The Milwaukee Bucks just waived and stretched Damian Lillard’s contract, and the Boston Celtics should be thrilled. Lillard tore his Achilles in the playoffs after returning from a blood clotting issue that held him out for most of the final stretch of the regular season.
Lillard had two years and $113 million left on his deal, but will now become an unrestricted free agent as he recovers from his Achilles injury. Milwaukee opened up some financial flexibility in the short term, but in the long run, they will have a lot of dead money on the books:
Roughly $22.6 million for each of the next five seasons, to be exact.
What does Damian Lillard move mean for Celtics?
There are some mixed messages coming out of Milwaukee at the moment. On one hand, Giannis Antetokounmpo took to Twitter to seemingly complain about the decision to waive Lillard. Simultaneously, reports have indicated that he was key in recruiting Myles Turner to Milwaukee—a move that almost forced the Bucks to waive Lillard.
The Bucks have made a bunch of decisions with the hope of improving the roster and rebuilding the team around Antetokounmpo. They re-signed Kevin Porter Jr., Gary Trent Jr., and Jericho Sims, they extended Bobby Portis, they signed Gary Harris and Turner, and they traded Pat Connaughton to dump his salary.
Every move the Bucks are making seems to be with the mindset that Antetokounmpo is sticking around. But the way they are doing it is a complete and utter mess.
But for the Celtics, that couldn’t be any better.
As it stands, the Bucks are slated to roll out a starting lineup that looks something like Porter Jr., Trent Jr., Kyle Kuzma, Antetokounmpo, and Turner.
Yuck.
The second-best scorer on the team will be Kuzma, and after that, they barely have anyone who can piece together a 15-point-per-game season, at least, not on a super competitive roster.
Yet the Bucks still seem intent on helping Antetokounmpo reach the playoffs.
In the short term, that could be good for the Celtics, who may not be the most competitive next season after failing to retain Luke Kornet in free agency, trading away Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, and losing Jayson Tatum to a ruptured Achilles. Milwaukee pushing forward relentlessly (and perhaps foolishly) may help the Celtics’ lottery odds if the Bucks try to gun for the postseason.
But in the long run, as the Celtics look to reshape their roster around Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick white, and Payton Pritchard moving forward, the Bucks’ roster-building strategy looks like it could implode at any moment, leaving Boston with one less serious rival in the East.
Milwaukee is a mess, and in the best way possible for the Celtics.