Milwaukee Bucks make NBA Trade Deadline Deal

What's next for Milwaukee after trading Cole Anthony and Amir Coffey for Nick Richards and Nigel Hayes-Davis?

Why did the Bucks make this trade? Ideally, more reports come out that they will be receiving draft capital to take on extra salary while sending out two expiring contracts that tend to have good value.

Without that extra report, the benefits of making this trade are unclear, other than just generally doing something to do something and hoping it sticks.

Apparently the Cole Anthony - Giannis Antetokounmpo experiment had run its course, especially with the emergence of Ryan Rollins as a legit breakout player and one of the few bright spots for this Bucks squad.

Through 35 games as the Bucks backup point guard, Cole Anthony averaged 7 points, 3.5 assists to 1.9 turnovers, 2.5 rebounds, 0.6 steals while shooting 31% on 2 threes per game. Sometimes low-risk ideas that could work on paper don't work out in reality, and cutting the cord now is probably wise.

Still, moving on from Cole's and Amir's expirings without returning something of value would be bad process for a Bucks front office that is desperately looking for value deals anywhere they can find them.

From a talent standpoint, the incoming Suns weren't exactly coveted around the league, but they do provide two energy plus-defenders to add to the frontcourt, perhaps invigorating some defensive energy flanking Giannis going forward.

Nick Richards has shown before to be a bouncy big to rely on for rim-rolling in pick-and-rolls and rim-protection against them. Nigel Hayes-Davis brings some switchability as a forward.

From 2023-25, Nick Richards scored at a 68% TS% rate with a 17 PER, rebounded 25% of his team's defensive boards and racked up 4.3% of his team's blocks while on the floor. Ideally, Milwaukee rekindles some of Richards rim-rolling strengths in a limited role behind a fairly deep frontcourt.

Bucks fans were surely hoping for something more when it comes to utilizing those expiring contracts to find enough talent to keep Giannis happy going forward, so hopefully for fans' sake, Milwaukee isn't done making moves.

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