JULY 20: The signing is official, the Bucks announced (via Twitter).
JULY 16: Free agent swingman Gary Trent Jr. has agreed to sign a one-year contract with the Bucks, agents Rich Paul and Lucas Newton tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). Shams Charania had reported on Monday that Milwaukee was among the contending teams pursuing Trent.
While Wojnarowski doesn’t specify the financial terms, Milwaukee is currently operating over the second tax apron and can only offer a minimum-salary contract to an outside free agent like Trent, so it seems safe to assume the deal won’t be worth more than that.
Trent is a talented scorer and shooter who averaged 16.4 points per game during his three-and-a-half seasons in Toronto and has made 38.6% of his career three-point attempts. He’s not much of a play-maker and is inconsistent defensively, but he’s opportunistic on that end of the court, having averaged 1.5 steals per contest across his past three seasons.
A 25-year-old player with that sort of résumé isn’t typically available for the veteran’s minimum, and reporting as recently as least week indicated Trent was reluctant to settle for an offer in that range, so it represents a coup for the Bucks to get him at that price.
Milwaukee had been in the market for help at shooting guard after losing starter Malik Beasley to Detroit earlier this month. According to Wojnarowski, the Bucks recruited Trent “hard” during his free agency.
Trent earned $18.5MM in 2023/24 and had reportedly hoped to earn a raise as an unrestricted free agent. While the Raptors are said to have a discussed the possibility of a deal in the $15MM range, they never formally put that offer on the table and essentially moved on from Trent in late June after drafting Ja’Kobe Walter, exercising Bruce Brown‘s team option, and taking on salary in a trade with Sacramento, as Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca tweets.
Once they officially finalize their deal with Trent, the Bucks will have 15 players on standard contracts, including 14 on fully guaranteed salaries and Andre Jackson on a partially guaranteed deal.
The move to Milwaukee will reunite Trent with Bucks point guard Damian Lillard — the two were teammates in Portland from 2018-21.
Damnit, could be a good signing for the Bucks. Backcourt defense set to be atrocious, but they’re going to have a lot more spacing on offense.
Trent literally can’t be worse than Beasley in that regard. Holy mackerel was he bad on D.
That’s kind of missing the point. Just because Beasley was “awful “doesn’t mean it’s cool that Trent is just “bad,” That’s like being psyched if your new SG hits 30 percent of his three pointers because your last SG shot 28 percent.
It’s bad either way
There’s a difference between “bad” and “among the worst ever”, which Beasley was. To use your metaphor, it’s like your prior SG hit 0 threes and the next one shot 32%.
Trent isn’t a good defender, but he’s not far off average on D with a competent system. That’s a significant improvement over Beasley, who could not have done much worse.
“it’s like your prior SG hit 0 threes and the next one shot 32%.”
I mean I guess if you want to be extremely hyperbolic that would fit in with my metaphor.
Doubling down on nonsense as satire is common practice. The difference between Beasley and Trent on defense is vast. Phrasing it like you did is silly.
Wait,
You didn’t realize I was trying to be silly?
Where are the Lakers?
They have 5.2 million to offer
Lakers have nice gesture?
If Rich Paul and LeBron wanted him, don’t you think he would have gone to the Lakers?
All time bag fumble. Turned down 15m/ year to take the min. eeeeek
Is it as bad as Dennis Shroder turning down 4/$84 and ending up with 1/$6?
But certainly a big steal for Milwaukee. They can offer him plenty of playing time to rebuild his stock for a multi-year deal next year.
Schroder has made 90M over his career and he’s got a few years to go. link to spotrac.com
I think he’s gonna be ok.
All time ?! Stop it! Caleb Martin just turned down a 5-60m to live in the beautiful city of Miami(which also has 0 state tax). To signing for 4-32 in Philly. Shroeder comes to mind a few years back, but the ultimate bag fumbler, Is Nerlens Noel. Who turned down a 77m deal years ago and has never been able to recoup half of that.
