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

[Profound23]

Here's another interesting thing to look at. I mentioned winning a championship is hard. And someone else mentioned nobody will look back in 20 years and remember us getting bounced in the first, or semis, or ECF. People will only look at championships. The last champions have all been different teams going back

Celtics
Nuggets
Warriors
Bucks
Lakers
Raptors

The last 6 years we have had a different champion every year. The parity is at an all time high. You move Giannis, you won't even sniff a championship again. Even if Flagg turns out to be half as good as Giannis. You keep the one thing that might be able to get you back there and also understand that many of these teams are going to have cap hell/difficult decisions to make in the next year or two.

Yep to the bolded. Boston is going to look much different next year

Jalen Williams and Chet are due for max extensions, so OKC will look different very soon as well.

[DingleJerry]

Here's another interesting thing to look at. I mentioned winning a championship is hard. And someone else mentioned nobody will look back in 20 years and remember us getting bounced in the first, or semis, or ECF. People will only look at championships. The last champions have all been different teams going back

Celtics
Nuggets
Warriors
Bucks
Lakers
Raptors

The last 6 years we have had a different champion every year. The parity is at an all time high. You move Giannis, you won't even sniff a championship again. Even if Flagg turns out to be half as good as Giannis. You keep the one thing that might be able to get you back there and also understand that many of these teams are going to have cap hell/difficult decisions to make in the next year or two.

Essentially the same route GSW did with Steph. Keep him, and keep throwing stuff at the wall. Got lucky a few years back and might again this year, but at the very least are still hanging around as he ages. Its a bit different in that they had those picks to try with, but they essentially missed on all those picks so it didn't end up mattering much.

[fan230]

It may be worth while for Horst to trade Kuzma and later Dame to get players who may not be as good as but still have the same type of major skill sets as Khris and Jrue had, to best complement Giannis.

While Dame is a very good player, he and Giannis do not make a good pair. Kuzma’s skill set is especially a total mis match with Giannis.

[jschligs]

Indy - no space. Need to extend Turner and pay raise for Nembhard.
Golden State - $140m between Curry, Butler, Draymond.
Philly - cap hell
OKC - Williams and Chet due soon.
Minn - cap issues. Tax paying team.
Lakers - lots tied up between their top 3 guys.
Knicks - 1st apron
Denver - 1st apron team
Cavs - 1st apron team. Mobley/Mitchell extensions kicking in. Jerome UFA.
Phoenix - ****ed
Boston - 2nd apron team. Horford and Kornet expiring.

[Bernman]

If Flagg is this can't-miss better Kawhi then why would the lottery winner trade a decade of control + additional assets for a player mainly reliant on athleticism, who has a spotty jumper, is weak on FTs, and turns 31 next season?

If Flagg doesn't match Brooklyn's timeline, then they are better off selling whatever they have to reset the timeline.

The best we'll get is like 5 mid-round 1sts and maybe a good-not-great player. Hard pass.

It's a simple value proposition of other teams being able to contend now, while the Bucks can only realistically hope to contend later. So Flagg w/ accompaniments are seemingly more valuable to the Bucks, and Giannis to some other teams who may land the #1 pick.

The only thing that could change this equation is if Giannis verbally commits to an extension, while going thru a lean yr or 2 in the interim. Then the Bucks could take time to acquire a supporting cast from eventual cap space and/or large expirings (Dame). I'm not privy to these discussions.

[aboveAverage]

The league is in the age of parity and it’s amazing. You don’t need much to tip you over the edge to title contention if you have a superstar. We can get back to title contention with a few moves on the periphery as long as we keep Giannis and fire Doc. No way I’m trading Giannis unless he demands out.

[Frank Nova]

I like the idea of a Lauri Markkanen trade. He’s over paid but still a quality player and would be a good fit next to Giannis. Dames expiring contract fits Utahs timeline way more than Lauri’s extension does now. That team stinks and is going nowhere but as we know Ainge is a huge problem to deal with. What’s the best deal we can put together to make that work?

Having a rehabbing Dame next year instead of Markkanen definitely helps their chances to land the #1 pick and keep Dybansta in state when he declares for 2026. There seems to be some logical frame work here.

[MickeyDavis]

Without Brook and Bobby we are way under the 1st apron https://www.spotrac.com/nba/apron/_/year/2025

Brook has a cap hold of about $34 million. It will be interesting to see what he ends up getting, from us or someone else. Bobby too.

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/milwaukee-bucks/overview/_/year/2025

[tedbrogen]

The league is in the age of parity and it’s amazing. You don’t need much to tip you over the edge to title contention if you have a superstar. We can get back to title contention with a few moves on the periphery as long as we keep Giannis and fire Doc. No way I’m trading Giannis unless he demands out.

Once again, what if there is no firing of Doc? What if they legitimately own to let him coach the next two years, make him POBO, he gets a say in roster decisions, and make Darvin coach after that? That locks you into bad coaching/non-contention for three to four years.

