Locked on Bucks OT: Are the Milwaukee Bucks actually interested in Brandon Ingram??

Locked on Bucks OT: Are the Milwaukee Bucks actually interested in Brandon Ingram??

today’s bonus edition of lock on box we examine the rumor that came out yesterday Visa V Brandon Ingram is there any Merit to this are the Bucks actually interested in Brandon Ingram and spoiler alert is it even possible is there any way the Bucks could acquire him Camille and I get into what you need to know about that rumor next unlocked on bucks you are locked on bucks your daily Milwaukee Bucks podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day welcome into lock on bucks I am Justin Garcia you can hear me on the Bucks radio network joined by Camille Davis you can find her on the technical file podcast the pack a day podcast the carry the G in MK podcast and we thank you for making locked on bucks your first listen every day free and available wherever you the uh the show we put out yesterday we talked about oh by the way uh the Pelicans would they be interested in Brook Lopez and speaking of there was this um I don’t know would would would you call this a rumor it seemed like this was just a will gillery putting out hey keep an eye on Brandon Ingram and there’s teams that are interested in him and then we kind of take these pieces and run with oh well he did say the Bucks are a team to monitor it doesn’t necessarily mean bucks are really targeting Brandon Ingram so it was one of those rumors reports that was out there yesterday that just seemed to all of a sudden Sprout up into something much larger than in all likelihood it really is yeah yeah it’s one of those things I had to go and look because I saw it on Twitter when people are like the bugs have an interest and I like where’s this coming from so I checked Will’s Twitter I didn’t see any there thing there I went to the athletic and I found the article that mentioned the Bucks and Brandon Ingram and within the article he’s mentioning the fact that you know free agency it’s normally a numbers game like there are teams that make sense for moves and then as free agency goes on those moves don’t pan out so you have to Pivot and it talked about how the Hawks were a team that were possibly in the Brandon Ingram sweep Stakes but then that didn’t pan out how Philly could have been a team as well for him but then they got you know Paul George they don’t really need that or Sacramento but then they got Demar de rozan so they were like you know teams like the Bucks and the Clippers could use Ingram to boost their chances and he says in the article quote but would have trouble assuming the massive Financial Risk of acquiring him end quote so it’s one of those things to me where it sounds like yes the bugs are interested because it’s like hey it’s a young bucket like really interesting seeing how we could do that but also we don’t have many Pathways to really make this happen the report that was out there um on Twitter it’s not a report so the the aggregating that took place on Twitter was um we won’t name who put it out there but as the potential Brandon Ingram Landing spots grow thinner in Number the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Clippers could be teams monitoring the Allstar perr will gillery um as you pointed out when you read the exact uh paragraph in the story quite a stretch they included the teams like the Bucks and Clippers could use Ingram to boost their title chances dot dot dot removing the biggest piece of the story and just immediately jump to the pressure on the Pelicans grows with each day that they fail to solve their Brandon Ingram problem um yeah look and and I you know earlier in the day too the it first came across my desk if you will when our friend Tai winched of the eurostep pointed it out and and also said what we’re saying of I’m not taking shots at will gillery here but this is kind of the cons of of what you get and I’m not taking shots necessarily at the Twitter account X account that put this one out there but these are the cons within story aggregation that you get of oh oh that piece was interesting let me put that out there without putting out the other sentence to it so that’s how this first came to my attention when I saw the tweet from Tai and thought wait a minute I mean I’m sure if the right deal came along and the Bucks weren’t up against the financial restrictions that they have they would surely say okay I’ll I’ll listen let me kick the tires and see what this is actually going to cost us um but it doesn’t even really get to that point the reporting by Will within this story yeah and that’s the thing like the aggregation accounts like I get the appeal of them because it’s one place you can go and get a lot of information it’s like I don’t have to follow these different people I don’t might not know who to follow so I’m just GNA trust in this source to kind of just Del loot everything and then give it to me and like just so I can be informed but sometimes you do have to dig a little bit deeper into it like