Bucks News, Transactions, Trade Ideas

[fansinceforever]

Any needle movers that we're able to acquire are either going to have turn the clock back several years or have a pretty remarkable and immediate hockey stick like increase in their career trajectory.

[ShootingtheJ]

I totally agree that most teams think Kuzma stinks, but the teams that were still calling about him last year will still want him now. That's the Lakers and Kings, plus threw Mavs had a trade in place to acquire him the year before.

[raferfenix]

I could imagine certain teams highly valuing our 2031 first and 2032 swap with an eye to the day where we’d badly want them back as part of a Giannis trade.

Worst case those picks have a great chance of being very good even if old man Green Freak is still around.

Brooklyn comes to mind in particular — Kuzma and a pick for Cam Johnson works straight up under the cap fwiw.

[Prez]

I totally agree that most teams think Kuzma stinks, but the teams that were still calling about him last year will still want him now. That's the Lakers and Kings, plus threw Mavs had a trade in place to acquire him the year before.

I mean there's nothing to suggest this is actually true, you're just hoping it is. If the thought process for those teams (and the Bucks) at the time was that you could pull Kuzma away from a horrendous situation in Washington and make use of him on a winning team, all of that was disproved. Once the Bucks actually traded for him and he was quite possibly the worst player in the league getting 20+ mpg and basically sabotaging us in the playoffs during his minutes, it more than likely killed any interest those other teams may have had.

[raferfenix]

Looking back at what the Suns got from the Jazz for their 2031 unprotected first:

- 2025 least favorable first-round pick (via Cleveland, Minnesota or Utah*)

- 2027 least favorable first-round pick (via Cleveland, Minnesota or Utah)

- 2029 least favorable first-round pick (via Cleveland, Minnesota*, or Utah)
* = protected

[Frank Nova]

I totally agree that most teams think Kuzma stinks, but the teams that were still calling about him last year will still want him now. That's the Lakers and Kings, plus threw Mavs had a trade in place to acquire him the year before.

I mean there's nothing to suggest this is actually true, you're just hoping it is. If the thought process for those teams (and the Bucks) at the time was that you could pull Kuzma away from a horrendous situation in Washington and make use of him on a winning team, all of that was disproved. Once the Bucks actually traded for him and he was quite possibly the worst player in the league getting 20+ mpg and basically sabotaging us in the playoffs during his minutes, it more than likely killed any interest those other teams may have had.

This. You can trade Kuzma but your best bet is to add the 2031 1st and Pat if you want to take on a good enough stressed asset that might actually pan out. Kuzma is atrocious and even worse than the running jokes on the internet now for 4yrs about how he’s 1 of the worst players in the NBA. It’s true.

[ShootingtheJ]

I totally agree that most teams think Kuzma stinks, but the teams that were still calling about him last year will still want him now. That's the Lakers and Kings, plus threw Mavs had a trade in place to acquire him the year before.

I mean there's nothing to suggest this is actually true, you're just hoping it is. If the thought process for those teams (and the Bucks) at the time was that you could pull Kuzma away from a horrendous situation in Washington and make use of him on a winning team, all of that was disproved. Once the Bucks actually traded for him and he was quite possibly the worst player in the league getting 20+ mpg and basically sabotaging us in the playoffs during his minutes, it more than likely killed any interest those other teams may have had.

Brook Lopez absolutely got murdered in the playoffs for years now, and he'll still get a free agent contract, around $5-10 million.

[ShootingtheJ]

I totally agree that most teams think Kuzma stinks, but the teams that were still calling about him last year will still want him now. That's the Lakers and Kings, plus threw Mavs had a trade in place to acquire him the year before.

I mean there's nothing to suggest this is actually true, you're just hoping it is. If the thought process for those teams (and the Bucks) at the time was that you could pull Kuzma away from a horrendous situation in Washington and make use of him on a winning team, all of that was disproved. Once the Bucks actually traded for him and he was quite possibly the worst player in the league getting 20+ mpg and basically sabotaging us in the playoffs during his minutes, it more than likely killed any interest those other teams may have had.