[Bernman]

The league is in the age of parity and it’s amazing. You don’t need much to tip you over the edge to title contention if you have a superstar. We can get back to title contention with a few moves on the periphery as long as we keep Giannis and fire Doc. No way I’m trading Giannis unless he demands out.

Once again, what if there is no firing of Doc? What if they legitimately own to let him coach the next two years, make him POBO, he gets a say in roster decisions, and make Darvin coach after that? That locks you into bad coaching/non-contention for three to four years.

The reports were Doc will stay UNLESS there are MAJOR personnel changes.....

[-Jragon-]

It may be worth while for Horst to trade Kuzma and later Dame to get players who may not be as good as but still have the same type of major skill sets as Khris and Jrue had, to best complement Giannis.

While Dame is a very good player, he and Giannis do not make a good pair. Kuzma’s skill set is especially a total mis match with Giannis.

The other problem is that the NBA changed a lot since we won the championship. Even back then there were young, fast teams that had our number and we just didn't have to face them in the playoffs. All the Brook/Portis/Midds slow bs doesn't fly anymore and the Giannis FT missing doesn't either.. the margin for error is like zero now because every other team seems to have all defenders that can't miss a 3 or free throw.

[German Athens]

The NBA has not changed a lot since we won the title.

[-Jragon-]

The NBA has not changed a lot since we won the title.

We were cutting edge with Bud and the "let it fly" stuff in the East and our drop D was good. Now everyone is letting it fly but the defenses are faster/better and the drop defense is obsolete (because everyone can shoot now). That's pretty different

[raferfenix]

Kuzma’s skill set is especially a total mis match with Giannis.

That deal is looking like a self-inflicted wound for the ages.

Certainly was clear Kuzma was loafing the year off but even if he comes into camp in the best shape of his life that doesn't fix the bball IQ.

[Frank Nova]

Without Brook and Bobby we are way under the 1st apron https://www.spotrac.com/nba/apron/_/year/2025

Brook has a cap hold of about $34 million. It will be interesting to see what he ends up getting, from us or someone else. Bobby too.

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/milwaukee-bucks/overview/_/year/2025

Can Bobby do the thing where he opts out to open up his salary slot and then we can resign him after we are over the cap?

[German Athens]

The NBA has not changed a lot since we won the title.

We were cutting edge with Bud and the "let it fly" stuff in the East and our D was passable. Now everyone is letting it fly but their defense is better.

Our D was elite. We played against a team in the finals that looked a lot like the current contenders - great perimeter play and shotmaking, and 5 guys who could all contribute. They ran into Giannis and he ripped their heart out. The following year, they ran into Luka and he ripped their heart out.

If you took that Bucks team and transported them to today, they’d be in the second round right now giving Cleveland all sorts of problems.

They were really really good.

We won that title because we were big, leaned on our size and beat the **** out of teams. We made it difficult to score in the paint, and murdered teams on the boards closing defensive possessions and extending offensive ones.

I know it’s a copycat league, but when you have someone like Giannis or Jokic you don’t have to copy everyone else’s strategy. You have the unique force that other teams can’t replicate. In the case of Giannis, he’s very versatile, we could play big like that 2021 squad, or we could lean more into quickness in space.

[-Jragon-]

If memory serves me correctly.. I believe that Bud's strategy was keep Brook down low and force teams into shooting corner 3's with their 3rd-5th best players to beat us. Teams didn't have the personnel for that, teams weren't deep enough for that.

[-Jragon-]

The NBA has not changed a lot since we won the title.

We were cutting edge with Bud and the "let it fly" stuff in the East and our D was passable. Now everyone is letting it fly but their defense is better.

Our D was elite. We played against a team in the finals that looked a lot like the current contenders - great perimeter play and shotmaking, and 5 guys who could all contribute. They ran into Giannis and he ripped their heart out. The following year, they ran into Luka and he ripped their heart out.

If you took that Bucks team and transported them to today, they’d be in the second round right now giving Cleveland all sorts of problems.

They were really really good.

We won that title because we were big, leaned on our size and beat the **** out of teams. We made it difficult to score in the paint, and murdered teams on the boards closing defensive possessions and extending offensive ones.

I know it’s a copycat league, but when you have someone like Giannis or Jokic you don’t have to copy everyone else’s strategy. You have the unique force that other teams can’t replicate. In the case of Giannis, he’s very versatile, we could play big like that 2021 squad, or we could lean more into quickness in space.

If you think about the teams that beat Bud regularly (playoffs included); Indy has all the tools that would have given us fits.. Yes, Bud is a better coach than Doc but he also had his warts when it came to adjusting. Bud would have played Brook 40 min/game and Portis 30 and we would have been ran off the court.

Indy wouldn't have had to score inside.. the fast break points and 3's would be enough. Giannis would miss half his free throws.

[-Jragon-]

Also Bud never really had control of Khris or GA so GA would have bowled Indy over for offensive fouls galore while Khris would shoot all mid-rangers and over-dribble through the aggressive midget Indy D

[-Jragon-]

Basically speaking... Giannis never had a great coach and that will be part of the history of why he only wins 1 ring with us.