Bucks News, Transactions and Trade Ideas - 2025 Off-season

[RiotPunch]

If Giannis doesn't ask out, you hold out for Flagg or roll with Giannis. MAYBE Amen or J-Dub and pieces/picks.

If Giannis asks out, the worst scenario, you do right by him and take the best package that puts him in a favorable situation.

If no Flagg/Amen/J-Dub offers materialize, find a deal like the Utah one for Sexton/Collins. Hire a competent coach. Give it a go, if it doesn't work you get a basically clean cap sheet going into the 2027 season with Giannis.

[Plossum]

How good is Ace Bailey etc coming after Flagg? From everything I’ve read, this could be a deep, 2003 like draft.

[humanrefutation]

If Houston says Amen is off limits, they can **** off. Giannis is one of the best players of all time.

[JayMKE]

There isn’t any upside to trading Giannis if it’s still going to take ~5+ years to build a team worth watching. Just accept our fate and go down with the ship. I don’t dream of being the Orlando Magic or Houston Rockets.

Thompson and Williams are not #1s and aren’t leading a team anywhere anyway so these teams being hesitant to moving them is just an instant skip, not worth any negotiation. Flagg at least has the hype of #1 pick but I’m not sure I see a top 10 player with him.

I’m not that desperate to want to suck again and pine for lottery picks, we likely won’t see another player like Giannis for a very long time.

[drone3]

There isn’t any upside to trading Giannis if it’s still going to take ~5+ years to build a team worth watching. Just accept our fate and go down with the ship. I don’t dream of being the Orlando Magic or Houston Rockets.

Thompson and Williams are not #1s and aren’t leading a team anywhere anyway so these teams being hesitant to moving them is just an instant skip, not worth any negotiation. Flagg at least has the hype of #1 pick but I’m not sure I see a top 10 player with him.

I’m not that desperate to want to suck again and pine for lottery picks, we likely won’t see another player like Giannis for a very long time.

I'm fine riding into the sunset with Giannis. We need to reflect his energy and commitment to avoid the worm hole

[soxperry]

If Giannis doesn't ask out, and youre absolutely sure he wants to stay and hes not just waiting for you to move him so he doesn't come off as "that guy," you retool and go.

Granted, playoffs are matchup dependent, but we should have beat the Pacers in Indy with 5 guys who are already on the roster. Find a way to get two more guys you can depend on and lets have some fun.

You can absolutely get one guy w the mle.
Just find one more vet min guy who has something to prove.
Then there's the 31 1st. I have a feeling current ownership just wants to sell tickets so thats probably getting moved

We will not be vegas favorites but who cares.

[soxperry]

idk.. i woke up w a headache (i can drink half a bottle of tequila and feel fine the next day but two glasses of wine and i wake up somewhat miserable, whats that about?) and the ibuprofen is kicking in, so maybe it just that flood of relief, but i feel pretty good about the Bucks going forward.

Gotta fire Doc though. Thats just a no brainer. You dont do that and youre not serious

[soxperry]

Lastly, i think the megabrain play is to use the injured player exception to trade for a guy in the last year of his contract so that we have his bird rights and can offer him whatever we need to to have him stay. Then use regular mle for Porter and possibly some of that to Trent.

Ill pose this question and then step back for a bit:

Do we still need Brook for certain matchups in the playoffs or is that over?

[Plossum]

Can we use the DPE and also MLE or just one of these?

[pifhluk23]

Lastly, i think the megabrain play is to use the injured player exception to trade for a guy in the last year of his contract so that we have his bird rights and can offer him whatever we need to to have him stay. Then use regular mle for Porter and possibly some of that to Trent.

Ill pose this question and then step back for a bit:

Do we still need Brook for certain matchups in the playoffs or is that over?

That's been over for years. It would be awesome if he wants to do us a solid and sign and trade. Otherwise I'm only bringing him back on a low money deal to eat some regular season minutes.

[randy84]

I wouldn't offer KPJ or Rollins a bunch of money. I don't know where else they are going to go that they would be a starting PG with a top three player next to them. If I was their agent, I would tell them to sign a two year deal to stay and play with Giannis and try to cash in on the next contract. Whichever one takes the deal first is your PG.

[Baddy Chuck]

It'll be interesting to see what type of deals our free agents get. Group of dudes who could swing pretty heavily I'd imagine. Like is Bobby someone we could keep at like 2/$30-40 or is he going to get a big 4 year deal? Even for the loyal Bobby that player option seems pretty out of play? Is KPJ a guy teams are willing to gamble on or is the dude that we got for Marjon Beauchamp still going to be outcasted and the market is really low/fair. GTJ had a solid but rather unremarkable year but exploded a few games in the playoffs, does that cause some team to make a push for him and hope they can recreate some of that. Like Beasley had to sign another prove it year and he was here, a guy like Struss got 60+ million, Trent seems like he could land anywhere in between. I assume Rollins and Sims will get pretty inoffensive offers, if anything over minimum deals probably just someones left over scraps of some exceptions. Brook is probably able to get a halfway decent deal somewhere but is he a full MLE guy at this point? Seems like a lot and a lot of suitors might not have/want to spend that for a 37+ year old, part time guy. I think teams will still value him though and he'll have a lot of offers. Prince is a free agent too I guess. His shooting from this season will probably get him a look somewhere, I don't think anyone would miss him besides Doc and Ham but that also means that he might be back .

I'd still look to maximize money in 2027. Would like to have all of Bobby, KPJ and Trent back for the next couple seasons, along with Rollins and Sims. Brook is a luxury at this point. If we have the money to keep him, which if we kept everyone else would probably be almost disrespectfully low, I think he'd be an inoffensive regular season minute eater who would probably find himself in a trade package rather easily. Understand that essentially a "run it back" seems crazy but if Giannis is in it for the long haul, I think playing it safe and trying to cash in with that 2027 money is something we need to hang our hat on. I'd REALLY limit what goes past there.

