When the Bucks open training camp at the end of September, the attention around Milwaukee figures to be lighter than it has been in years. The schedule says plenty: only two national television games on the initial slate, both against the Miami Heat, with Giannis Antetokounmpo still the main draw. And in the early Eastern Conference projections, only the Brooklyn Nets are slotted lower.
That quieter profile may actually help Milwaukee as it starts a rebuild under new coach Taylor Jenkins. With expectations muted, the pressure shifts inward. The Bucks get time to sort through the roster, the rotation and the salary cap sheet while Jenkins begins the next phase of the job.
Even in that lower-key setting, there are a few people who will draw the sharpest scrutiny once camp begins.
Myles Turner is one of them. He is the team’s second-highest-paid player at $26.4 million, but the bigger issue is what comes after this season.
He is due another $57 million over the following two years, and that contract now looks awkward for a player brought in to complement, and keep happy, Antetokounmpo. Turner’s rebounding hasn’t been strong enough to justify the price tag, especially on a roster without an elite forward partner who truly needs his spacing.
He has tried to take a leadership role this offseason by organizing group workouts with younger teammates, but the clearest way he can help the Bucks now may be by boosting his value as a trade piece as they work toward opening a path for Kel'el Ware. If Turner is going to land in a better situation, he has to play with more consistent force.
Even then, the market may not open fully until a year from now, when the contract is closer to the finish line.
Tyler Herro is another player under the microscope. The Miami Heat were willing to consider extending the former All-Star guard, but only after seeing whether he could repeat the availability he showed in the 2024-25 season.
Instead, that hope went the other direction. Herro’s defense has always been a question, but his scoring ability still carries real value, even if his style no longer commands the kind of contract it once did.
He is the highest-paid player on the Bucks at $33 million, and if he is going to justify that salary for Milwaukee or for anyone else, he has to start strong on the court instead of “popping another ligament.” Brayden Burries may be the better long-term bet, and Ryan Rollins is coming off a strong breakout season, but Herro needs to prove he is still the top offensive option on this team and not someone who can be brushed aside.
Jon Horst also enters camp with plenty on the line. The 2021 championship still stands out, but not much else has gone right since then.
His roster work will be judged against the backdrop of the limitations that eventually pushed Antetokounmpo toward wanting out of a city he once loved. The Dame Lillard waive-and-stretch.
The Turner contract. The string of bad draft picks.
Now the question is whether Horst has steadied things by bringing in four NBA-quality players from Miami, making two picks in the top 13 and uncovering a few value finds in Rollins, Kevin Porter Jr. and Ousmane Dieng. Camp is where the first answers should start to surface.
In Other News...
Naji Marshall Joins NBA Pushback Over Disrespectful T.J. McConnell Take
A throwaway podcast claim about T.J. McConnell quickly turned into a broader NBA debate, and several players were not having it. Nasir Core suggested McConnell would be outmatched in a one-on-one game, but the reaction from around the league pushed back hard, with current and former players including Giannis Antetokounmpo, Naji Marshall, Kenyon Martin and Patrick Beverley publicly disagreeing with the assessment.
For Bucks fans, it is a reminder of how much respect McConnell has earned across the league, even in conversations that are meant to be casual or hypothetical. The pushback also underscored a familiar split in basketball circles: one-on-one talent is its own argument, but it does not always translate cleanly to NBA competition, where McConnell has built a career on skill, toughness and winning the trust of teammates and opponents alike. [Read more 🡒]
Bucks Face A Tough Jaime Jaquez Jr. Decision Sooner Than Expected
The Bucks have landed in one of those roster-building spots that can define a front offices direction long before opening night. Jaime Jaquez Jr. arrived from Miami with the kind of productive track record that normally makes extension talks straightforward, but Milwaukee is trying to fit him into a roster that is still being reshaped, and that has made his value harder to pin down than the raw numbers suggest.
Jaquezs next contract will hinge on more than what he already showed with the Heat. Milwaukee has to decide whether it sees him as a starter-level piece or a useful reserve, and that answer matters both for his role and for the money attached to it. In a rebuild, those judgments carry extra weight, because the Bucks are trying to stay flexible financially while still giving themselves enough talent to grow into something stable. [Read more 🡒]
Brayden Burries Is Forcing A Tough Bucks Rotation Question
Brayden Burries did more than look comfortable in Summer League. The 10th overall pick averaged 23.5 points per game, the highest mark by a Milwaukee Bucks player since 2007-08, and he did it while shooting 50 percent overall. For a team always trying to balance present-day expectations with the need to develop young talent, that kind of scoring burst is hard to ignore.
The buzz around Burries comes with the usual Summer League caveats, of course, especially since his free-throw shooting was not as sharp as it was in college. Still, the bigger question for Milwaukee is harder to brush aside: if that confidence and scoring translate once the games start counting, where does Burries fit in a rotation that already has decisions to make? The preseason chatter may be about his upside, but the regular season will decide whether this becomes a feel-good summer note or something much bigger. [Read more 🡒]