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They're retaining everyone, trading for win now moves, they're acting like the Damian Lillard deal is just a tiny blip on their radar.

I mean teams get injuries, but no team wins a championship with $22.5 million in salary doing nothing on the roster.

This years Thunder were missing their rookie Topic who makes $5 million

Technically Boston won with Porzingis slightly injured, but he did play a few of the finals games. Milwaukee doesn't have anyone nearly as good as Jrue Holiday or Jaylen Brown behind Giannis.

Milwaukee won in 2021 with Donte Divincenzo injured, but Donte was on his rookie contract still, not a major loss, even thought he was good that year.

The Lakers were missing Avery Bradely, but he was not making a lot of money.

Many teams have dead salary on their roster, often even more than 20 mil. If they make smart moves and somehow get rid of kuz they’ll be ok.

Bucks got a lot younger let the youngsters play and see what happens going forward it was a great day to be a bucks fan Giannis ain’t going anywhere so suck it espn!!

If they get Giannis to sign an extension it's worth it. If they are selling out everything trying to convince him to stay when he wants to leave well it's going to end even more badly when it actually happens.

Better hope they are right because they'll make billy king look like a genius if Giannis leaves.

dame out for the year was going to be 50+M of dead cap. assuming that giannis communicated that he wanted to stay in MIL only if they were actively trying to compete, and was not ok writing off a season waiting for dame, idk what other choice they had.

Enso wrote:Many teams have dead salary on their roster, often even more than 20 mil. If they make smart moves and somehow get rid of kuz they’ll be ok.

name a team that has won the championship with that salary on their roster

look at every team historically, name one that has won with $22.5 million of nothing on their roster. The only half example is Boston with Porzingis, and Milwaukee has no one comparable to Jaylen Brown or even Jrue Holiday as a 2nd and 4th option.

morosis wrote:dame out for the year was going to be 50+M of dead cap. assuming that giannis communicated that he wanted to stay in MIL only if they were actively trying to compete, and was not ok writing off a season waiting for dame, idk what other choice they had.

That is a big assumption and communicating something versus putting pen to paper are two different things ask Harden he will tell you the difference. They have Giannis for 2 possibly 1 season depending on whether he asks for a trade.

I wouldn't be doing these things unless I had Giannis already signed to an extension. Just me. Bucks are going to be an absolute desert where nothing grows if he demands a trade or leaves in FA

Boston is no longer a juggernaut, the East is pretty wide open for many teams to make a finals run, and Giannis without question is the best player in the East and arguably the league.

Yea, Dane was already out, the only other option was trading his expiring $50 million dollar deal next year. Which again is a maybe, assuming you even get value back in first place, and assuming someone even wants to give up a good player for Dame which the Bucks need. That’s a lot of maybes to base a plan on, because if even one of them doesn’t work out, you’ve just wasted a year waiting.

Sixers in 4 wrote:That is a big assumption and communicating something versus putting pen to paper are two different things ask Harden he will tell you the difference. They have Giannis for 2 possibly 1 season depending on whether he asks for a trade.

I wouldn't be doing these things unless I had Giannis already signed to an extension. Just me. Bucks are going to be an absolute desert where nothing grows if he demands a trade or leaves in FA

i dont disagree. its gotta be unsettling for the franchise and its fans. but giannis has an insane amount of leverage and MIL has none. the entire franchise has been relevant for the last ten years because of one guy.

Well they already had $54M in dead money this year due to Dame's injury, and let's be honest, next year Dame will also be dead money because he's going to be a shell of himself. So they would have had $58M of dead money next year too, unless some team decides to trade for a $58M massive expiring (which I would doubt unless the Bucks added assets.

So they were never going to contend these next 2 years regardless with over $50M in dead money each year.

The 2031, 2032 1st round picks they have are now the most valuable picks in the league.

They will be awful, probably worst team in history in these years. Giannis will not be there(he may even retire by then). So, these picks are certain lottery bounds.

And they can trade them now. They will trade the '31 1st and they'll make a swap for the '32.

They will add them to Kuzma's 22mil contract and they'll get a pretty good wing in return.
Everyone will eat Kuzma for 1,5 season for a chance at 2 consecutive top5 picks in 5-6 years.

It's impressive if you think how their situation was until 3 hours ago.
Milwaukee is reshaping the roster in a way i haven't seen before.

When all crashes down eventually and Giannis leaves, it will be painful.

But they have made their choice. They'll die with Giannis. I respect that.

It's Milwaukee. Players like him play for a team like that every 50 years.

It takes huge balls to do what they're doing.

Now, if they fire Rivers and get a coach....they might even end up with a championship.

Crazy? Yes.....

1. Bucks' roster still sucks, having Turner as your 2nd best player is pre-Siakam Pacers with worse depth.

2. I don't think they risk that much - Lillard is probably done as a serious player and if Giannis requests a trade, they'll be in no man's land for a decade or so.

I don't think Bucks will be any good next year whatsoever, so even if Giannis committed for the next year, it may be temporary.

Godymas wrote:

Enso wrote:Many teams have dead salary on their roster, often even more than 20 mil. If they make smart moves and somehow get rid of kuz they’ll be ok.

name a team that has won the championship with that salary on their roster

look at every team historically, name one that has won with $22.5 million of nothing on their roster. The only half example is Boston with Porzingis, and Milwaukee has no one comparable to Jaylen Brown or even Jrue Holiday as a 2nd and 4th option.

I think that is not about “winning”, it’s about “be competitive”

So question is: can the Bucks be competitive in the 2026 East with 22,5milion in dead cap?
According to me the answer is “yes”

OKC2008 wrote:

Godymas wrote:

Enso wrote:Many teams have dead salary on their roster, often even more than 20 mil. If they make smart moves and somehow get rid of kuz they’ll be ok.

name a team that has won the championship with that salary on their roster

look at every team historically, name one that has won with $22.5 million of nothing on their roster. The only half example is Boston with Porzingis, and Milwaukee has no one comparable to Jaylen Brown or even Jrue Holiday as a 2nd and 4th option.

I think that is not about “winning”, it’s about “be competitive”

So question is: can the Bucks be competitive in the 2026 East with 22,5milion in dead cap?
According to me the answer is “yes”

This is RealGM brah.

It's either championship or trash

Come on you ain't no rookie

Sent from my SM-S918U using RealGM mobile app

Sixers in 4 wrote:

morosis wrote:dame out for the year was going to be 50+M of dead cap. assuming that giannis communicated that he wanted to stay in MIL only if they were actively trying to compete, and was not ok writing off a season waiting for dame, idk what other choice they had.

That is a big assumption and communicating something versus putting pen to paper are two different things ask Harden he will tell you the difference. They have Giannis for 2 possibly 1 season depending on whether he asks for a trade.

I wouldn't be doing these things unless I had Giannis already signed to an extension. Just me. Bucks are going to be an absolute desert where nothing grows if he demands a trade or leaves in FA

Giannis is not demanding anything he wanted to play with Turner him and Dame just never worked out **** happens. He had more chemistry with KPJ in the short time he was here and it’s only going to get better since he is the starting pg now.

Their current roster absolutely sucks.

Are they playing Kuzma at SF? They don’t have a starting PG or SG? A reliable second option?

Doc was on Simmons podcast recently during the finals saying bucks can win the east

Feels like a doc move all the way.

Bucks are nowhere near a contender

No, the Bucks are acting like they can compete in a depleted Eastern Conference.

Giannis isn’t going anywhere.