Milwaukee Paid for a Championship Window and Got the Championship
Milwaukee acquired Jrue Holiday and the draft rights to No. 60 pick Sam Merrill. The Bucks sent Eric Bledsoe plus 2025 and 2027 first-round picks to New Orleans, granted the Pelicans swap rights in 2024 and 2026, sent George Hill to Oklahoma City and routed R.J. Hampton's draft rights to Denver. The price was enormous, but Holiday became an immediate two-way pillar next to Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton. Milwaukee won the 2021 NBA title in Holiday's first season, giving the Bucks the strongest realized outcome in a transaction built around four different team objectives.
New Orleans Collected the Longest Asset Chain
The Pelicans moved Holiday and Sam Merrill to Milwaukee while sending Zylan Cheatham, Josh Gray, Darius Miller, Kenrich Williams and two second-round picks to Oklahoma City. In return New Orleans received Steven Adams from the Thunder, Eric Bledsoe from Milwaukee, Milwaukee's 2025 and 2027 first-round picks and first-round swap rights in 2024 and 2026. Basketball-Reference records the 2024 swap as exercised and the 2026 swap as not conveying. The 2025 Milwaukee first ultimately became Nolan Traore, while the 2027 first remains future value. New Orleans did not match Milwaukee's immediate ceiling, but it extracted a broad, durable package.
Oklahoma City Was Paid to Connect the Deal
Oklahoma City sent Steven Adams to New Orleans and received George Hill from Milwaukee, a protected Denver first-round pick, four Pelicans players and two Pelicans second-round picks. The Denver first ultimately became the 2023 No. 27 selection, Nick Smith Jr. The 2023 Washington second later became Hunter Tyson, and the 2024 Charlotte second became Tyler Kolek. Some of those assets were moved again before their final draft outcomes, so the historical grade should credit Oklahoma City for the draft capital and transaction flexibility it acquired rather than pretending every later player was a direct Thunder roster return.
Denver's R.J. Hampton Leg Was Real but Narrow
Denver sent a protected future first to Oklahoma City and received the draft rights to R.J. Hampton from Milwaukee. Hampton did not become a long-term Nugget, but his value did not disappear. Denver later included Hampton with Gary Harris and a first-round pick in the Aaron Gordon trade. Hampton therefore supplied a traceable piece of later utility, although only part of that larger Gordon package can reasonably be attributed to this transaction. Compared with Milwaukee's championship result and the larger New Orleans and Oklahoma City packages, Denver's direct return was the least transformative.
The Four-Team Ledger Changes the Read of the Trade
The old Denver-centered asset ledger showed only Hampton and Denver's outgoing first, which left Milwaukee and New Orleans with empty received packages and made the rendered transaction structurally incomplete. The corrected ledger keeps all four teams inside one canonical trade: Holiday and Merrill to Milwaukee; Adams, Bledsoe, two firsts and two swap rights to New Orleans; Hill, Denver's first, four players and two seconds to Oklahoma City; and Hampton to Denver. That reconstruction supports the existing verdict without inventing extra value or treating later trades as if they were part of the original November 2020 exchange.
Final Verdict
Slight Bucks Edge — Milwaukee A+, New Orleans A, Oklahoma City A-, Denver C+. Milwaukee paid the steepest price but converted it into a 2021 championship with Holiday playing a central role. New Orleans secured the deepest long-term package, Oklahoma City added another strong collection of players and picks, and Denver received a prospect whose value later helped in the Aaron Gordon transaction. The Bucks own the best realized result, while the other three teams still produced defensible value from their distinct roles.