This. You can trade Kuzma but your best bet is to add the 2031 1st and Pat if you want to take on a good enough stressed asset that might actually pan out. Kuzma is atrocious and even worse than the running jokes on the internet now for 4yrs about how he’s 1 of the worst players in the NBA. It’s true.

The Mavs offered 2- 1sts for Kuz a year ago.

[Prez]

I totally agree that most teams think Kuzma stinks, but the teams that were still calling about him last year will still want him now. That's the Lakers and Kings, plus threw Mavs had a trade in place to acquire him the year before.

I mean there's nothing to suggest this is actually true, you're just hoping it is. If the thought process for those teams (and the Bucks) at the time was that you could pull Kuzma away from a horrendous situation in Washington and make use of him on a winning team, all of that was disproved. Once the Bucks actually traded for him and he was quite possibly the worst player in the league getting 20+ mpg and basically sabotaging us in the playoffs during his minutes, it more than likely killed any interest those other teams may have had.

Brook Lopez absolutely got murdered in the playoffs for years now, and he'll still get a free agent contract, around $5-10 million.

Brook's history as a good player blows anything Kuzma has done out of the water, and Kuzma was utter garbage the entire season, Brook wasn't. Some team being willing to throw $5-10mil at Brook does not in any way mean a team is going to want to take on an atrocious player on the books for $22mil/yr for 2 more seasons after this one.

[ShootingtheJ]

I mean there's nothing to suggest this is actually true, you're just hoping it is. If the thought process for those teams (and the Bucks) at the time was that you could pull Kuzma away from a horrendous situation in Washington and make use of him on a winning team, all of that was disproved. Once the Bucks actually traded for him and he was quite possibly the worst player in the league getting 20+ mpg and basically sabotaging us in the playoffs during his minutes, it more than likely killed any interest those other teams may have had.

Brook Lopez absolutely got murdered in the playoffs for years now, and he'll still get a free agent contract, around $5-10 million.

Brook's history as a good player blows anything Kuzma has done out of the water, and Kuzma was utter garbage the entire season, Brook wasn't. Some team being willing to throw $5-10mil at Brook does not in any way mean a team is going to want to take on an atrocious player on the books for $22mil/yr for 2 more seasons after this one.

You're looking at this from the sane perspective, not the perspective of teams that once considered Kuzma good. 90% of the league never had interest, yet the Mavs and Kings tried to pry him out of Washington for years, offering real assets. I'm just asking for a salary dump. 1 bad year won't change him in those teams eyes that much.

Also, and it doesn't matter much, but his contract shrinks to $20 million in the last year.

[raferfenix]

Doc and Horst very well might still value Kuzma and want to give him the summer to actually work out and prepare to play with the Bucks just like they did with Dame.

Not advocating for this mindset mind you just preparing for the possibility.

[Prez]

Brook Lopez absolutely got murdered in the playoffs for years now, and he'll still get a free agent contract, around $5-10 million.

Brook's history as a good player blows anything Kuzma has done out of the water, and Kuzma was utter garbage the entire season, Brook wasn't. Some team being willing to throw $5-10mil at Brook does not in any way mean a team is going to want to take on an atrocious player on the books for $22mil/yr for 2 more seasons after this one.

You're looking at this from the sane perspective, not the perspective of teams that once considered Kuzma good. 90% of the league never had interest, yet the Mavs and Kings tried to pretty him out of Washington for years, offering real assets. I'm just asking for a salary dump. 1 bad year won't change him in those teams eyes that much.

Also, and it doesn't matter much, but his contract shrinks to $20 million in the last year.

Kuzma in previous years you could squint and the see the case for "ehh he could be better in our system", and that's why they wanted him. But this past season wasn't just your ordinary "oh he had a bit of a down year". We're talking about a dude who was catastrophically bad and sabotaged his team in the playoffs. The guy rocked a -4.9 BPM on the year, -0.024 WS/48, and among guys who played 15+ games and 10+ mpg, the guy had literally the worst net rating on the Wizards AND the worst net rating on the Bucks. His playoff stats: 2.5 PER (LOL), 39% TS, -28.2 points per 100. We can't just sit here and pretend this doesn't change the equation.

