Bucks are betting big on Holiday being key piece
In four short months, the Milwaukee Bucks have triumphed over both of their nightmare scenarios: Giannis Antetokounmpo won’t be forcing his way to a larger market any time soon, and Jrue Holiday won’t bail this summer after arriving in an assetdepleting trade last November.
Antetokounmpo sidestepped a free-agency bonanza by inking a fiveyear supermax extension worth $228 million in December, and Holiday followed suit by signing a four-year extension worth up to $160 million on Sunday. The franchise’s course is now set through at least 2023, when all-star forward Khris Middleton, who signed a five-year, $178 million extension in 2019, can become a free agent.
Milwaukee, which enters Monday’s action as the East’s third seed with a 32-17 record, should enjoy at least three good cracks at a championship with its “Big Three” during the 26-year-old Antetokounmpo’s prime. That sounds awfully good, especially considering that losing Antetokounmpo would have undone a half-decade of progress and plunged the Bucks into calamity like the post-james Harden Houston Rockets. But the precarious path to a championship is far from complete, and securing such a costly core bears its own complications.
The Bucks’ trade for Holiday was a central piece of their pitch to keep Antetokounmpo, and
Holiday’s extension is a sign of faith in all parties. Milwaukee has committed at least $135 million, according to ESPN.COM, to a 30-year-old point guard who hasn’t made the Allstar team since 2013 and has won just two playoff series in his 12-year career. They did so without seeing Holiday alongside Antetokounmpo and Middleton for a single playoff game, just as they did when they signed Eric Bledsoe to a 4-year, $70 million extension in 2019.
Indeed, Bledsoe’s illfated extension set the table for Holiday’s deal. Because they paid Bledsoe,
the Bucks elected to sign-and-trade Malcolm Brogdon to the Indiana Pacers. With the capable Brogdon out of the picture and with Bledsoe crumbling in back-to-back playoff runs, Milwaukee opted to trade three first-round picks and two pick swaps to acquire Holiday from the New Orleans Pelicans. That hefty price compelled the Bucks to re-sign Holiday at almost any cost, lest he depart in free agency this summer and leave them with a massive backcourt hole and an empty draft stockpile.
“Jrue is one of the top guards in the NBA and we are thrilled to sign him to this extension,” Bucks general manager Jon Horst said in a statement. “Adding him to our team has made us better on both ends of the floor. He’s an elite defender and an impactful offensive player with the ability to score, shoot and facilitate. We’ve worked extremely hard to build a team that can sustain success while competing for championships and Jrue is a significant part of our core.”
Holiday’s leverage advantage recalled Tobias Harris’s 2019 summer, when the Philadelphia 76ers forward inked a five-year, $180 million deal. The 76ers needed to solidify a third star alongside Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons as Jimmy Butler left for the Miami Heat. Harris, a fine player who has never made an All-star team, capitalized because the 76ers were eying title runs and had parted with two first-round picks to acquire him from the Los Angeles Clippers a few months earlier.
Hawks’ Hunter has procedure
Atlanta Hawks forward De’andre Hunter continues to struggle with an ailing right knee, undergoing a nonsurgical procedure Monday to address lingering soreness.
The team said Hunter will return to activity later this week. It’s not known how much longer he’ll be out after missing 29 of Atlanta’s last 31 games.