The recent blockbuster transaction involving the Milwaukee Bucks has the basketball world still in shock. This squad will now get to pair Damian Lillard, one of the best point guards in the NBA right now, with Giannis Antetokounmpo, a two-time NBA MVP, a combination that has already made their opponents nervous.
However, it appears that some NBA executives are now more concerned about the effects of this arrangement that will change the game.
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Jrue Holiday was the main asset the Bucks had to give up in order to acquire Dame. The five-time All-Defensive combo guard was not needed by the Portland Trail Blazers, so they traded him to the Boston Celtics for Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams, and two additional first-round picks.
Portland undoubtedly made a tidy profit from all of this. Zach Lowe, an NBA insider, said that executives from all across the league are more focused on the fact that Boston just got a lot better with the addition of Holiday.
On a recent edition of The Lowe Post podcast, Lowe discussed how some businesspeople worry that the Bucks’ decision may have ultimately destroyed the NBA as a whole.
With Lillard now in the mix, it’s hard not to consider Milwaukee as one of the heavy favorites in the East. However, did they just help Boston become the team to beat now that Holiday has taken his talents to Bean Town?
While this might be arguable, the fact of the matter is that at least a few front offices out there aren’t too pleased with this development:
According to Darren Hartwell of NBC Sports Boston, “I received texts from a couple of non-partisan front office executives… that were in the vein of, ‘This is what I worried about for the Bucks when they made the Lillard trade: that Boston would come in and get Jrue Holiday, and that the Bucks… may have unintentionally helped their biggest rival more than they realized they did — and maybe more than they helped themselves.'” Lowe said
The texts I received immediately following the deal were two to three words long, with a tone of “Well f— us” or “Oof, this sucks,” according to Lowe. “I heard from a couple of front office executives from good Eastern Conference teams,” he added.
