The Milwaukee Bucks are bringing back John Butler Jr., signing the 7-footer after his run with the team during summer league.
Butler Jr. spent the summer in Milwaukee and showed enough to earn another look, appearing in eight games for the Bucks. He averaged 3.9 points, 1.2 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per game, with his strongest outing coming in the finale against the Philadelphia 76ers. In that game, he posted 10 points, two rebounds, two blocks and one steal while going 3-for-3 from the field.
His path to this point has taken him through several stops since entering the NBA picture. Butler Jr. played one season at Florida State in 2021-22, where he averaged 5.9 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game while shooting 39.3% from 3-point range on nearly three attempts per night.
After that season, he declared for the NBA Draft, went undrafted and then joined the New Orleans Pelicans for summer league. He appeared in four games there before landing a two-way contract with the Portland Trail Blazers.
He played 19 games for Portland and averaged 2.4 points per game. With the Trail Blazers lacking their own G League affiliate at the time, Butler Jr. was assigned to the Stockton Kings through a flex transfer, which allows an NBA team to send a player to a G League team without a direct affiliate relationship.
In six games for Stockton, he averaged 8.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game while shooting 45% from the field and 34.6% from 3-point range.
The next season brought another two-way deal, this time with the Washington Wizards for 2023-24. Butler Jr. never played for Washington, instead spending that time with the Capital City Go-Go. Across 33 regular season games, he put up 6.7 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game.
He stayed with the Go-Go the following year before being traded to the Wisconsin Herd in March of 2025 in exchange for a first-round and second-round pick in the 2026 NBA G League Draft and the returning player rights to Darryl Morsell.
After that deal, he played a handful of games for the Herd and finished last season with 49 NBA G League games and 40 starts, averaging 9.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.7 blocks per game.
Now Butler Jr. is back in the Bucks organization and is expected to suit up for the Herd again.
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