How the Milwaukee Bucks screwed up the James Harden trade market

The Milwaukee Bucks were never serious contenders for a James Harden trade, but they may have screwed things up for every team that is in the running.

James Harden‘s next destination is one of the dominant storylines of the young NBA season, but one of the biggest factors in where he may end up could hinge on the actions of a team that was never a real contender to trade for him: The Milwaukee Bucks.

The Bucks already have their own heliocentric offensive force in Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the two superstars are known to not get along. It’s a bit absurd since both Harden and Giannis are generally considered to be fairly easygoing, but alas, it’s just one of many reasons a trade was never going to happen in the first place.

As for other teams that are seeking to trade for Harden, the Bucks complicated matters for them, and did so almost certainly by complete accident.

In their offseason actions to ensure that Antetokounmpo would sign his super-max extension and stay in Milwaukee, they traded for Jrue Holiday. The price for this deal was astronomical, especially for a player of Holiday’s caliber.

He was one of the best point guards on the trade market going into the offseason, behind only Chris Paul, but he’s not a top-tier star by any means. Last season he averaged 19.1 points, 6.7 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game with shooting splits of .455/.353/.709. These are solid numbers, but not superstar stats.

The Milwaukee Bucks had to get Jrue Holiday no matter the cost

However, the Bucks needed to get Holiday no matter what, and the price didn’t matter. So they sent a gigantic haul to the New Orleans Pelicans, including Eric Bledsoe, George Hill, 2024 and 2026 swap rights and their 2025 and 2027 unprotected first-round picks.

This massive haul complicated things significantly for any team that wants to trade for James Harden. Holiday is a nice player, but Harden is perhaps the greatest offensive force in the NBA today and a legitimate superstar, so the cost of doing business has gone way up.

After all, if the Pelicans can get Bledsoe and Hill (two solid starters at the absolute worst) and total control almost half a decade’s worth of first-round picks for Holiday, how much more will the Houston Rockets demand for James Harden?

The leading candidates for Harden’s services are Eastern Conference rivals like the Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors, and thanks to this king’s ransom paid by the Bucks for an inferior player, the Rockets can credibly demand a crippling number of players and assets for him.

Milwaukee had a sloppy, uninspiring offseason in every aspect other than persuading Antetokounmpo to extend. They overpaid at every opportunity, even botching the re-signing of Pat Connaughton to the point where they had to re-do his deal and give him both more years and more money. D.J. Augustin signed a three-year, $21 million deal to play backup point guard for the Bucks while an equivalent (perhaps superior) player in Jeff Teague signed for the minimum to play for the Boston Celtics.

The Milwaukee Bucks blundered at each opportunity, but their gigantic overpay for Jrue Holiday may have completely scuttled the trade market for James Harden, and they can take pleasure in the fact that they accidentally made life harder for their Eastern rivals.