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After a disappointing exit in the first round, one hopeful contender might want to undo a recent trade.
On Tuesday night, the Milwaukee Bucks looked poised to send their first-round series back to Milwaukee for a Game 6. However, their seven-point lead in the final minute against the Indiana Pacers wasn’t enough.
The Pacers made an improbable comeback to take Game 5 and win the series 4-1, sending the Bucks home in the first round for the third straight season. With Damian Lillard’s Achilles tear looming over the team next season, the Bucks are hopeful they can simply get Giannis Antetokounmpo to stick it out with the team.
Over the past few years, the Bucks have been aggressive in trying to land Antetokounmpo championship-level help. Obviously, the team’s trade for Jrue Holiday in 2020 resulted in a ring in 2021, but their Lillard deal hasn’t worked out after two seasons.
Yet, the team’s biggest mistake might have come at this season’s trade deadline, when Milwaukee made a deal with the Washington Wizards, involving a swap of Khris Middleton for Kyle Kuzma.
Kuzma was notoriously bad in the first round against Indiana, and it would be no shocker if the Bucks moved on from him this offseason. In a recent article detailing a trade every playoff team should make, Bleacher Report essentially suggested the Bucks should undo their deadline deal.
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The proposed trade featured Kuzma going back to Washington alongside Pat Connaughton and a 2031 second-round pick in return for Middleton. While it might not make sense on the surface for Washington, getting back a highly tradable Kuzma and a pick to send an aging Middleton back to a team hopeful to get back in contention could be good for both sides.
Of course, this might be a last-ditch effort by Milwaukee to salvage the Antetokounmpo era by bringing back his longtime running mate. Maybe the trade is far-fetched, but anything that could keep the Greek Freak in town would be well worth the try.
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