What Are You Up To This Summer? Bucks, Cavaliers, Pacers, Bulls, Pistons

Let's talk about the Central Division

Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Over the next few days, I’m going to go division-by-division through the league and lay out what decisions need to be made and what’s at stake for each NBA team this offseason. We’ll began with the Atlantic Division, continue today with the Central, and then will move through the Southeast, Pacific, Northwest, and Southwest.

Some of these will come out before the draft and some of them after it. That’s just the annoying way the schedule works out this year, with the draft and free agency starting within a few days of each other. Oh well, them’s the breaks.

Without further ado…

Central Division

ESPN

Milwaukee Bucks

• Draft picks: 23, 33

• Key Potential FA: Malik Beasley, Jae Crowder, Patrick Beverley

• Big Decisions: How to retool/reload around Giannis and Dame

“Not Like Us” is the song of the summer, and nothing is going to overtake it. In the NBA “the apron” is going to be the word/phrase of the summer, and nothing will overtake it.

Case in point: With $182 million on their books in guaranteed salaries alone, the Bucks are already a first apron team. Throw in non-guaranteed deals to guys like AJ Green and Andre Jackson Jr. and they are nearly over the second apron. Incomplete roster chargers and/or minimum deals to fill out the depth chart do indeed take them over the line. So they are going to be severely restricted in the ways they can add to their team this offseason.

The Bucks cannot aggregate salaries in a trade. They cannot take back even a cent more in salary than they send out in a trade. They cannot acquire a player in a sign-and-trade. They cannot take a player into a trade exception. They cannot do any of this without first cutting money from their books, at least. They’re basically limited to draft picks (of which they cannot buy extra; and it seems like they really need to nail the two they already have), the taxpayer (i.e. smaller) mid-level exception, minimum deals, and sending out a singular player to take back a player or players that make less money than the one they send out.

So, if they want to change things up, that means trading one or more of Brook Lopez (most likely, according to recent reporting), Khris Middleton, Bobby Portis, and Pat Connaughton, and hoping to get back better-fitting rotation players in return. Count me among those that are skeptical that whatever deal they make will matter more than simply hoping Giannis and Dame stay healthy and find better chemistry this season than they did a year ago. Surely, Doc Rivers is just the man to get the most out of two offensive stars.