Title contender interested in trading for Dejounte Mur

As the Lakers’ trade talks with the Hawks start to dissolve their trade talk concerning Dejounte Murray, it seems like the Milwaukee Bucks are looking to trade for the All-Star.

According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, the Bucks are “registering interest in trading” for Murray. The Bucks are second in the Eastern Conference and only four games back of the Celtics for first place.

While the squad has looked like a title contender, they have had some defensive issues that have led the franchise to struggle at times. This includes a recent three-game stretch where the squad lost all of their games. The squad also didn’t do well to start the season with Damian Lillard as they struggled to defend well.

The major problem that the Bucks will run into trading for the point guard is the fact that they don’t really have first-round picks to do a deal. The squad still owes a couple of picks to the Pelicans for the Jrue Holiday trade. The team doesn’t have any other picks as all of the rest of their tradable picks are owed to the Trailblazers. With that in mind, do the Bucks have any assets to make this deal?

To be quite honest, it will be incredibly hard for the Bucks to swing a deal for Murray if the Hawks want a big pick return. Currently, the team can only offer swaps on first-round picks in 2024, 2026, 2028 and 2030. Those picks would have even less value since the Pelicans or Trailblazers have the best pick in those years.

Still, the Bucks could offer three or four swaps which would make somewhat of a good pick return. They could also offer Bobby Portis, Pat Connaughton, and Andre Jackson Jr. While this might not be the best player return in the world, this would allow the Hawks to continue to compete after trading Murray.

It’s unclear what the future holds for the Hawks but the ownership group and upper management could be swayed into competing now and just hitting a reset on the entire Trae Young era before trading for Murray. No matter what happens, the Bucks will probably be connected with Dejounte Murray for the rest of the trade deadline until he gets traded.