Bucks News, Transactions, Trade Ideas - Jon Horst the Wizard

[engelmartin]

Just ran into Bobby Portis irl. I live right next to fiserv and he was on an elevator. Make of that what you will.

Things are looking up

He might have meant Bobby Portis Sr

[LUKE23]

I'm good with Bobby opting in, that would be a decent trade piece. Long-term deal with our current situation? I'll pass.

[ReddRum]

I'll posit one thing with all these roster discussions though. We have absolutely no clue what "makes Giannis happy" and we need to stop acting like we do. This entire coaching mess that we're in is pretty much entirely due to this organization's monumentally stupid mindset that the priority needs to be on a guy they think Giannis will respect instead of actually hiring, you know, a good basketball coach. If the focus was always entirely on putting the team/roster in the best position for sustained success, maybe things would be different right now.

Well unfortunately in the NBA you have to give special treatment to the stars and in the case of us being a small market team and Giannis being a top 3 player you need to make him happy or you risk him leaving. Its very possible he would have left if we didn't get Dame or if they didn't pick his guy as coach - like you said nobody knows. Not saying I agree with the choices they have made to appease him but in the end this is a business.

[ajb905]

Heat forward Andrew Wiggins, Raptors forward RJ Barrett and guard Immanuel Quickley, Jazz guards Collin Sexton and Jordan Clarkson, Wizards guard Marcus Smart, and Bucks wing Pat Connaughton are among the other players viewed as candidates to be on the move this summer, according to Stein and Fischer.

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2025/06/trade-rumors-brown-white-holiday-hawks-naw-collins.html

My guess "moving money" is Pat...though can I'm dreaming of Kuzma being traded for a bag of basketballs

[Bernman]

Heat forward Andrew Wiggins, Raptors forward RJ Barrett and guard Immanuel Quickley, Jazz guards Collin Sexton and Jordan Clarkson, Wizards guard Marcus Smart, and Bucks wing Pat Connaughton are among the other players viewed as candidates to be on the move this summer, according to Stein and Fischer.

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2025/06/trade-rumors-brown-white-holiday-hawks-naw-collins.html

My guess "moving money" is Pat...though can I'm dreaming of Kuzma being traded for a bag of basketballs

It's not like that gets us cap space. The only thing that would is trading Dame, to BKN, while attaching our 1sts. And they don't want to help us because they're obsessed w/ getting Giannis.

You move Pat, or even Kuz, and you're still working w/ the MLE. We'd have more space under the 1st apron, w/ the same exceptions, to sign players with our limited avenues. Like we could give Bobby more than an MLE equivalent w/ our Bird Rights. Should we want to do that anyway?

[Ron Swanson]

Waiving Livingston's non-guaranteed deal and waiving and stretching Pat is my guess.

[LUKE23]

I would guess they would try and trade PC for a better player with a worse/longer contract first. But who knows.

[emunney]

What does waiving Livingston get you if you just have to replace him with another minimum salary guy? I mean, probably a better player. But other than that.

[Bernman]

Waiving Livingston's non-guaranteed deal and waiving and stretching Pat is my guess.

The most that does is just clear more roster spots to sign new guys on minimums. Beyond that we just might have the "privilege" of extending Bobby at 3/60 (instead of opt-in/MLE+) or using our TPE to be lucky to absorb John Konchar per Bucks' p.r. man Justin Garcia. Yay!

[emunney]

Pat fits the direction we should be going this year and is a good team guy. I don't know what possibilities waiving him would open up to us, and what specifically those are would be the main factor in that decision for me. I'd be inclined to keep him without a compelling, immediate reason to stretch him.

[soxperry]

Just ran into Bobby Portis irl. I live right next to fiserv and he was on an elevator. Make of that what you will.

We could make more of it if you shared any of what you discussed.

Lol.

So i have a 125lb Rottweiler (and a much smaller mini aussie) that i was bringing back up to my apartment from the second floor parking garage. Elevator doors open up and it's completely packed with people, so as I always do in the situation I tell them I'll get the next one. the elevator doors always take way too long to close so we're all just kind of looking at each other and then I noticed there's someone extremely tall standing in the back left corner. Very quickly realize that its Bobby and now I am extremely thankful that I did not try to force the issue and squeeze the dogs in there. My little one is very feisty. Could have been like Larry David tripping Shaq except now Bobby has some sort of rare canine virus. Mercifully the door is finally shut, end scene.

[Ron Swanson]

Waiving Livingston's non-guaranteed deal and waiving and stretching Pat is my guess.

The most that does is just clear more roster spots to sign new guys on minimums. Beyond that we just might have the "privilege" of extending Bobby at 3/60 (instead of opt-in/MLE+) or using our TPE to be lucky to absorb John Konchar per Bucks' p.r. man Justin Garcia. Yay!

More room below the tax apron to re-sign our own guys, yes. Freedom to absorb another contract into the Middleton TPE, re-sign Brook when they realize the free agency market is barren, etc. I'm not saying it's logical or smart. That's just what I expect when I hear the words "moving money around" and knowing this front office. If they're not open to moving Kuzma which I don't think they really are (yet), then they're not really that serious about it anyways.

