Milwaukee Bucks: Complete grades for the 2019 NBA offseason

In summary…

The Milwaukee Bucks were two wins away from the NBA Finals last season. The team that defeated them in the Eastern Conference Finals lost its best player. The conference is wide open, with Milwaukee sitting pretty as a preseason favorite to win it.

First and foremost, retaining three of the core four was a win for Jon Horst and the rest of the Bucks franchise. George Hill, Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez will provide veteran leadership and consistency in much-needed areas throughout the next few regular seasons and playoff runs.

Bringing back the latter two was a relatively simple decision and although Hill’s contract is a bit worrisome, he’s still a solid backup option at point guard.

Adding Robin Lopez and Wesley Matthews with little-to-no cap room to work with was genius. Lopez will help ensure at least one quality rim protector is present on the court at any given time during a game.

Matthews has big shoes to fill now that Malcolm Brogdon is a Pacer and although he likely won’t fill them completely, his long-range shooting is a perfect fit in Budenholzer’s offense.

Lottery ticket signings such as Reynolds and (Thanasis) Antetokounmpo are low-risk, potentially decent-reward moves. Both players possess very different skillsets and have chips on their shoulders.

Contending teams have to find ways to infuse productive youth into their rotations. It remains to be seen if these two will produce, but signing them is a start.

Overall, it was quite the solid offseason for the Bucks. Losing Brogdon is about the only minus to give the front office. Contracts were handled well for the most part and instead of attempting to trade for 2019 draft picks, adding Reynolds fills that void.

It wasn’t anything flashy. As the old saying goes: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Grade: B+

Expect the Milwaukee Bucks to be right back in the thick of things in 2019-20, especially with the imminent decline of the reigning NBA champions.