this example that we’re talking about here where um someone might read that initial tweet and just think like oh yeah the Bucks are in on it but we mentioned first of all there’s no real way to do that as a one-on-one trade between the Bucks and the Pelicans because of where the Bucks are with that second apron they can’t aggregate salaries and there’s no real one salary on the Bucks that matches Brandon Ingram’s 36 million uh that he is making even if you were like hey just trade Chris Middleton Chris Middleton makes a hair under 32 mil that’s not going to get it yeah Brook Lopez as we’ve mentioned before in the past is 23 million and then it continues to drop uh thereafter so like unless there was a third team involved maybe even a fourth team like it would have to get one of those situations to make that move happen um but again not sure how likely that would be for the bucks at this moment so there I mean there is one way to get it done but it opens up a whole different can of worms and I suppose we’ve never even addressed the fit question just because it does seem like there’s no Avenue to making this happen for the buck so we’ll spend a little bit of time on hey would Brandon Ingram even fit with the Bucks and who would need to go and that one way they could actually uh make a trade for Brandon Ingram as you pointed out the salaries of both Brook Lopez and Chris Middleton I would add an asterisk on how they could actually get it done including both those names so we’ll get into that conversation coming up next un lockd on Buck this next uh segment of lockdown Buck is sponsored by better help and look comparisons it’s the thief of Joy I’m sure you’ve heard that line before whether it’s toiling around on social media constantly looking at what’s going on in others lives rather than focusing on what’s happening within your own it’s easy to Envy what we see that’s out there with others it might look like somebody else has it all together on their Instagram or their X accounts but in reality they probably don’t therapy can help you focus on what you want 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spot then like is is that part of the move there so like theoretically if you needed a a starting shoot or small forward and Middleton’s not there like you could take that chance but Brandon Ingram as I mentioned he’s a bucket like that’s the way I’ve always described Brandon Ingram he has a really smooth offensive game um he likes to put up shots as well um some might say he’s not super effective at all of the shots that he’s putting up but he’s going some code for you hey you can look at the stats to make your own conclusions from that one but um the defense hasn’t been there for him either and we’ve talked a lot about what kind of pieces you need around this team and defense happens to be a part of it um and on top of that as well we’ve mentioned how this team has injury concerns now while Ingram is younger he has not played at least 65 games since his rookie year with the Lakers uh every year since then there has been some type of element that keeps him out for a chunk of time so that’s a concern for him as well going forward so like does he fit in a way I don’t think it’s the cleanest fit uh but I’m sure there are some who would say if you can get a chance to get a 26 27 year old you know scorer uh you take that chance and putting them next to Dame and Giannis you can think of the offensive cap possibilities with that but there are some defensive liabilities in that as well uh yeah last year the games played were uh the most since that rookie year that reference and it was 64 games played now um look kind of like when we we brought up the name of Pat conon on the show and and whenever you bring that name up you kind of say it and duck just in case something is thrown at you but there is that contingency of Bucks fans that will be quick to point out well so what Chris Middleton doesn’t play that many games either and he’s injury-prone um and look I I think you and I both talked about this recently on the show too I mean there’s been a lot of unfortunate luck for Chris Middleton I’m not going to call a guy injury prone for slipping on a wet spot and getting some other procedures done while he’s rehabing something else but the fact of the matter is he’s missed a lot of time since uh dating all the way back to what the 1819 season Mike buen holzer’s first in Milwaukee just to put context on it he’s missed a significant and actually I take that back the year they won the title I think he only missed six games so he’s missed a a signif ific chunk of time the last three years especially so is Brandon Ingram but I think a couple of things that you would point to I’ll get to the logistics that I teased in a second here but you would have to assume in addition of Brandon Ingram to the Bucks roster if we’re even going to entertain that and start to move down that path would come at the expense of Chris Middleton he would not be on the roster anymore so your view would be okay Chris