The Houston Rockets traded PJ Tucker, Rodions Kurucs and Milwaukee’s first pick in the first round of 2022 to the Bucks in exchange for DJ Augustin, DJ Wilson and an unprotected pick in the first round of 2023, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. In addition, Houston acquired the right to trade its second round in 2021 for Milwaukee’s first round in 2021, provided the Bucks are not in the top nine. According to Bucks, Torrey Craig also trades ahead to Phoenix Suns Wojnarowski. The Rockets took Tucker out of the series earlier when it appeared a deal was coming. Now he has his wish. He will run for a championship candidate in the Bucks while Houston continues the rebuilding.
Tucker, now 35, was previously one of the most versatile forwards in the NBA. Calling him a forward may not even be accurate. In fact, he is a small ball center, an increasingly important player in the post-season when the best teams shrink. Tucker has brilliantly fulfilled the role in the past. Whether he can still do it at his age is unclear.
The Rockets, meanwhile, are pushing full steam ahead in their rebuilding. Tucker is probably the first of several veterans to be dealt with on the deadline, with rumors also circulating around Victor Oladipo and, before his injury, Eric Gordon. Houston has now lost 17 games in a row. The absence of Christian Wood is partly responsible, but in reality, the Rockets are simply not built to win now. They have acknowledged this and continue to prioritize capital in response.
Tucker is one of the first major dominoes to meet this deadline. It is understood that almost every claimant at some point inquired about him. He fits into virtually every winning team and now, in a contract year, he has the chance to prove his worth to the rest of the NBA during a playoff game in Milwaukee. This is how both teams rate in the agreement:
Milwaukee: A-
The success or failure of this trade will come down to how much Tucker still has left in the tank at 35. His season was discouraging to say the least. After shooting more than 39 percent at triangular angles over the past four seasons, he is down 33.8 percent this season. Most defensive measures point to a significant but not overwhelming decline. The eye test was equally discouraging. Given his age, this is not surprising, but Tucker does not move quite as cunningly as he used to. He is still strong enough to fight with centers, but how effectively he can still switch to perimeter players is still a mystery.
The Bucks bet he still has at least one run in him. This is a perfectly fair bet. After all, Tucker had been feeding clean spoons through James Harden for years. Harden’s departure disrupted the entire offense, and Tucker was a victim. He has averaged nearly 3.5 wide open three-pointers per game over the past two seasons. Now he is at 2.1. Milwaukee should have little trouble repeating the shots Harden created for Tucker.
This trade, however, is about defense, and even if Tucker is not entirely himself, he is still definitely an upgrade. The Bucks have had the No. 1 defense in the NBA for the past two seasons, but have dropped to No. 10 this season. To some extent, it is by design. Milwaukee’s decline in the last twelve post-seasons has been exposed, so the Bucks are engaging more to prepare for the post-season. Brook Lopez is simply too slow to participate effectively in the plan, and it’s not surprising that Milwaukee’s defense was 5.3 points per 100 possessions better with him on the bench. The Rockets had the NBA’s best defense with a full 1.9 points per 100 possessions between the Harden trade and Wood’s injury, and Tucker’s share in the success indicates that he can still be valuable if his team is competitive. .
Apart from Draymond Green, no center with small balls in the last few years has been better at switching defensively than Tucker. Houston was so comfortable playing Tucker as center that they abandoned their traditional big men completely last season. Milwaukee will not do the same. Lopez is still a valuable rim protector, and the Bucks will likely still play a drop of coverage with their entrees and against certain opponents. But they need to be able to switch if they plan to limit Brooklyn’s shooting. Tucker is at least better than Lopez at doing that. If he’s his old self? The Bucks are an elite defense again.
It covers the basketball portion of the deal. The asset portion is just as important. By making DJ Augustin the primary salary replacement in the deal, Milwaukee not only escaped the final year with full guarantee on his contract, but he is away from a player who may have done more damage than good this season. Augustin makes 38 percent of his three-pointers, but only 34.9 percent of his two. His aid figure has decreased significantly, and his small stature makes him a defensive negative. It’s not easy to find a replacement, but Milwaukee has managed to give a little extra flexibility in this deal.
