The Bucks’ overhaul after the Giannis Antetokounmpo deal has pushed a lot of pieces into new territory, but AJ Green may be the one feeling the squeeze most sharply. Milwaukee came back from the Miami Heat trade with a pile of talent, and that new wave of young players is starting to crowd a rotation that already had a clear identity on the perimeter.
Green has spent the last few seasons as Milwaukee’s most reliable shooter, and the numbers back it up. More than 30 percent of the Bucks’ made threes this season came from him, and 84 percent of his field-goal attempts were from beyond the arc. He finished at 41 percent from three and 47 percent from the corners, which lines up with a larger trend: Green has shot better than 40 percent from deep in all four of his NBA seasons.
He’s not just a spot-up specialist, either. Cleaning the Glass says opponents scored 4.7 fewer points per 100 possessions when Green was on the floor, and that placed him in the 87th percentile in defensive rating among guards. He also ended the season with a plus-7.5 net rating per 100 possessions.
The problem is that Kasparas Jakucionis brings a very similar package, with more room to grow. Jakucionis took 2.9 threes per game this season, far fewer than Green’s 7.1, but he still hit 42.3 percent from deep. The shot map is what really jumps out: 17-of-33 from left corner threes, good for 51.5 percent, and 12-of-17 from the right corner, which works out to 70.6 percent.
That overlap matters because Green was already on shaky ground for steady minutes under Taylor Jenkins before the Bucks added another young piece. Now the backcourt is tilting younger, taller, and more versatile, and every possession Jakucionis gets is one less available for the rest of the perimeter group.
That leaves Jenkins with a hard call. Keeping Green around makes sense if the goal is to preserve a proven shooter who understands the system and can still stretch the floor when it matters. But the new direction of the roster points toward development, not comfort.
Green also stands as a possible trade chip at exactly the right moment. A 41-percent shooter who can hold his own defensively is the kind of player contenders want, and Jon Horst could decide that moving him now is the best way to keep adding to Milwaukee’s future pile of assets.
Green’s rise from undrafted grinder to trusted locker-room piece has been one of the better stories on the roster. Still, roster math is ruthless. With Jakucionis arriving and needing real developmental minutes, Green suddenly looks a lot more expendable than he did a week ago.
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