Kyle Kuzma is walking into a season that could define his next payday.
After a choppy run with the Milwaukee Bucks, the forward is headed into the final year of his deal, and the stakes are impossible to miss. One strong season could push his value up. One shaky one could leave him staring at a very different market when he reaches free agency next summer.
Around the league, the buzz on Kuzma has not exactly been glowing. The label attached to him is one he has carried for a while now: overrated.
But there’s a case to be made that the noise has gotten so loud it has started to drown out the reality. He has flaws, sure, and the occasional careless play is part of the package.
Even so, he wasn’t a disaster for Milwaukee last season. Still, if he wants to land the kind of deal he’s aiming for, he has to erase that reputation.
That perception showed up in a recent mailbag from The Athletic’s Jovan Buha, who was asked about possible Los Angeles Lakers free-agent targets for next summer. Buha grouped Kuzma with the players he would "want to stay away from," placing him behind both Cam Johnson and De'Andre Hunter.
That kind of leaguewide skepticism matters now more than ever. Kuzma is set to make $20.5 million this season, but if things go sideways, there’s no reason to expect his next contract to land anywhere near that number.
A steep drop could even put him in the neighborhood of one of the biggest pay cuts in the league, though for very different reasons than LeBron James. For Kuzma, this year is about proving he can still be a real asset on a team with serious ambitions.
The good news for him is that Milwaukee may hand him that chance. Right now, the Bucks don’t have a locked-in starting power forward, and Kuzma looks like the clearest fit to open games there. That would give Taylor Jenkins a veteran presence in the lineup and ease some of the pressure on younger players like Nate Ament and Bogoljub Markovic, who need development time.
If that setup holds, Kuzma could be looking at one of the biggest roles of his career. More touches, more responsibility, more chances to shape the story around himself. That can go two ways: it can lift his production, or it can confirm why teams around the league may hesitate to spend big on him next summer.
There is one wrinkle. If the Bucks end up landing Peyton Watson, the depth chart could change quickly, and Kuzma would slide behind him at power forward. Until then, though, Kuzma is the starter in line to prove himself, and the opportunity is right there in front of him.
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Cam Thomas Became A Bucks Warning Sign Faster Than Anyone Expected
Cam Thomas arrived in Milwaukee in February with the sort of scoring burst that can briefly make a late-season addition look far more meaningful than it is. He flashed right away, including a 34-point game, and for a moment it seemed like the Bucks had found a useful offensive jolt at just the right time after his complicated path out of Brooklyn, where he had first turned down a two-year offer before settling for the one-year qualifying offer.
Instead, the fit vanished almost as quickly as it appeared. Thomas was waived less than two months after signing, and his career has been stuck in place ever since, a reminder of how quickly opportunity can disappear in the NBA. For Milwaukee, it only sharpened the lesson: even a productive scoring night or two does not guarantee a long runway, especially when roster decisions are being made on the fly. [Read more 🡒]
Former Bucks G Leaguer Victor Oladipo Is Chasing One More NBA Shot
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The Sacramento Kings have at least taken a close look, attending one of his recent workouts as they weigh veteran help at point guard. Milwaukee, meanwhile, already explored the idea last year, but the Bucks current direction points elsewhere now, with younger players and roster changes making a return to the franchise less likely for Oladipo than it once seemed. [Read more 🡒]
Taylor Jenkins Faces An Immediate Bucks Test That Could Define The Rebuild
Taylor Jenkins arrives in Milwaukee with a familiar kind of job description: help guide a team through a transition while making sure the young pieces dont get lost in the shuffle. His track record with the Memphis Grizzlies, where rebuilding and player development went hand in hand, is part of why the Bucks turned to him, and it matters now because the roster he inherits is not short on backcourt bodies. The challenge is not just teaching a new system, but sorting out which guards get the reps needed to grow inside it.
Brayden Burries gives that test a name and a deadline. The rookie top-10 pick is supposed to be part of the future, but the path to meaningful minutes is already crowded after Milwaukee added several guards in the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade. For Jenkins, the early rebuild question is as much about lineup choices as it is about development philosophy, because how he handles the guard rotation will say plenty about how the Bucks intend to balance winning now with building what comes next. [Read more 🡒]