The agreement between the Bucks and Kings that would send Bogdan Bogdanovic to Milwaukee in a sign-and-trade is in peril, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic, who reports that there was never an agreement from Bogdanovic to join the Bucks.
That element of the deal has become a major issue, according to Amick, who hears from a high-ranking team official that it’s not clear whether the move will be completed when free agency opens. The deal, which was reported late on Monday night, would send Bogdanovic and Justin James to the Bucks in exchange for Ersan Ilyasova, D.J. Wilson, and Donte DiVincenzo.
It’s hard to know what to make of this update. As I pointed out on Monday night when the story broke, it’s very unusual for a deal that involves a free agent changing teams to be reported several days before free agency actually begins. The NBA’s tampering rules would technically prohibit the Bucks from having any contact with Bogdanovic before Friday, so on one hand, a miscommunication wouldn’t be a major surprise.
On the other hand, it’s very unlikely that the Bucks and Kings would have agreed to a deal involving five players and overlooked the fact that Bogdanovic wasn’t fully on board with it. If Bogdanovic never agreed, it’s also odd that there wasn’t any real pushback on Monday’s reporting until now.
As Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report observes (via Twitter), it sounds like either someone “badly” messed up or the Kings and Bucks took heat from the NBA for leaking a deal involving a free agent well before the start of free agency and are now trying to walk it back.
Needless to say, we’ll be keeping a close eye on this situation this week to see if the Bucks, Kings, and Bogdanovic eventually work something out or if it falls apart entirely.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Nba probably stepping in for tampering
THIS!
According to Zach Lowe and Brian Windhorst, a team has to be willing to pay for the tampering investigation. I don’t know if it has to be the Kings since they are making the trade. If it is the Kings that have to do it though I don’t see how a tampering investigation ever happens.
Why wouldn’t a pro ball player want to move to Milwaukee??
I mean, other than the weather, the total lack of a nightlife, and the lack of direct flights to all the places you’d like to travel.
Unbelievable that team hasn’t moved yet.
Better to stay in the paradise city that everyone here would rather be if they’re being honest, Sacramento.
LOL you got me there.
But at least you’re an hour or so away from the bay in Sac.
Milwaukee to Chicago is 1.5 hours
Haha a lot ofthese players don’t want to play for small market teams but these owners get mad when they want to leave
How do you define “nightlife”?
Milwaukee isn’t THAT bad, and whatever is missing in Milwaukee is 90mi south anyway.
Up here like you’re talking about Portland, Salt Lake City, or OKCity.
I wouldn’t lump Portland in with SLC or OKC.
Considering how much trouble players get into experiencing the “nightlife” of big cities, maybe the NBA should consider moving Miami, LA, and NY to places like Fargo, Albuquerque, Birmingham, and Omaha just to save the players from themselves.
I say jokingly of course, but with the COVID-inspired attendance limits relaxing the need for large population areas, this would be the perfect time to experiment with attracting fans from smaller areas. For the next year or two, they should have teams adopt a “sister city” on the other side of the country and play their home games against the other conference there. The logistics would be tough, but not impossible. Instead of Western teams traveling all the way to Boston, Boston could relocate to Seattle or Vegas or Boise for a month and play all of the Western Conference teams. You could stagger it to where you have 2-3 doing that on both coasts throughout the year and really create something cool. And you would also make fans from forgotten areas feel as if they matter to the NBA too.
It would never actually happen, but it’d be cool if it did.
They have 28 years more on the lease for their beautiful new arena in an impressive and still growing arena district so it looks like they are not going anywhere anytime soon.
I can tell you haven’t been to my home city, where I can fly from any place in the US too. Where the hell are you even from?
I’ve been to Milwaukee. I actually thought it was nice. But I couldn’t imagine being anywhere near the Canadian border after October 1st or before April 1st.
And I’m from Denver, which is only 1.5 steps above Milwaukee (much better weather, more directs but still not enough for world travelers).
Sounds like you are a crybaby Jason Lancaster.
I’ve been called worse.
Jason, don’t be such a Richard. I know you probably can’t help it
Sounds like a post from another person who thinks civilization only exists on the east and west coasts and all of us in the midwest are just in flyover territory.
I live in Denver.
Lack of nightlife? Ever been to Water Street in Milwaukee??
No.
