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

[th87]

People I meet have gone from "Milwaukee? Where's that?" to "Oh nice, Milwaukee." There are huge advertisements of him in airports as far as Istanbul (and beyond).

Like literally the best thing to ever happen to Milwaukee.

Great post.
We live in the Seattle area. I was a Bucks fan in a sister city type of way since the 70s (a playoff game against the Bucks in 1980 from the Kingdome 300 level was surreal. It was like looking down at a crowd watching a game while looking off at this dark expanse around it.) I became more Bucks are #1 after, uh…
My wife finally started showing interest in watching several years back. She received the “Just a girl who loves Milwaukee” (with Bucks logo) shirt she ordered today. Bad timing.

That experience sounds amazing. Wish it was still around!

[th87]

The thought of Doc Rivers for another season makes me physically ill. How can management possibly be so incredibly stupid? I gotta do myself a favor and check out of Bucks basketball for the time being. I just can’t right now. Go Pack Go! That’s all I got… WTF

I too am nauseous. Completely unserious people. On what basis does Doc deserve a job? Have we improved on anything at all while he's been here?

Any of you in Milwaukee run in the same circles as Horst? Can you find out what could possibly be the thinking?

And let's get serious about this billboard please. Ready to donate.

[AussieBuck]

The thought of Doc Rivers for another season makes me physically ill. How can management possibly be so incredibly stupid? I gotta do myself a favor and check out of Bucks basketball for the time being. I just can’t right now. Go Pack Go! That’s all I got… WTF

I too am nauseous. Completely unserious people. On what basis does Doc deserve a job? Have we improved on anything at all while he's been here?

Any of you in Milwaukee run in the same circles as Horst? Can you find out what could possibly be the thinking?

And let's get serious about this billboard please. Ready to donate.

In.

[RiotPunch]

The thought of Doc Rivers for another season makes me physically ill. How can management possibly be so incredibly stupid? I gotta do myself a favor and check out of Bucks basketball for the time being. I just can’t right now. Go Pack Go! That’s all I got… WTF

I too am nauseous. Completely unserious people. On what basis does Doc deserve a job? Have we improved on anything at all while he's been here?

Any of you in Milwaukee run in the same circles as Horst? Can you find out what could possibly be the thinking?

And let's get serious about this billboard please. Ready to donate.

In.

[JayMKE]

Pretty much all these trades are **** awful, mediocre picks and prospects that take this team no where and be totally pointless to watch. If there isn’t a path to a top 10 player in the league then I’m simply holding onto Giannis. Closest thing to elite asset is the #1 pick and there would have to be a lot more. The problem getting players back is that this team is would be **** awful so long that they’d be on another timeline and be getting obscenely paid before anything could built.

I think trading Giannis would be extremely stupid and short sighted, it sucks that we can’t build a top tier contender but it’s a lot better than being a doormat team for the next decade with 0 hope.

[pifhluk23]

I bet we could have traded Middleton for Jrue plus a late 1st this Summer. Or Jrue + Hauser for Middleton + Pat solving all of Boston's 2nd apron issue and giving us 2 guys who can actually play basketball.

Maybe we can still do Pat for Hauser, we only take on 600k extra.

[BroncoBuck]

I bet we could have traded Middleton for Jrue plus a late 1st this Summer. Or Jrue + Hauser for Middleton + Pat solving all of Boston's 2nd apron issue and giving us 2 guys who can actually play basketball.

The problem with that is Jrue and Hauser are both better than Middleton. I don’t think Boston wants negative assets for Jrue, he’s been really good for them. Khris’ value is so bad the Heat ate an extra year on Wiggins in a Butler deal.

[German Athens]

I too am nauseous. Completely unserious people. On what basis does Doc deserve a job? Have we improved on anything at all while he's been here?

Any of you in Milwaukee run in the same circles as Horst? Can you find out what could possibly be the thinking?

And let's get serious about this billboard please. Ready to donate.

In.

I’m happy to join

[PG Graveyard]

We should trade him to Minnesota just so him and Ant can rule the nba and selfishly I can watch him more.

[German Athens]

I bet if we offered a pick swap of our ‘26 swap, that would have good value on the open market, and I’m curious if we’ll pursue something like that.

[German Athens]

So far, none of the national media have talked about us having 3 firsts available next off-season, and a swap.

They haven’t talked about the lineup that had us in position to win on the road against a 50 win team in the playoffs, all being currently in their 20’s outside Giannis.

We have work to do this off-season, but I think we have the right template. Build on it.

Three of the four players in that lineup are or can be free agents. The rest of the roster consisted of two playable dudes in Sims (also a free agent) and Rollins, the corpse of Pat, three very unplayable guys in Brook/Prince/Kuz, and a bunch of youngsters that likely are never rotational guys. Or and it sounds like the owners like the head coach who needed 86 games to stumble on the right lineup.

Oh, and to retain or bring in anyone the absolute best case scenario is having access to the NTPMLE by letting Brook and Bobby walk and getting a one year DPE. That’s the best case.

But yeah, they can definitely get out of this hole by continuing to dig down deeper and trade more picks.

I agree with the Doc part, but they’d have access to the NTMLE if Bobby opts in, too.

If Bobby opts in, they’d have something like 27m to retain Trent, KPJ, and Rollins and still be under the first apron.

If they give Bobby a raise, maybe like an 18m starting salary, they’d still have 22m, and that’s just to stay under the 1st apron.

If they don’t offer more than the TPMLE, they could go into the first apron, but I don’t expect that to happen.

