Bucks center Brook Lopez was cited as a potential offseason trade candidate at the start of the summer, but we haven’t heard any rumors about the big man since the end of June and it doesn’t sound like that will change anytime soon.
Speaking to Eric Nehm of The Athletic, Bucks general manager Jon Horst said the team has no intention of trading Lopez, whom he called a “core part” of the roster.
“First of all, rumors and chatter are what makes the league so interesting and so fun, so people are always going to speculate and talk about it. And I typically don’t talk about any of this stuff with the media, but I will say, because Brook is so core to who we are, we have zero intentions of trading Brook,” Horst said. “Of course he has value around the league. That’s a credit to him. But we’ve not engaged in any real conversations about trading Brook. There are teams that have a lot of value and interest in him. It’s my job to take calls, receive calls, have conversations, but Brook has been and will continue to be core to who we are.
Lopez is earning $23MM this season in the final year of his current contract, so he’ll become an unrestricted free agent this summer. He’ll also turn 37 next April, so the idea that the Bucks could consider shopping him for younger pieces isn’t outrageous.
Still, the veteran center remains a crucial part of Milwaukee’s starting lineup whose production wouldn’t be easy to replace. Lopez serves as a defensive anchor on one end of the floor, having finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2023, and a floor-spacing threat on the other — he has made 36.9% of his three-pointers over the past three seasons.
“I hope that Brook retires as a Milwaukee Buck,” Horst said. “That’s been the goal since we originally got him. His impact on our team defensively and rebounding is elite. It only gets better. It’s not declining. I mean, he’s an anomaly in how he just continues to get better and better and better.
“For (head coach) Doc (Rivers), who got to spend time with Brook personally last year, Brook holds an incredible value for Doc for what he does defensively and rebounding and offensively, the spacing he gives us, and especially Giannis (Antetokounmpo), is unique.”
If Brook means so much to the Bucks, they should get him on a Horford extension then. Something like 2/$20.
Like Tito?
Translation : We would like to thank Brook ☺️
It’s the Pacers on line one.
There’s never been a better tell that a team has just failed to trade player X than an unsiolicited statement to the media that “We have no intention to trade player X.”
Yeah. So if the Cavaliers called offering Jarrett Allen for Lopez they’d just hang up the phone? What they are saying is that the offers they are receiving are not enough to move the needle. The Cavaliers wouldn’t make that offer but if they did the Bucks would at least see if the offer could work for them.
The message to Bucks, Suns, Clippers, Knicks, …..
it’s scary to go naked on not having first round picks. There are some teams in this league that don’t have any picks for the rest of the decade
All teams have 1st round picks this decade. The CBA requires teams to draft a player in the first round every other year. So teams cannot trade away 1st in consecutive years unless they have acquired a first from another team.
Sillivan , there are zero teams that don’t have any firsts for the rest of the decade. The Stepien rule prohibits teams from trading picks in consecutive years.
Bucks, Suns, Clippers, and Lakers have at least two picks in next 5 drafts, some have 3. But none of them have picks in consecutive years.
Those teams may also have given other teams the option to “swap” the places of first round picks, but each team still has a first round pick in this case.