Middleton there about the same size uh Chris Middleton has a little more thickness to him than Brandon in not a lot more actually and that’s not a knock on Chris as much as it’s to point out how slight Brandon Ingram is but other than that wingspan their size it’s about the same you mentioned uh Brandon Ingram where he likes to operate from pretty lethal in the mid-range though we saw some more statistics pointed out in the last couple of days of hey by the way you know who was the best in the mid-range last season in the past couple Seasons right Chris Middleton um the one hangup that I start to have is you know look number one I I think it’s difficult to just assign playoff failures and successes to one player especially when it’s not a huge sample size but I don’t think Brandon Ingram has draped himself in glory in the two postseason appearances that he’s had he only averaged 14 points per game in that first round series the Pelicans had this past year and um the other piece of his game is look Chris Middleton is by no means a high volume three-point shooter but if you think hey I would like to see Chris take a lot more threes I hate to tell you you’re gonna want to see Brandon Ingram take a lot more threes it is just not part of his shot diet yeah yeah he averaged a little bit under four three-point attempts uh per game this past season and the playoffs I mean it was a really strange playoff run uh for him this past year as well with just some of the times that he was not on the court uh that was tited by his head coach and then the times where he did play but to your point about the the frequency the volume of the three-point shot it’s not very high for Brandon Ingram um but we gotta that’s all cool we we discuss the fit we get that I gotta hear Justin what is the what is this hypothetical how to get it done right how to get it done be acquired I’m just really here like the whole time like how could they do this all right we will open that can of worms and and dig into let’s say this happens here are two things that would need to happen for the bucks we’ll get into that conversation coming up after this unlocked on bucks well we all love sports so much that we never want them to stop but just as the playoffs have now wound down we’re starting to get fewer and fewer games it means the sports aren’t sporting like we want them to but FanDuel allows you to keep the sports going whenever you want all you have to do is open up the app and dream up bets any time you’re in the mood this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily that’s right something for everyone every day all summer long head over to fanduel.com and start making the most out of your summer FanDuel official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball all right so if the Bucks were to get this deal done you mentioned some of the contract particulars so Brandon Ingram makes more money than Brook Lopez he makes more money than Chris Middleton um look one way I I suppose there’s two ways to point out here one of them would be a series of moves for the buck so something like we talked about uh yesterday two days ago when we said trade Brook Lopez in theory to the Pistons you bring back a Jaylen Duren there you get a big and you say save some money and and you could use that to as as we pointed out names like hey would High Smith use your tax or your non-t tax pyramid level um well it would also free up enough money that you could then take back more money in a trade though um you know I would actually have to crunch the numbers again to see where would they be exactly assuming that they make that trade because I I think what we said it would save them aund 19 is million dollars so that would take you down to about 169 million on your cap figure um which would be under the tax but making this trade then so that would make it possible to make another trade with the Pelicans where in theory you could say hey you guys are looking to compete now and win now how about you take Chris Middleton you so what he did in the playoffs last year he’d be a great scoring option next to Zion Williamson and we’ll take back Brandon to get younger by Taking Back the more money on on Brandon Ingram’s contract um you’re going up what fiveish million dollars it would also hard cap you at the first apron so you’d be pretty close to that at 178 you can’t go above that if you’re taking back more in a trade the other way that they could do it is and I think it was Bobby marks that I heard talking about this the other day and this isn’t exclusive to Brandon inam to be clear the Bucks could technically do this in any deal that’s out there to get under um that second apron which you know in theory as we mentioned hey what if you trade one of those salaries that may not be quite as desirable you don’t have the sweeteners to add well technically this is one way that you could do it you could make a series of Trades with the same team so in other words again we’re not suggesting it’s going to happen but let’s just say um you were to trade