Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2024 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the Milwaukee Bucks.
Free agent signings
Taurean Prince: One year, minimum salary. Signed using minimum salary exception.- Gary Trent Jr.: One year, minimum salary. Signed using minimum salary exception.
- Delon Wright: One year, minimum salary. Signed using minimum salary exception.
- James Akinjo: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
- Liam Robbins: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
Trades
Draft picks
- 1-23: AJ Johnson
- Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $14,616,287).
- 2-33: Tyler Smith
- Signed to four-year, minimum-salary contract ($7,895,796). First two years guaranteed. Third year non-guaranteed. Fourth-year non-guaranteed team option.
Two-way signings
Departed/unsigned free agents
Other moves
Salary cap situation
- Operating over the cap ($140.6MM), over the luxury tax line ($170.8MM), and above the second tax apron ($188.9MM).
- Carrying approximately $191.9MM in salary.
- No hard cap.
- No form of mid-level or bi-annual exception available.
- Two traded player exceptions frozen/unavailable (both worth $2,019,706).
The offseason so far
While the Bucks’ season ended with a disappointing first-round playoff exit for a second straight year in 2024, their ability to meaningfully upgrade their roster this offseason was restricted by their proximity to the second tax apron, which hindered their ability to aggregate salaries in trades or to sign free agents to more than the veteran’s minimum.
Milwaukee could have shaken up its roster by trading one of its six highest-paid players – Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez, Bobby Portis, or Pat Connaughton – and reportedly at least considered the idea of moving Lopez. But that was never a practical path to upgrading the roster, since those players are generally more valuable to the Bucks on their current contracts and in their current roles than they would be as trade chips.
Instead, the Bucks added talent this summer via the draft and by shopping in the minimum-salary aisle in free agency. Faced with the departures of veterans like Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, and Jae Crowder, Milwaukee arguably upgraded each of those spots by signing Gary Trent Jr., Delon Wright, and Taurean Prince.
Like Beasley, Trent is a high-volume three-point shooter who doesn’t provide much in the way of play-making or defense. But Trent has a more well-rounded offensive game and more defensive upside than Beasley, having shown the ability to generate turnovers during his time in Toronto.
Beverley certainly talks a bigger game than Wright, but his fiery playing style isn’t always a plus, as he showed when he earned himself a suspension by firing a basketball at fans in Indiana during the last game of the Bucks’ season this spring. There’s little risk of that sort of temper tantrum from Wright, a consummate pro whose length and versatility on defense has long made him an underrated asset.
Crowder, meanwhile, isn’t the three-and-D dynamo he once was, and contributed next to nothing during his two playoff runs with the Bucks, making 6-of-25 shots (24.0%), including 1-of-13 three-pointers (7.7%), as the team was outscored by 43 points during his 83 playoff minutes. It’s no surprise he wasn’t re-signed. His replacement, Prince, was probably asked to do too much as a frequent starter for the Lakers last season, but as a reserve on a minimum-salary contract, the 37.6% career three-point shooter looks like a bargain.
Although the Bucks did a great job in free agency adding rotation-caliber veterans on team-friendly deals, their approach to the draft drew mixed reviews. They used the 23rd and 33rd overall picks, respectively, to select a pair of 19-year-olds, AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith. Both players will be developmental projects for the coaching staff, with neither one considered ready to earn regular minutes at the NBA level as rookies.
That’s a defensible strategy in a vacuum, but it’s a somewhat questionable approach for a team that’s looking to capitalize on a championship window and is already carrying several little-used young players on its roster (MarJon Beauchamp, A.J. Green, Andre Jackson, and Chris Livingston each averaged fewer than 13 minutes per game last season).
It may not be fair to expect the Bucks’ front office to draft this year’s Jaime Jaquez or Brandin Podziemski, but there were players in that 23-33 range who will have a better chance of contributing right away. Presumably, the club is counting on some of those returning prospects – starting with Beauchamp – to take a step forward, reducing the need for Johnson and Smith to play much until year two or three.
Financial considerations may also have factored into Milwaukee’s draft decisions — Johnson is one of the only first-round picks in recent years to accept a salary worth less than 120% of his rookie scale amount, while Smith was the lone draft pick in the top 37 who agreed to a minimum salary for 2024/25. It’s a safe bet the Bucks knew prior to drafting them that Johnson and Smith would sign those contracts, which will save ownership some tax dollars.
Up next
I’d be surprised if the Bucks make any major trades prior to opening night, but there are several contract situations to watch on this roster. Lopez is on an expiring deal, while Middleton, Portis, and Connaughton all have the ability to join him in unrestricted free agency next summer by turning down 2025/26 player options.
Lopez and Middleton won’t be extension-eligible in 2024/25, but Portis and Connaughton can both sign new deals anytime between now and June 30, 2025. They’re two of the Bucks’ best potential in-season trade chips, so it will be interesting to see whether the team decides to hold off on extensions, since signing them could make the duo ineligible to be dealt this season, depending on the terms.
Barring trades, the Bucks shouldn’t have any challenging roster decisions to make this fall. A two-way shake-up is a possibility – Stanley Umude, Anzejs Pasecniks, and Ryan Rollins occupy those spots for now – but Milwaukee’s standard roster looks pretty set, with 14 players on fully guaranteed salaries and Jackson on a partially guaranteed deal.
If the club isn’t encouraged by the progress Jackson is making, perhaps he’ll be waived to open up that 15th roster spot down the road, but there’s no point in doing it before opening night. His $946K partial guarantee ensures the Bucks will essentially get a free look at him during the first half, since that cap hit would be the same whether he’s waived on October 20 or January 7.
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