As for the rest of the roster, they brought Beasley, Trent, sims, KPJ, Dairy, Rollins all in on basically min signings. When I say build on it, I’m saying to retain your talent, and make a couple good new signings as well as we’ve already demonstrated we have the capability to make.

Hold serve this year, and you’ll have a lot more available next year.

[jschligs]

So far, none of the national media have talked about us having 3 firsts available next off-season, and a swap.

They haven’t talked about the lineup that had us in position to win on the road against a 50 win team in the playoffs, all being currently in their 20’s outside Giannis.

We have work to do this off-season, but I think we have the right template. Build on it.

Three of the four players in that lineup are or can be free agents. The rest of the roster consisted of two playable dudes in Sims (also a free agent) and Rollins, the corpse of Pat, three very unplayable guys in Brook/Prince/Kuz, and a bunch of youngsters that likely are never rotational guys. Or and it sounds like the owners like the head coach who needed 86 games to stumble on the right lineup.

Oh, and to retain or bring in anyone the absolute best case scenario is having access to the NTPMLE by letting Brook and Bobby walk and getting a one year DPE. That’s the best case.

But yeah, they can definitely get out of this hole by continuing to dig down deeper and trade more picks.

I agree with the Doc part, but they’d have access to the NTMLE if Bobby opts in, too.

If Bobby opts in, they’d have something like 27m to retain Trent, KPJ, and Rollins and still be under the first apron.

If they give Bobby a raise, maybe like an 18m starting salary, they’d still have 22m, and that’s just to stay under the 1st apron.

If they don’t offer more than the TPMLE, they could go into the first apron, but I don’t expect that to happen.

As for the rest of the roster, they brought Beasley, Trent, sims, KPJ, Dairy, Rollins all in on basically min signings. When I say build on it, I’m saying to retain your talent, and make a couple good new signings as well as we’ve already demonstrated we have the capability to make.

Hold serve this year, and you’ll have a lot more available next year.

This is what I said earlier. We just have to weather the storm for one year and we become way more flexible with what we can do. Golden State took an off year (unfortunately drafted Wiseman) and they were able to rebuild around Steph again. Sure, they have a much smarter FO and still had assets, but man, we can do it too. One down year won't make Giannis decide to run if he knows the plan.

[SirChurros]

Spurs have a good package.

Giannis and Kuzma
for
Barnes, Vassell, Castle, Sochan, '25 first, '25 first via ATL, '26 ATL swap, '27 first via ATL

Think those players coming back generally suck. And while Castle has potential to be a Westbrook type guy, he’s a long way from it. Those shooting percentages are not good.

Other question I’d pose to the board. When do the Spurs lose on trades? We’re matching them up against Horst and Doc.

I generally don’t see a scenario where the Bucks don’t lose a Giannis trade. Even if you get the Flagg pick, you’re sending out a bonafide star and one of the best players ever.

It’s really about not losing it in a blowout, so to speak.

[SirChurros]

I will say I like the potential Spurs package a lot more than Houston’s, especially if you can get Vassell.

[Ruben Quevedo]

Spurs have a good package.

Giannis and Kuzma
for
Barnes, Vassell, Castle, Sochan, '25 first, '25 first via ATL, '26 ATL swap, '27 first via ATL

Think those players coming back generally suck. And while Castle has potential to be a Westbrook type guy, he’s a long way from it. Those shooting percentages are not good.

Other question I’d pose to the board. When do the Spurs lose on trades? We’re matching them up against Horst and Doc.

I generally don’t see a scenario where the Bucks don’t lose a Giannis trade. Even if you get the Flagg pick, you’re sending out a bonafide star and one of the best players ever.

It’s really about not losing it in a blowout, so to speak.

We're not trading Giannis' career though. We're trading his age 31-3(?) seasons. If we do somehow manage to get Flagg and Castle and Vassell (who I really like) plus picks that is absolutely a trade we can win.

[fansinceforever]

When the guys that were your role players have now become your core, then you really gotta ask yourself "what are we really doing?"

Spurs and Houston package are interesting and Houston might start calling as early as tonight. We just need to wait until after draft lottery to put together serious offers.

[Ruben Quevedo]

Spurs have a good package.

Giannis and Kuzma
for
Barnes, Vassell, Castle, Sochan, '25 first, '25 first via ATL, '26 ATL swap, '27 first via ATL

Think those players coming back generally suck. And while Castle has potential to be a Westbrook type guy, he’s a long way from it. Those shooting percentages are not good.

Other question I’d pose to the board. When do the Spurs lose on trades? We’re matching them up against Horst and Doc.

Vassell is a legit good player. Castle is no slam dunk, but he clearly has star potential, and guys like him are usually considered untouchable (even though they shouldn't be). Flagg, if we could somehow get him, obviously is a potential franchise cornerstone. Would be a coup for us given the position we are in.

[emunney]

I do think it's pretty interesting to have an outgoing pick swap in a year in which the Pels look to be bad again, particularly with Dumars coming in with his 90s mentality demonstrably intact. I wouldn't bank on it but it's something to keep in mind.

[MikeIsGood]

I think I like the theoretical SA package more than Houston's also, but it also kinda kills me because the players we're getting back are the kind of players I'd love to surround Giannis with :insert face melting emoji:

[German Athens]

I’m definitely reaching out to Ainge about that ‘31 1st this off-season. He’s already shown he values that type of pick immensely, considering he gave up 3 firsts to acquire a just as distant Phoenix 1st.