The basketball world is still reeling from the Milwaukee Bucks’ recent blockbuster trade. This team will now get to pair two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo with one of the top point guards in the NBA today in Damian Lillard — a duo that has already struck fear into the hearts of their opponents.
At the same time, however, some NBA executives have apparently become more fearful of the implications of this landscape-shifting deal.
Did Milwaukee Bucks Overreach?
The biggest piece the Bucks had to give up in exchange for Dame was Jrue Holiday. For their part, the Portland Trail Blazers saw no need for the five-time All-Defensive combo guard, which is why they decided to flip him to the Boston Celtics in exchange for Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams, and two future first-round picks.
Portland definitely got quite a haul out of all this. However, according to NBA insider Zach Lowe, executives from around the league are paying more attention to the fact that Boston just got a whole lot better with the arrival of Holiday.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Lowe Post podcast, Lowe revealed how some execs fear that the Bucks have not only doomed themselves with this move but potentially, the rest of the NBA as well:
“I got 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 inadvertently helped their biggest rival more than they realized they did — and maybe more than they helped themselves,'” Lowe said, via Darren Hartwell of NBC Sports Boston.
Boston Celtics Strike Gold
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:
“I heard from a couple of front office executives from good Eastern Conference teams, and the texts that I received in the immediate wake of the trade were two and three words long, to the tone of, ‘Well f— us,’ or ‘Oof, this sucks,'” Lowe said.
Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Kristaps Porzingis. That’s Boston’s projected starting lineup. They also have the likes of Al Horford, Payton Pritchard, and Lamar Stevens, to name a few, coming off the bench. At this point, it’s only right that the rest of the league is worried about the Celtics.
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