The Whiteboard: Bucks make their convincing, imperfect case for Giannis Antetokounmpo

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The Milwaukee Bucks needed to state their case for Giannis Antetokounmpo to commit to the franchise for the long haul.

It was flawed and imperfect, riddled with hindsight and flanked by future concerns, but on Monday night, they did exactly that.

First, the Bucks orchestrated a blockbuster deal for New Orleans Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday, giving them a Big 3 of Giannis, Holiday and Khris Middleton — a legitimately scary trio of two-way talent.

Then, they negotiated a deal with the Sacramento Kings that will eventually send Bogdan Bogdanovic to Milwaukee in a sign-and-trade (the deal cannot be finalized until free agency begins). Not only is Double Bogdan still only 28 years old, but he’s a certified shot-maker in crunch-time situations, which this team desperately needed even after the Holiday addition.

A starting five of Holiday, Bogdanovic, Middleton, Giannis and Brook Lopez is certifiably elite on both ends. Although Milwaukee will need to scrape the bottom of the free agency barrel to cobble together a respectable bench unit, that honestly might be a good problem to have for a Mike Budenholzer squad whose biggest undoing was their head coach’s insistence on keeping his regular-season rotations intact. Now Bud will have no choice but to ride his starters more, and boy, what a group of starters that is.

However, as satisfying as the end result might be for the Bucks this offseason, it’s impossible to ignore the heavy price it took to get to this point.

For starters, there are the departing players in this deal: Eric Bledsoe, who was foolishly given four-year, $70 million extension last March. George Hill, who was a proven veteran with playoff experience, one of the team’s rare creators and a 46 percent 3-point marksman last year. Donte DiVincenzo, who was one of the only promising youngsters left on the roster. D.J. Wilson, who was admittedly expendable but also one of the only young players with room for growth. Ersan Ilyasova, who was fully expendable but still represents another able body gone.

But mostly, the draft picks. Lots and lots and LOTS of draft picks.

In the Holiday trade, Milwaukee surrendered a whopping three future first-round picks and two first-round pick swaps, apparently under the impression they were trading for Anthony Davis or James Harden instead. That is an absurd price to pay, even for a two-way player of Holiday’s perpetually underrated caliber.

To be clear, the Bucks got more dangerous after Monday night’s agreed-upon trades. Even as he took a step backward from his career year in 2018-19, Holiday still posted 19.1 points, 6.7 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game .455/.353/.709 shooting splits last year. Despite an inconsistent role with the Kings, BB-8 averaged a career-best 15.1 points, 3.4 assists and 3.4 rebounds a night, knocking down 37.2 percent of his 7.2 triples per game and proving himself as a clutch playmaker.

Milwaukee needs players with their skill-sets in a playoff series, especially when the offense grinds to a halt late in games and Giannis’ lack of a step-back jumper becomes a bigger issue. Holiday is an upgrade over Playoff Bledsoe simply by showing up to the arena, and Bogdanovic is no stranger to taking and making big-time shots. That matters.

But even if these attention-grabbing moves convince Giannis to sign that super-max contract he’ll be offered soon, it’s impossible to look at the price tag of the Holiday trade and not remember the Bucks’ braindead decision to let Malcolm Brogdon walk in free agency just last summer.

For four years and $85 million, the Bucks could’ve made their statement about their commitment to keeping Giannis happy then. They could’ve retained a shot creator, shooter, playmaker and ball-handler who represented everything they sorely lacked this year once Bledsoe renewed his annual tradition of turning invisible for the playoffs. They would’ve paid for it financially, but that’s the price of retaining elite talent and competing for championships.

Instead, Milwaukee executed an awful sign-and-trade handing Brogdon over to Indiana, and now they’ve had to fork over three first-rounders and two first-round swaps to get a player with a similar skill-set. Make no mistake about it, Holiday is better than Brogdon, but maybe this type of trade upgrade wouldn’t have been so painful in a package built around Brogdon instead of multiple draft picks.

First-round picks don’t help Giannis win now, but they do deprive the franchise of adding young, cost-effective contributors down the line. Proving to your star player that you want to win now is one thing. Lighting the whole draft cupboard on fire and parading its remains through the streets buck naked is another entirely.

Furthermore, if the ultimate goal is to not waste his prime by falling short of a title, and keeping Giannis happy is the means to reaching that ultimate goal, simply getting him to sign on the dotted line this offseason doesn’t let this front office off the hook. Last we checked, the adjustment-averse Budenholzer is still the head coach, and nothing Milwaukee did on Monday fully mitigates the risk of him sabotaging the Bucks once again.

Can’t you just picture it now? The Bucks possessing one of the most dominant starting lineups in the NBA and Budenholzer trotting out veteran-minimum additions like Raul Neto and Mike Muscala for 18 minutes in a do-or-die playoff game? Unless he’s replaced, receives a mandate from the front office to play his starters more or is smacked in the face with an epiphany sent by divine intervention itself, Bud is still going to struggle with adjusting what he does in the regular season to fit what needs to change on a game-to-game basis in a playoff series.

Think of it this way: Last year’s Bucks team could’ve won it all had the organization A) Retained Malcolm Brogdon and B) Learned from 2019’s mistakes and replaced Bud with a coach who can actually make playoff adjustments. The Bucks did neither, and while the end result of Giannis, Middleton, Holiday and Bogdanovic is obviously tantalizing, it also required an unnecessarily steep price to get there … without addressing Milwaukee’s biggest problem at all.

In the end, maybe talent and complementary skill-sets are enough to trump subpar playoff coaching. If these blockbuster moves get the Greek Freak to commit to the Bucks with a super-max extension, the front office can say it accomplished its biggest goal of the offseason.

But if the front office really wants to turn this great offseason into a sublime one, it would shift its gaze to Budenholzer, the Bucks’ largest obstacle standing in the way of a championship. And at this point, a championship is the only acceptable outcome to justify Giannis signing the super-max, Milwaukee’s uphill struggle to undo the damage of the Brogdon decision and the draft compensation carnage that will be left in the Bucks’ wake over the next decade.

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