The Bucks, led by their new coach Larry Drew (who just happened to be the coach in Atlanta last year), had been going hard at Jeff Teague, the Hawks’ restricted free agent point guard.
They got their man according to Adrian Wojnarowski and Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports.
Atlanta Hawks restricted free-agent guard Jeff Teague has signed a four-year, $32 million offer sheet with the Milwaukee Bucks, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
The Hawks have three days to match the offer sheet or Teague will rejoin his old Hawks coach, Larry Drew, in Milwaukee.
There are some reports out of Milwaukee the offer sheet will be signed Thursday morning. The three-day clock starts when he signs the paper.
The Hawks and Bucks had spent days discussing sign-and-trade scenarios around Teague and Monta Ellis, or possibly Brandon Jennings. Nothing came of those and with Jennings signing an offer sheet a sign-and-trade is now off the table. The Bucks may need to renounce the rights to Joel Przybilla to make the math work.
This seems to spell the end of Jennings with the Bucks (unless the Hawks match the offer to Teague). Jennings had been a restricted free agent who reportedly wanted $12 million a year for four years from the Bucks, who balked at a smaller offer. The Bucks still have the rights to Jennings and could match an offer, if one comes in, but it’s not likely if they get Teague.
If you think Teague is a downgrade from Jennings, you haven’t watched a lot of them.
Jennings is certainly the more explosive and athletic player, but he doesn’t use that quickness to get into the lane as much as you would think and when he does he doesn’t finish well (Jennings shot just 43.1 percent in the paint last season). Teague seems to constantly be thinking not just reacting, so he can be hesitant and that can get him in trouble. But he assisted on a higher percentage of his teammates shots — Teague assisted on 36 percent of his teammates buckets while he was on the floor, Jennings 29 (Monta Ellis may have been a factor in Jenning’s numbers). Both guards are solid but not spectacular from three.
Teague is not a great defender, he’s pedestrian, but at least he tries. That puts him well ahead of Jennings.
There is not a ton of room between the two right now, but Teague is showing improvement while Jennings just seems to happily continue to live on bad shot choices. If a team thinks they can change that Jennings has the higher ceiling, but I’d lean Teague right now because I can see his improvement.