The Milwaukee Bucks had a relatively quiet offseason this summer. How do the moves they made look halfway through the regular season?
The Milwaukee Bucks did not enter this past summer with a lot of flexibility. With most of their roster under contract and a salary sheet pressing close to the untouchable luxury tax, they made mostly small moves to shuffle the back end of their roster.
However, small moves matter too, and they represent opportunities to have gone elsewhere with the available asset, be it cap space or a draft pick. While the use of a second round pick is not generally a franchise-changer, it can be an opportunity to improve the team in a meaningful way.
With both of their picks in the 2017 NBA Draft, the Bucks stayed true to form and took long athletes, taking D.J. Wilson in the first round and Sterling Brown in the second. A week later when free agency began, they re-signed Tony Snell while letting Michael Beasley walk. They also elected not to engage in serious extension talks with Jabari Parker.
How do these decisions look six months later? As the Bucks round the halfway point of the season, did the Milwaukee front office make the right decisions given the modicum of hindsight provided? We begin with the team’s first round pick, the largely unseen rookie D.J. Wilson.