With this agreement, the Bucks created about $ 3 million extra room under the hard roof. Some of it will have to contribute to filling in Craig’s rankings, but that makes the subsequent transactions that Milwaukee considers slightly easier from a cap perspective. The idea that Milwaukee had to make several deadline acquisitions was ridiculous before it was taken into account by the lack of assets, but the Bucks supplemented its asset base with this agreement in a sense. Why? They danced around the Stepien rule, which prevents teams from being without the first round in consecutive years. The Bucks previously sent their first round to Cleveland in 2022, but because they got it back in this trade, they traded their first round pick in 2021. They actually traded it for Houston’s second round pick in 2021, which they can now trade. The choice will probably end up somewhere in the low thirties, which will make it worthwhile.
Does that mean the Bucks are going to turn around and replace Augustin with it? Possibly, but the salary that matches will still be difficult for them. Wilson and Augustin are gone, and Kurucs cannot be joined as a salary. That leaves the Bucks with three fairly large chunks of meat leaf: Pat Connaughton, Bobby Portis and Bryn Forbes. All three play key roles in the rotation, but together they earn about $ 10 million. If the Bucks are confident they can replace it in the buyout market, it may be worth exploring what they can get for a combination of the three along with the Houston pick. Even if they do nothing, they have probably saved themselves some money by taking out the first round of the draft this year, as the second round is not subject to the rookie scale.
All in all, it is about as good as Milwaukee could make on the deadline due to its salary and asset constraints. Tucker is not quite the player he used to be, and the risk of under no circumstances trading an unprotected pick is significant, but the Bucks have exactly the kind of piece they needed, and they did it on a way that makes them supple. the short term. This is a big win for Milwaukee, as it seeks to set up a roster that could compete in the Eastern Conference with Brooklyn.
Houston: B
It’s a fascinating trade from Houston’s perspective. Technically speaking, the Rockets were not given a choice, and you could argue that that means they were not given much value either. They upgraded their second pick in 2021 to a first player, but remember who it is. The chances are not zero that the Bucks are last in the first round and the Rockets first in the second round, which actually gives Houston a one-slot upgrade. Realistically, it’s probably closer to five or six slots, but it’s not much, especially if you’re competing that the value of the second round is not subject to the rookie scale. They then converted a first round in 2022 into a first round in 2023 of the same team, and none of them received protection. Again, on paper, this is not a slam dunk.
But think a little more critically about Milwaukee’s situation and Houston’s motives become clearer. Jrue Holiday is 30. Brook Lopez is 32. Tucker is 35. It’s an old team, and it’s not well positioned to recharge through the draft or free agency. The Bucks are all-in at the moment. Their future, even with Giannis Antetokounmpo in place, is a little thicker. If the chance that Antetokounmpo gets dissatisfied in Milwaukee between 2023 and 2023? This choice becomes significantly more valuable. Even if he does not, the age of his cast suggests that the 2023 choice will be a few slots higher than the 2022 choice they already had.
Suppose Milwaukee even improved five slots in 2021, and the choice in 2023 is five slots better than the 2022 choice. Considering where the upgrades in the draft take place, it’s certainly worth more than the kind of second round Houston’s probably offered Tucker. If the Rockets could have gotten an unimpeded first-round pick for him, they would have done it. The fact that they do not indicate that most teams only offer seconds, therefore, got the Rockets creative. In the process, they created more value than they would have had by simply choosing what would likely land in the 40s or 50s.
This leaves Houston in a relatively strong position entering the 2021 concept. They now have three first-round picks: Portland’s, Milwaukee’s and their own or Miami’s, depending on whether they end up in the top four. By choosing the two extra first rounds, the Rockets give ammunition to move on, even if they lose their own choice in exchange for the Thunder. It’s worth it to expire a 35-year-old on a contract that yields no better deals.