[soxperry]

What does waiving Livingston get you if you just have to replace him with another minimum salary guy? I mean, probably a better player. But other than that.

You only have to roster 12 official contracts. If we waive Livingston we can simply replace him with a two way which doesn't affect our cap number.

[MickeyDavis]

Just ran into Bobby Portis irl. I live right next to fiserv and he was on an elevator. Make of that what you will.

We could make more of it if you shared any of what you discussed.

Lol.

So i have a 125lb Rottweiler (and a much smaller mini aussie) that i was bringing back up to my apartment from the second floor parking garage. Elevator doors open up and it's completely packed with people, so as I always do in the situation I tell them I'll get the next one. the elevator doors always take way too long to close so we're all just kind of looking at each other and then I noticed there's someone extremely tall standing in the back left corner. Very quickly realize that its Bobby and now I am extremely thankful that I did not try to force the issue and squeeze the dogs in there. My little one is very feisty. Could have been like Larry David tripping Shaq except now Bobby has some sort of rare canine virus. Mercifully the door is finally shut, end scene.

So Bobby lives in your building and he was in the building today? I'm not sure what that means...

[soxperry]

Heat forward Andrew Wiggins, Raptors forward RJ Barrett and guard Immanuel Quickley, Jazz guards Collin Sexton and Jordan Clarkson, Wizards guard Marcus Smart, and Bucks wing Pat Connaughton are among the other players viewed as candidates to be on the move this summer, according to Stein and Fischer.

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2025/06/trade-rumors-brown-white-holiday-hawks-naw-collins.html

My guess "moving money" is Pat...though can I'm dreaming of Kuzma being traded for a bag of basketballs

It's not like that gets us cap space. The only thing that would is trading Dame, to BKN, while attaching our 1sts. And they don't want to help us because they're obsessed w/ getting Giannis.

You move Pat, or even Kuz, and you're still working w/ the MLE. We'd have more space under the 1st apron, w/ the same exceptions, to sign players with our limited avenues. Like we could give Bobby more than an MLE equivalent w/ our Bird Rights. Should we want to do that anyway?

Cap space?? (Jim Mora voice)

Bro we haven't had cap space for years. Its pretty simple with Pat (and Livingston and potentially even AJax). If you dont plan to use or develop these guys, there is no point in having them on the team soaking up apron space. Thats the game now. People dont realize how close we are cutting it just trying to bring everyone back besides Brook. So you may not be excited about Bobby at 20 per but it sure as hell beats losing him for nothing.

[soxperry]

We could make more of it if you shared any of what you discussed.

Lol.

So i have a 125lb Rottweiler (and a much smaller mini aussie) that i was bringing back up to my apartment from the second floor parking garage. Elevator doors open up and it's completely packed with people, so as I always do in the situation I tell them I'll get the next one. the elevator doors always take way too long to close so we're all just kind of looking at each other and then I noticed there's someone extremely tall standing in the back left corner. Very quickly realize that its Bobby and now I am extremely thankful that I did not try to force the issue and squeeze the dogs in there. My little one is very feisty. Could have been like Larry David tripping Shaq except now Bobby has some sort of rare canine virus. Mercifully the door is finally shut, end scene.

So Bobby lives in your building and he was in the building today? I'm not sure what that means...

No, I live in the building, Bobby does not. Dont know why he was there.

[Prez]

Horst can have whatever cool ideas in his head but we don’t have much in the way of assets (because of him, in large part) and he’s not nearly a good enough GM to swindle teams. I’m not expecting much tonight.

The Horst hate on here is wild to me.

He's won a title and kept Giannis in MIlwaukee long term. What else was he supposed to do?

Everyone on here clamors GMs to make big trades and bring in guys to help their stars. Horst has done exactly that repeatedly and now everyone's mad at him because we don't have any picks left? Huh?

I don't even hate Horst, I think he's OK. But how about hitting on and keeping long-term literally a single draft pick in the 8 years he's been our GM? The closest he got to a good draft pick was Donte 7 years ago, and he flipped him mid rookie deal. Or how about not having back to back disastrous coaching hires right in the middle of Giannis' prime?

[El Pooch Grande]

Could we Sign and Trade Lopez + Pat for Ayton? If Portland wants to keep Jrue, maybe adding BroLo could help develop Clingan and Ayton is viewed as expendable?

[LUKE23]

I don't even hate Horst, I think he's OK. But how about hitting on and keeping long-term literally a single draft pick in the 8 years he's been our GM? The closest he got to a good draft pick was Donte 7 years ago, and he flipped him mid rookie deal. Or how about not having back to back disastrous coaching hires right in the middle of Giannis' prime?

This is exactly it. We did win a title, but we have also had the best player in the NBA for several years. The moves or lack of ancillary moves have prevented us from building a more sustainable core.

[emunney]

What does waiving Livingston get you if you just have to replace him with another minimum salary guy? I mean, probably a better player. But other than that.

You only have to roster 12 official contracts. If we waive Livingston we can simply replace him with a two way which doesn't affect our cap number.

You have to carry 14, and you're not replacing him with a 2 way, we would have the 2 way anyway.