The Milwaukee Bucks swung big for Peyton Watson, spent months waiting on the possibility, and came up empty. According to ESPN insider Shams Charania, Watson is headed to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a sign-and-trade, leaving Milwaukee without the player it had been chasing. That’s a hard miss, especially with Watson viewed as one of the top free agents still available.
Now the Bucks are staring at the next name on the board: Jonathan Kuminga.
Kuminga has been linked to Milwaukee before. NBA insider Marc Stein reported on July 2 that the Bucks were among the teams showing interest, and with Watson now off the table, that pursuit becomes a lot more relevant. Stein also noted that the Lakers were exploring ways to add Kuminga, while Cleveland and Milwaukee had interest and a return to Atlanta had not been ruled out.
The Bucks’ need is pretty clear. The forward spots still look unsettled, with Kyle Kuzma, Ousmane Dieng, and Jaime Jaquez Jr. in the mix but no obvious answer at either position.
Kuminga would at least give Milwaukee another real option there, and one with upside. He’s 23, and the appeal is obvious for a team that has shifted toward a younger timeline.
There’s still a path to make it happen. Like Watson, Kuminga would almost certainly require a sign-and-trade, and Milwaukee has a useful piece in its $25.5 million trade exception. That exception was widely believed to be in play for Watson, and it remains available now.
The bigger question is cost. Milwaukee should have interest, but not at any price.
The Bucks are not in a position where they should be throwing significant assets around for Kuminga, especially if the deal starts getting into first-round pick territory. The reporting suggests that may have been part of why Watson never landed in Milwaukee, with Cleveland willing to send a first-round pick and the Bucks possibly unwilling to match that kind of value.
For a team that is only beginning to reshape itself, that kind of restraint would make sense. And with Watson gone, Kuminga is the name that now sits front and center.
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What remains unresolved is how Milwaukee balances that priority against the need to actually make a deal work. With the Bucks still weighing which players are stay-and-trade pieces and which ones can be moved, the focus shifts to the veterans and rotation pieces on the roster, including Kevin Porter Jr. and AJ Green. For a team trying to keep its core intact while reshaping the edges, the real test may be whether it can avoid surrendering the wrong young player while still finding enough value to get a trade across the finish line. [Read more 🡒]