out Pat conon 218 and he said we have nothing else to attach by way of draft picks maybe you’re interested in Mar on Bo champ but because we’re in the second apron we can’t combine salaries we can’t send out two but we could send you Pat Conan for let’s you can take back cash you can’t send out cash if you’re in the that second apron we could send you Pat conon for $200,000 and then in the second trade we can send you Maran Bo champ for you know whatever it is for that player if if we’re under that figure so the Bucks could do something like that with the Pelicans where you would say Hey you need a big and you also like Chris Middleton to basically replace Brandon Ingram we can send you Brook Lopez and I I suppose we’d have to check the the pel’s cap situation but we can send you Brook Lopez and you give us cash then we’ll send you Chris Middleton for Brandon Ingram that should work under the CBA so that is the way the bucks could technically do that but that’s a whole lot of moving Pieces Just to basically you know tread water I mean you’d be getting younger but do you think Brandon Ingram is an upgrade over Chris Middleton upgrade same as or worse than how would you classify it I wouldn’t say an upgrade uh best case is same as yeah best case yeah yeah and then on top of that too given the fact that he is on spiring like this is the last year of Brandon Ingram’s contract and you would have to also look to extend him uh and what would that number be is that number I would assume it’s going to be higher than what Chris Middleton comes back for um so like is it worth having this 26 year old at a higher a higher amount uh going forward who as we’ve mentioned he he has the mid-range game not necessarily to the same level as Chris Middleton he’s not as high of a volume of a three-point shooter what he does give you is that youth uh and the possibility of the Improvement that can come with that um but the defense isn’t there one might argue Chris Milton do have that much defense left anyways but we have seen historically uh Chris Middleton just be a higher IQ uh Defender so I think having those aspects and that on the team especially also the playmaking of Chris Middleton as a secondary ball handler when needed especially if he’s running with like bench units I think you would really miss that uh if you sub that out for Brandon Ingram who doesn’t necessarily give you as much playmaking as Chris Middleton um and it’ll be at a higher price point as well so that’s how I feel about it like it’s an interesting concept I can see why it’s appealing to some people it just doesn’t necessarily Tickle My Fancy too much so uh in closing on a scale of one to 10 what would you place it on on how serious the Bucks would actually be in in acquiring Brandon Ingram I’ll start it and say a one yeah I was gonna say like a two and a half three like it doesn’t doesn’t feel super real but what I do think is real is the idea that the are calling around and trying to see like hey can we get attached to this particular trade or can we find a way to wiggle ourselves in here to be a third or fourth team so that we can try to get something out of this as well and look once the dust settles on free agency we can open up the conversation a lot more here and find take the full view of okay here’s everything that happened I truly believe Paul George leaving the Clippers and going to the Sixers just caused seismic shifts to a lot of teams out there and Brandon Ingram I think was impacted by it as much as anyone because I think we all kind of assume Paul George it’s just a game of chicken and he’s gonna stay in Los Angeles with the Clippers so then you wondered okay maybe Brandon Ingram’s a Philadelphia Target that he could be a guy that they use some assets to get and they could pay next year and down the line but when you look at everything that happened with some of these names and and guys that took less money too good players that took less money it just showed you how much Paul George signing with one of the teams that had money to spend rather than staying with his own club really changed everything and just dried up all the money that was out there um for other teams so that certainly worth a dive into once all of this uh the free agency period wraps up for all these teams and and we’ll get into that in the uh the coming days here but uh both had a very very small chance this Brandon Ingram story that bubbled up uh yesterday is actually something to keep an eye on it and could come to fruition for the uh bucks as we mentioned summer league starts this weekend so we’ll see if we get an update on the summer league roster for the Bucs a little bit later today for Camille I’m Justin we’ll talk to you once again later today on locked on bucks

Justin and Camille dig into the tweet that spread like wildfire…are the Bucks actually interested in Brandon Ingram? We dig into BI’s fit in Milwaukee and how the Bucks could even pull off such an acquisition on Locked on Bucks OT

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