Who was the guy that “had to feed his family” – Sprewell?
Correct!
I don’t think Rich Paul is a good agent after all, for me He is Clark Kent a LeBron is the real Superman, for me LeBron is running Klutch Sport behind the curtain making all the decisions for the agency. RICH PAUL is Clark Kent and LeBron is Superman.
Noel sued that agent, got a couple $$ back.
The way I read it, he didn’t turn down $15M, it was “discussed” but never actually offered to him.
Based on what was reported here the other day, it seemed as if there was, or rumored to be, at least 1 offer above the vet minimum..which makes me wonder why he chose the Bucks. Playing time promise? Is the other team(s) expected to tank.err, be bad..? Or..(?). No doubt he just wanted to reunite with Lame Time.
He was never offered a $15M, as the report states.
He’d lost his starting job. Nothing about his performance in the last 2 years suggests he’s worth even $5M, which is why the Lakers didn’t offer him.
Huge upgrade for the Bucks
Are the Bucks allowed to trade current players for just a future draft pick (or picks)?
That would be allowed, yeah.
Thanks! I wonder…
Yew Laker nation, wouldn’t even go to L.A on minimum lol.
The fact Trent was looking for a raise in FA, if true, means his agent is a complete moron. Even with the new media deal, no one was paying close to 25MM AAV for a guy who is a good but not great shooter while bringing absolutely nothing else to the table except for a bit of self creation ability. Zero playmaking. Horrible rebounder. Not a good defender even though he can rack up some steals. Should’ve been happy staying at that 15MM mark.
That would be Rich Paul wouldn’t it? No doubt tried recruiting Trent Jr to L.A.
I’m sure Gary is currently wrestling with the notion of ‘F you Rich, did you play me? Did you cost me $12 million this season?
This is a good landing spot for Trent. Is there another team in the NBA where he would be in a situation to start? He should have plenty of open looks. As for Milwaukee, was there a better free-agent option available? And they’re getting him for a discount because they sold him on the opportunity to start beside Dame, Middleton, Giannis, and Lopez.
Trent for the minimum is wild
Fumbled that bag huh. Klutch got everyone believing they are worth 30 mil. Should have accepted that 15 mil.
This is a good signing. They need more reliable scoring. And Trent has something to prove. He’s still young enough to get better. He is a solid NBA scorer. Good move.
An agent has no incentive to f up a contract. Literally taking food out of their own mouth. As for “inconsistent defensively”… When he’s on he can really put on the clamps. Then there are games that make you wonder if he cares at all. Can be infuriating at times, regardless, wish him all the best. Nice buy low contract.
I really qonder what is Denver doing?
Milwaukee will never be able to walk back firing Budenholzer and then trading Jrue and Grayson Allen for Dame.
Add in Middleton’s injuries and the Bucks window is closed.
Bucks window is open as long as Giannis is with the team and healthy
Why isn’t the bucks playing Devine Eke in summer league? For the first two games he hasn’t played a minute. Besides t smith, we could use another frontcourt guy off the bench..
it’s crazy too why we have so many guards on the summer roster..
Bucks should have kept Holiday. He was great with that team. Boston fans should be thanking Milwaukee for letting him go. They won the championship because of him.
He’s a role player, but Gary Trent on a minimum contract is kinda nuts.
This is a direct result of these recent CBA’s, influx of talent every year and agents/players unable to see this new reality.
Has Fulz found a team yet?
“Caleb-ed” should be the word of this offseason …. when a player and/or his agent fails to recognize the new realities of the latest CBA.
Can you explain ? Really curious to see what has changed.
I’m actually legitimately surprised he decided to sign for that. I understand wanting to play on a better team and with some crazy talent .. but damn minimum? I’m thinking it was a wink wink so they can give him a 2 or 3 year deal next offseason. I’m sure some random rule is blocking something like always . Kings would have given him more than vet minimum. Bi annual exception, yada
If he shows up and balls out. He will get his.
Bucks need him. He’s in a good position imo.