Kyrie Irving trade could involve Bucks if Celtics’ package falls through

The Cleveland Cavaliers still need to make a decision on whether to accept the Boston Celtics’ trade of an injured Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and the Brooklyn Nets’ unprotected 2018 first-round pick for Kyrie Irving.

If Cavs’ general manager Koby Altman decides the outlook on Thomas’s hip injury is too bleak, ESPN’s Zach Lowe reports there’s another team ready to swoop down in the Irving sweepstakes: The Milwaukee Bucks.

Writes Lowe:

The Milwaukee Bucks lurk on the fringes of the Irving bidding with an offer centered around Malcolm Brogdon, the reigning NBA Rookie of the Year, and Khris Middleton, sources say. The Bucks have not yet put a first-round pick on the table, sources say, but the bet here is that they would to get the deal done -- or if Irving showed any interest in staying in Milwaukee long-term.

Between Thomas, Crowder, Zizic, and the Nets’ pick, each layer to Boston’s offer fulfills a need for Cleveland. Milwaukee’s barely touches that offer with a meter stick, even if IT4 can’t play.

Both Brogdon and Middleton are quality two-way players who can handle the ball, shoot threes, and defend the perimeter. But neither are the explosive scorer Thomas or Irving is and the Bucks couldn’t get their hands on a pick as good as Brooklyn’s if they tried.

Irving is one of the best scoring point guards in the NBA, and putting him next to Giannis Antetokounmpo would create one of the more formidable two-man tandems in the league.

But the Bucks would be trading two of their best perimeter defenders for a one-way player who becomes a free agent and can leave in 2019. Milwaukee was not among Irving’s preferred lists of destinations (neither was Boston), and Irving would be leaving one ball-dominant wing to play with another.

Minimal.

The Cavaliers have Derrick Rose as a security blanket in case Thomas’s hip recovery takes longer than expected. When you have the best player in the world with a deep supporting cast, a past-his-prime former MVP should be enough to keep the team afloat at his position.

Cleveland shouldn’t deal with Milwaukee for two reasons: The Bucks don’t have an electrifying scorer in the backcourt — something LeBron James needs to take the load off — and they don’t have the top-five pick the Cavs need to prepare for the future.

But if Altman is legitimately scared off by Thomas’s physical, there’s no telling where he could trade his disgruntled point guard.