enough to justify emptying the rest of their asset collection.
The 29-year-old is a versatile lockdown defender who doubles as a floor-stretching shooter at the opposite end. He struggled with his shooting touch this past season (33.7 percent), but the Bucks should be confident he can bounce back quickly. Over the three previous campaigns, he splashed 405 threes at a 38.9 percent clip.
When Finney-Smith has it rolling from three, he is a two-way asset and the kind of player who would belong in both the Bucks' starting and closing lineups. He won't come cheap, but he shouldn't be totally off-limits since the Nets need more long-term assets, and they have the wing depth to cover his absence.
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