Top 5 needs the Milwaukee Bucks must address before the NBA Trade Deadline

Milwaukee’s season has been a series of streaks, spurts, and droughts. A 2-8 start to the season gave way to a breakthrough that led them to an NBA Cup victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Since then, their imperfections have reared their ugly heads. 

Khris Middleton has been moved to the bench. Giannis Antetokounmpo is an iron man, but he's been dealing with tendinopathy in his right knee, forcing the 2-time MVP to miss several games. When healthy he's an MVP frontrunner scoring inside at a prolific rate,. However, they've bumbled developing homegrown talent to replace their rapidly aging and expensive nucleus around him.

Much of their supporting cast are 2-D players in a 3-and-D league who are lacking in the versatility needed to be assets on both ends. Most importantly, the Bucks have title aspirations but are winless against the top three teams in the East. As the trade deadline looms, Milwaukee is beginning to put feelers out, but first they have to clear $7 million in cap space to escape the second tax apron.

However, knowing what they’re looking for is important with so much white noise.  Here are five needs the Bucks should concentrate on addressing.

A 3-and-D wing and trade Khris Middleton

Technically, these are two needs the Bucks have to address if they want to be taken seriously as title contenders. Khris Middleton is the elephant in the room. Some hoped a healthy Middleton’s return to the Bucks lineup would give the Bucks a third-scoring and playmaking option for their playoff pursuit for a title.

Instead, for the fifth straight season, his scoring average has declined. His diminished lateral agility makes him a defensive liability. As a result, Doc Rivers moved Middleton to the bench
in early January. Middleton's move to the second unit is reminiscent of Steve Kerr scaling back Klay Thompson's floor time with the starters in 2023. However, the Middleton of 2025 is a shell of himself.

All indications are that Jimmy Butler is uninterested in becoming a Buck, title chances be damned. Besides, he thrives with the ball in his hands and the Bucks have the ball in Antetokounmpo and Lillard’s enough. The latter has dramatically cut his usage rate to acclimate to Milwaukee.

Butler doesn’t spread the floor and score from the short corners, but he's one of the league's best two-way wings.  Besides that exchange may wind up being contingent on Milwaukee's willingness to move on from Middleton and his $31 million salary. His contributions for the last decade and in the 2021 NBA Finals will always be appreciated, but this is a cutthroat business and the first order of business is keeping Antetokounmpo happy by putting him in position for a title run while he's playing so well.

Jon Horst traded Jrue Holiday without giving it a second thought. There's no reason to believe he wouldn't do it again if an opportunity presented itself.

A third go-to scorer

Currently, the Bucks rank 10th in points per 100 possessions when garbage time is excluded, and 11th in defensive rating. If the Bucks aren’t going to win with oppressive defense like they did in 2021, then they need to bolster the offensive end.

Middleton still plays efficiently, but his productivity is diminished. Conversely, Bradley Beal is a prime example of a star who is held back on his current team among equally ball-dominant scorers, but in a tertiary role could thrive.

The Bucks' 2-guard position has been a problem since Grayson Allen was quietly jettisoned to Phoenix as part of the Lillard acquisition. Beal delivers a scoring punch the Bucks have lacked as Middleton’s health and athleticism have declined. Staggering Beal’s minutes alongside Lillard would be key though because neither are strong perimeter defenders and placing them in the same lineups would put a strain on Brooke Lopez and Antetokounmpo's rim defense.

However, the Phoenix Sun's priority at the moment appears to be squeezing Beal into a high-profile swap for Miami's Jimmy Butler. The Bucks don’t have an asset that can compete and the language in Beal’s contract equips it with a 15 percent trade kicker. If the Suns and Bucks can’t agree to a bargain, Zach LaVine is a younger alternative who’s averaging more points than Beal, 24.0 on 51 percent shooting, and shooting 45 percent on triples on a more reasonable contract.

Backup floor general

Second-year guard Andre Jackson Jr. replaced free agent acquisition Gary Trent Jr. early in November. With Trent as a starter, the paucity of a perimeter defensive anchor alongside Damian Lillard created a six-lane highway into the paint for penetrating wings. What Jackson lacks in Trent's pure floor spacing sharpshooting, he makes up for as a secondary ball handler and as a defender. However, his shot creation leaves much to be desired.

When Lillard is on the bench, the Bucks offense needs an initiator to set Antetokounmpo up and who can create his shot right now, Delon Wright and Ryan Rollins are filling the non-Lillard minutes — two shooters making fewer than 30 percent of their triples a night

When Lillard rests, the full weight of the offensive production falls to Antetokounmpo and Gary Trent Jr. Memphis (Scottie Pippen Jr.), Oklahoma State (Alex Caruso/Jalen Williams), and Boston, all have elite understudies to their starting respective point guards or starters who can take the reigns of the offense when they stagger each other’s minutes.

Malcolm Brogdon is a familiar face to Bucks fans who could bring a valuable skillset. The 2016  second-round pick of the Bucks broke through before Milwaukee's title window opened and left as a restricted free agent after his rookie deal expired, but has always been within their orbit Two years ago, The President earned Sixth Man of the Year, and last season he was involved in the deal that sent former Buck Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers.  However, at this stage of his career, the 32-year-old still possesses the capacity to serve as a competent floor general playing on an expiring deal. 

Inject athleticism into the rotation

Typically, when outside critics call out teams for their lack of athleticism, attention is turned to the backcourt. However, the Bucks' frontcourt is lacking in athleticism. Against the likes of Dereck Lively. or Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein, Kristaps Porzingis, or Jayson Tatum, the Bucks are at a defensive disadvantage.

Someone like Robert Williams would check all the boxes for Milwaukee as long as they could get under the apron by dumping Pat Connaughton. After the Blazers drafted UConn cetnter Donovan Clingan with their first-round pick, the clock began ticking on Williams. His 7-foot-6 wingspan and rim-running ability would be ideal in non-Giannis minutes, but his presence would also clog the paint unlike floor stretchers Bobby Portis and Brook Lopez when they’d share the floor.

Conversely, they could go in a different direction by pursuing Hawks center Larry Nance Jr. who is currently on the mend after suffering a fractured fourth metacarpal bone in his right hand. Essentially, he's only been a lefty for the last three weeks. While he's not quite the stick of dynamite that Williams is defensively, he does spread the floor shooting better than 50 percent from behind the arc this season. He’s also in the final year of a two-year $21 million contract.