Milwaukee’s roster has turned over so fast that the longest-tenured Buck is now AJ Green.
With Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton no longer on the roster, the shooting guard out of Northern Iowa stands alone as the team’s longest-serving player. Green arrived in 2022 on a two-way deal after going undrafted, and he’s gone from end-of-bench hopeful to the veteran presence in the room. Hoops Rumors’ tracker also lists him as the 24th longest-tenured NBA player to remain with the same team.
That says plenty about how much has changed in Milwaukee. The last holdovers from the championship team are gone, and the final player from the Giannis Antetokounmpo era is expected to move on soon as well. The Bucks are deep into a rebuild, and the roster keeps shifting toward a younger group of players.
What used to be a locker room shaped by established stars has been replaced by a far less settled mix of teenagers, lottery picks and development pieces. While the focus around the team is on incoming names like Brayden Burries and Nate Ament, plus the trade return from Miami, Green has become part of the team’s internal backbone simply by staying put.
He has also earned that status with real production. More than 30 percent of Milwaukee’s made 3-pointers this season came from Green, and 84 percent of his field goal attempts were from beyond the arc.
He shot 41 percent from three and 47 percent from the corners. Ryan Rollins set him up for 48 assisted baskets, while Giannis Antetokounmpo assisted 44 of his shots.
Green’s value hasn’t been limited to spacing the floor. Cleaning the Glass says opponents scored 4.7 fewer points per 100 possessions with him on the court, which placed him in the 87th percentile in defensive rating among guards. He also finished with a net rating of +7.5 points per 100.
In a crowded backcourt, that leaves Milwaukee with a real decision to make. The Bucks are moving toward the future, and Jon Horst and company still have to sort through the guard logjam. For now, though, the player who once had to scrap for a roster spot is the one who has lasted the longest.
In Other News...
Bucks May Have Finally Found A New Answer At Wing
The Bucks have spent time in the Andrew Wiggins lane before, which says plenty about the kind of wing help they have been searching for around Giannis Antetokounmpo. Now, with the franchise moving into a different phase, the attention has shifted to rookie Nate Ament, a long, intriguing prospect whose appeal comes from the same blend of scoring touch and defensive upside that made Wiggins such an obvious fit on paper.
Ament is still viewed as more of a project than a finished product, and that is where the conversation gets interesting for Milwaukee. The upside is clear, but so are the questions about his physical development, and those are the kinds of details that tend to matter most for a team trying to find a real answer on the wing rather than just another name to monitor. [Read more 🡒]
Bucks May Have Found A Long Term Answer In An Overlooked Deal
Jaime Jaquez Jr. arrived in Milwaukee as part of the trade that brought him to the Bucks, and the early return has looked like the sort of shrewd move contenders spend years trying to find. The 18th pick in the 2023 NBA Draft has already established himself as a productive pro, picking up All-Rookie honors and finishing as a runner-up for Sixth Man of the Year while carving out a reputation for doing a little bit of everything.
Now the Bucks are prepared to ask for more. Jaquez is expected to move into the starting small forward role next season, a sign that Milwaukee sees him as more than just a useful rotation piece. With a new contract decision looming next summer, the coming year could go a long way toward showing whether the Bucks have uncovered a long-term fixture in a deal that looked modest at the time. [Read more 🡒]
Bucks Enter New Era With One Draft Test They Can't Afford To Miss
The Bucks have spent much of the Giannis Antetokounmpo era trying to win at the top while living with the reality that the draft has not always been their best lane for adding impact talent. That history matters even more now, because Milwaukee is entering a new phase and the front office has to prove it can do more than chase short-term fixes. The recent additions of Brayden Burries and Nate Ament, taken 10th and 13th, give the franchise two of its clearest chances to change that narrative.
For a team trying to stay relevant as it moves beyond its old foundation, those picks carry real weight. Milwaukee needs more than decent projections from its young players, and it needs a development plan that actually turns them into contributors. Coach Taylor Jenkins approach will be part of that equation, but the larger test is whether the Bucks can finally turn draft capital into something they have too rarely found in this era: reliable long-term value. [Read more 🡒]