The Milwaukee Bucks passed on the summer’s splashiest names, and that decision leaves them with a much more basic job to finish before opening night: get down to 15 standard contracts.
Milwaukee was connected at different points to Peyton Watson, Jonathan Kuminga, and Bennedict Mathurin, but none of them ended up in green and cream. The Bucks had chances to chase any of those moves and didn’t bite, a pretty strong sign they trust what they already have. Now the focus shifts from adding talent to clearing space.
That part is going to take some work. Teams can carry more than the limit in the summer, but the Bucks have to cut from 17 standard contracts to 15 before the regular season begins. Whether that means waiving players or swinging a trade, they need to trim two spots, and there’s no obvious road map yet.
Pete Nance looks like the cleanest place to start. His $2.5 million salary for the 2026-27 season becomes guaranteed on opening night, so moving on before then would let Milwaukee avoid that money and free up a roster spot. It would be a tough outcome given the signs he has shown with the Bucks, but that’s how these decisions often go.
Caris LeVert is another name in the mix, though a salary dump would be a hard sell. He is set to make $14.8 million, and finding a team willing to take that contract without draft compensation attached would not be easy. The same logic applies to any Kyle Kuzma trade.
If the Bucks do decide to go the trade route to open a spot, AJ Green stands out as the most realistic candidate. He’s one of the league’s better shooters from deep, and his $10.8 million salary next season makes him a player plenty of teams would want. Milwaukee’s backcourt crunch has been a running topic all summer, and it still hasn’t gone away.
Gary Trent Jr.’s return only complicates things further. His re-signing, a move so controversial that it led to an NBA investigation, could make Green even more expendable.
It’s tough to make the case for paying two players who bring a lot of the same value $10.8 million and $15.2 million next season when they are 26 and 27 years old. Eventually, one of them may have to go, and Green is the one other teams would probably covet more.
So the Bucks wait, but the deadline to shrink the roster is approaching. They’ve already chosen not to chase the summer’s biggest targets. Now they have to figure out who stays and who gets squeezed out.
In Other News...
Bucks Just Lost A Key Trade Path For Kyle Kuzma
The Timberwolves took a major step toward settling their frontcourt by signing free agent Jonathan Kuminga to a two-year deal, plugging the power forward opening created when Minnesota moved Julius Randle. For Milwaukee, it matters because one of the clearer trade avenues for Kyle Kuzma has just narrowed, with the Bucks continuing to work through a tricky fit and salary situation around the veteran forward.
Kyle Kuzma has been a name to watch as the Bucks consider ways to reshape the roster before the NBA Trade Deadline, but Minnesota no longer looks like the same clean match it once did. With the Timberwolves addressing their need at power forward, Milwaukee may have to keep searching for a partner if it decides to explore Kuzma trade options in the months ahead. [Read more 🡒]