[German Athens]

I think Giannis will look for any reason to stay, but he needs to see a blueprint for a competitive team.

Variations of this deal have been floated, and maybe a better idea exists, but this one is growing on me. Credit to babyjax, a Jazz fan on the T&T board:

MKE: Collin Sexton, John Collins, Svi Mykhailiuk, #21
UTA: Lillard, '31 1st swap

Obviously, Sexton and Collins are flawed players, but they are great at what they're great at. You can make that work around Giannis. Or you can at least sell that to Giannis. They are both expiring, so you effectively get out from Dame's contract after one season while having two legitimate rotation players next season.

You could then either add a rookie contract at 21, or attach it to Kuzma for something like Grant Williams and Josh Green.

*Hypothetically*

Sexton / KPJ / Rollins
Trent / Green
Dairy / Williams
Giannis / Collins
Portis / Sims

Again, flawed, but that roster could **** around and get in the 3-5 seed range again (or play-in with Doc), with the potential for significant cap space after the season.

Yeah, I’d consider that deal. I’d prefer the swap is ‘32 over ‘31, because it would give us the ability to trade ‘31 and ‘33 if we wanted next year. I’d like to have that option.

I think John Collins is a solid player, kinda like the midpoint between Bobby and Obi Toppin, and I’d be very interested in what he’d look like next to Giannis in that KPJ, Trent, Dairy lineup. I think he’d capitalize on the space created for him a little bit better than Bobby, but I also don’t know if his defense and rebounding would hold up as well.

Sexton would give us more rim pressure which we could always use, but I’m just not super sold on him for anything else. He’d give us something we don’t have a lot of, though.

Either way, interesting deal, and the flexibility we gain moving forward could be really big for us.

Under a better coach, Giannis could drag that team to 50 wins.

[German Athens]

Can we use the DPE and also MLE or just one of these?

We can use both.

[ABucksFan]

Only guys I'd really want back if we move on from Giannis would be Jwill or Amen. I think those 2 have the most potential to make a Harden like jump.

[machu46]

How good is Ace Bailey etc coming after Flagg? From everything I’ve read, this could be a deep, 2003 like draft.

Kind of the same red flag as when Ben Simmons was coming out, but even worse IMO. Rutgers had Ace and Dylan Harper, the projected #2 and #3 pick in the draft, and they weren't even close to being a tournament team this year.

I can see why teams will convince themselves they can be great NBA players, but two players of their supposed level should have been able to carry that team a lot better than they did.

In terms of his actual skillset, I think a lot of people worry about how much he has to settle for contested jumpers. With his length, he can basically get his shot off whenever he wants (think Durant), but he really struggled to create separation off the dribble.

[machu46]

There isn’t any upside to trading Giannis if it’s still going to take ~5+ years to build a team worth watching. Just accept our fate and go down with the ship. I don’t dream of being the Orlando Magic or Houston Rockets.

Thompson and Williams are not #1s and aren’t leading a team anywhere anyway so these teams being hesitant to moving them is just an instant skip, not worth any negotiation. Flagg at least has the hype of #1 pick but I’m not sure I see a top 10 player with him.

I’m not that desperate to want to suck again and pine for lottery picks, we likely won’t see another player like Giannis for a very long time.

I'm fine riding into the sunset with Giannis. We need to reflect his energy and commitment to avoid the worm hole

This is my thing. If Giannis is going to stay and we probably remain a 1st or 2nd round exit, I at least want it to be a team that's fighting for every game. Watching this year's team coast through so many games/be simply incapable of defending anyone was not fun.

[German Athens]

How good is Ace Bailey etc coming after Flagg? From everything I’ve read, this could be a deep, 2003 like draft.

Kind of the same red flag as when Ben Simmons was coming out, but even worse IMO. Rutgers had Ace and Dylan Harper, the projected #2 and #3 pick in the draft, and they weren't even close to being a tournament team this year.

I can see why teams will convince themselves they can be great NBA players, but two players of their supposed level should have been able to carry that team a lot better than they did.

In terms of his actual skillset, I think a lot of people worry about how much he has to settle for contested jumpers. With his length, he can basically get his shot off whenever he wants (think Durant), but he really struggled to create separation off the dribble.

Which also sounds a lot like Jabari Smith. If his shots falls better, Ace will be the better player, but guys who struggle to dribble and create space with their handle have a tough outlook, imo.

He absolutely cannot be the main piece coming back in a Giannis trade.

[LUKE23]

If Houston doesn’t want to offer Thompson, they can pound sand.

I am surprised by how many want to run it back. With Dame being untradeable and Kuzma best case having to attach assets to move, this team has almost zero trade options. They don’t have a first. They have a few MLE, DPE, BAE to use and God forbid they trade their 2031 1st. I don’t see any way they build a roster that was even as good as this years, which wasn’t good enough. I also think they keep Doc.

It’s just a nightmare situation. I just don’t have any interest in watching GA kill himself to lead a play-in team next season.

[jschligs]

Am I the only one who has watched Giannis for all these years and I truly believe him when he says he won't demand a trade? He literally just said that. Yea, he also said he wants to win and if needed would go elsewhere, but that isn't happening the next two years as he's under contract. He will 95% be here for the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 seasons.

How many times has he said something and followed through/stood by that? It seems to me like he ALWAYS does that. The only scenario he would leave is either the FO trades him or he walks at the end of his contract instead of taking the option. It's wild to me that all you realGM fans still don't get the type of person he is. He's a man of his word, he chooses them very carefully.