Milwaukee Bucks: Realistic trade ideas to acquire Victor Oladipo

What could the Milwaukee Bucks offer to acquire Victor Oladipo?

In any deal involving Victor Oladipo, the Pacers would likely want future assets attached, and the Milwaukee Bucks possess a variety of those chips that could incentivize Indiana general manager Kevin Pritchard. Those assets are headlined by 23-year-old guard Donte DiVincenzo, followed by forward D.J. Wilson, the No. 24 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft (via IND), and a whole supply of future draft capital.

If the Bucks were to pursue Oladipo in trade talks, it’s likely that DiVincenzo would be included as well since he’s a promising prospect that has a bright future ahead of him as he enters his third season in the league. An initial package that the Bucks could put together could be viewed as shown below:

Needless to say, a trade of this caliber will depend on the value at stake. The Bucks would make this aggressive move if they think having Oladipo’s backcourt contributions for possibly one year are basically worth giving up DiVincenzo, who’s been a valued young asset, and Eric Bledsoe, who may have just hit his third strike as a Buck following another disappointing postseason. It’s reportedly an “open secret” across the league that Milwaukee will try and offload Bledsoe this offseason, so they should have no problem including him in potential deals.

On the other side, although the Pacers would be interested in acquiring DiVincenzo, it’s likely that they would want nothing to do with taking on Eric Bledsoe and the remaining three years of his four-year, $70 million contract. Indiana has already committed guaranteed money to Malcolm Brogdon, Domantas Sabonis, and Myles Turner long-term, and they’ve also seen what a Bledsoe-Brogdon pairing looks like in the backcourt, so it’s doubtful that they would want Bledsoe in Indianapolis.

Another possibility in this proposed trade idea would be luring a third team with sufficient cap space to absorb Bledsoe’s contract to make it a three-team deal. If Pritchard and the Pacers are surprisingly interested in Bledsoe though, this trade makes sense for both parties.

If Indiana refuses to accept Bledsoe and a third party cannot be identified, then there could be other options that arise to the surface.

In this scenario, Indiana would receive two young prospects, a future pick, and a rotation player in exchange for Oladipo. However, for this to occur, Milwaukee would have to guarantee the $7 million salary for Ersan Ilyasova next season in order for the salaries to match up in this deal. It also helps that Ilyasova has an expiring contract, so the Pacers would then have more flexibility and cap space in 2021, which is something that many other teams are prioritizing.

These are only trade ideas, all generated via TradeNBA.com, but the situation really all depends on what the Pacers would want in return in any deals surrounding Victor Oladipo as well as the current direction the franchise intends to follow.

Honestly, it would make more sense for the Pacers to hold onto Oladipo this offseason and rather trade him near the deadline in hopes of raising his value, which would also raise his price tag. Clearly, there will still be plenty of phone calls from multiple teams regarding Oladipo’s availability in this upcoming offseason, but it may take an overwhelming offer to land Oladipo right now before the 2020-21 season begins.

The Milwaukee Bucks can generate multiple different packages together in an attempt to persuade Indiana to trade their star, but with the likelihood that they won’t “blow away” the Pacers with a generous offer and the fact that other teams could probably offer more enticing deals, it may be unrealistic for the Bucks to acquire Oladipo at this current time.

Stay tuned to my Twitter (@WeinbachNBA) as trade speculation will continue to heat up in these upcoming weeks, and as we’ve seen before in this league, things could get crazy. Victor Oladipo could certainly become a realistic trade target for the Milwaukee Bucks down the road, so it’ll sure be interesting how the Bucks decide to proceed in what may be the most important offseason in franchise history.