Also, are you telling me that Milwaukee has one whole street that’s fun after midnight? Because that’s nothing to brag about.
Lol. If a players main decision to go to a team is because of the city’s “nightlife”, he should reevaluate his goals.
I suggest you find some other activities to enhance your life, Jason. I’ve seen you on here bashing Milwaukee before and it’s quite lame. Milwaukee and any Midwest city doesn’t care what you think. The teams are supported heartily by the home fans. Teams don’t move around based on your narrow perspective.
Listen, if bashing Milwaukee is bad, why is it that nearly everyone I met in Wisconsin couldn’t believe I was staying in downtown Milwaukee last time I visited?
I’d bet there are more people IN Wisconsin that have bad things to say about Milwaukee than people who don’t live there.
Because people who live in the sticks talk down about the city, just like people who live in the city talk down about the people in the sticks.
Oh no! Lol
Didn’t he say he wanted to play with Giannis?
Just when things were starting to look positive…
Do we know which side the deal leaked out of yet?
Maybe the Kings’ and Bucks’ FOs spent time reading the comments here, and came to believe that a team can just initiate a S&T one of their FAs to another team. It never made sense. It was reported that BB wanted to play with GA. OK, but does that explain him agreeing to a contract without contact with the Bucks before ever being in the actual FA market?
Lakers should look to trade kuzma plus talon tucker etc for bogi ASAP if this falls through! Fits ad’s time line
What a shi**y return for Sacramento. I’d never say yes if I’m McNair. Lakers have nothing good to trade. Kuzma isn’t good.
Is this a joke?
Betcha some other teams called and complained to the NBA because they never got the chance to make an offer to Bogdan, which might have paid him even more than the S&T.
I think this makes certain that Giannis has not committed to a new contract with these moves. Bogdanovic’s reps probably sought out that answer, got it and realized their client could be joining a really ugly franchise should Giannis walk after this year, as well as Holiday.
He took a few beats to know he doesn’t want to go without assurance the Bucks will keep Giannis and his agents realize they haven’t signed anything yet. Now the Bucks will look like fools in their desperation to please Giannis and will be in tighter spot with the Holiday trade. If I’m Milwaukee’s owner, just fire the management now. Set a bidding war for Giannis and start over.
This seems pessimistic and unrealistic. Bogdan is a good not great player, he hardly hurts there chance to resign giannis. They added another all star that plays well off ball and potentially another young scorer. If this trade doesn’t get through they can still add by trade
Neo –
I think you’re throwing crap at the wall and hoping it sticks. You talk like you know exactly what’s happening but you don’t have any clue. If you’re right you’ll be bragging about it for a month. If you’re wrong you’ll never admit it and you’ll come up with some other BS story and blab that one to all of us
KCJ: no I’ll seek you out to apologize for my hypothetical guess to what is happening being very wrong if it turns out that way. I am not emotionally invested at all in the outcome so I apologize if my interpretation hurts you. Perhaps Bogdanovic just didn’t like leaving the west coast. Perhaps Milwaukee can trade for another ideal piece to construct a champion. Perhaps Giannis had always wanted to stay with the Bucks and he’s loyal to them no matter what. It’s not my interpretation but maybe that is the story we should try speaking into existence.
This is just the league pissed off so now they are acting like the bucks never spoke with him to agree to come here.
Oh, this sounds like a fascinating conspiracy theory– just curious, how deep does it go?
Hearing that the league also runs a pizza restaurant in Washington …
This thing can kill a team’s chemistry when the three players who were being traded have to “come back” and play the season with the team that tried to dump them. Trade falls through and the probability that Giannis leaves goes up. Bad GM screw up in the making.
You sure the Bucks GM is the one who broke this story to the media?
I thought he was restricted FA. Well then it would have to be a sign n trade right. What’s the big deal. Bucks better not let this fall apart. He’s perfect for this team.
Interesting, makes me think even less of Bogdan. I thought he was average at best before, now average and he doesn’t want to win. The deal is probably fair value, but he doesn’t want to play with the MVP on a stout team that just took over the regular season? If there wasnt a shutdown, maybe the Bucks dont lose their mojo and the Heat dont gain theirs. 2021 is the Bucks to lose. Nets will only win on the backs of their medical staff.
Milwaukee to Chicago 1.5 hours
So he doesn’t want a contender in the bucks?? I guess he prefers a suck team like the one he was on..