Like yeah maybe they'd take on that deal if we attached assets but the claim I'm pushing back on is the idea that they still want him, solely because they did a year and a half to two years ago.

[ShootingtheJ]

Brook's history as a good player blows anything Kuzma has done out of the water, and Kuzma was utter garbage the entire season, Brook wasn't. Some team being willing to throw $5-10mil at Brook does not in any way mean a team is going to want to take on an atrocious player on the books for $22mil/yr for 2 more seasons after this one.

You're looking at this from the sane perspective, not the perspective of teams that once considered Kuzma good. 90% of the league never had interest, yet the Mavs and Kings tried to pretty him out of Washington for years, offering real assets. I'm just asking for a salary dump. 1 bad year won't change him in those teams eyes that much.

Also, and it doesn't matter much, but his contract shrinks to $20 million in the last year.

Kuzma in previous years you could squint and the see the case for "ehh he could be better in our system", and that's why they wanted him. But this past season wasn't just your ordinary "oh he had a bit of a down year". We're talking about a dude who was catastrophically bad and sabotaged his team in the playoffs. The guy rocked a -4.9 BPM on the year, -0.024 WS/48, and among guys who played 15+ games and 10+ mpg, the guy had literally the worst net rating on the Wizards AND the worst net rating on the Bucks. His playoff stats: 2.5 PER (LOL), 39% TS, -28.2 points per 100. We can't just sit here and pretend this doesn't change the equation.

Like yeah maybe they'd take on that deal if we attached assets but the claim I'm pushing back on is the idea that they still want him, solely because they did a year and a half to two years ago.

They still wanted him a few months ago, in the middle of that terrible season.

[ReasonablySober]

It wasn't one bad year, and the reason the Bucks got him wasn't because they were betting on the player. They needed Washington as a trade partner because they were one of the only teams with cap space. Washington got to dump a salary on the Bucks because Milwaukee was desperate.

[Prez]

You're looking at this from the sane perspective, not the perspective of teams that once considered Kuzma good. 90% of the league never had interest, yet the Mavs and Kings tried to pretty him out of Washington for years, offering real assets. I'm just asking for a salary dump. 1 bad year won't change him in those teams eyes that much.

Also, and it doesn't matter much, but his contract shrinks to $20 million in the last year.

Kuzma in previous years you could squint and the see the case for "ehh he could be better in our system", and that's why they wanted him. But this past season wasn't just your ordinary "oh he had a bit of a down year". We're talking about a dude who was catastrophically bad and sabotaged his team in the playoffs. The guy rocked a -4.9 BPM on the year, -0.024 WS/48, and among guys who played 15+ games and 10+ mpg, the guy had literally the worst net rating on the Wizards AND the worst net rating on the Bucks. His playoff stats: 2.5 PER (LOL), 39% TS, -28.2 points per 100. We can't just sit here and pretend this doesn't change the equation.

Like yeah maybe they'd take on that deal if we attached assets but the claim I'm pushing back on is the idea that they still want him, solely because they did a year and a half to two years ago.

They still wanted him a few months ago, in the middle of that terrible season.

Which team? And source?

[BigO]

This is all a well and good discussion about what teams would take Kuzma, but I still go back to the fact that there is strong eveidence that Horst liked Kuzma and obviously Doc loves him.

Bottom line, what evidence do we have that Horst and Doc have soured on him? The final game of the season? Doubtful.

[ReasonablySober]

This is all a well and good discussion about what teams would take Kuzma, but I still go back to the fact that there is strong eveidence that Horst liked Kuzma and obviously Doc loves him.

Bottom line, what evidence do we have that Horst and Doc have soured on him? The final game of the season? Doubtful.

I don't buy the original premise at all. Kuzma was just a salary on a team that had cap space.

[blazza18]

Horst definitely liked him imo.

I know you said it will inevitably turn into a Kyle vs. Khris thing and you don't view it that way, but why Kyle Kuzma?
Horst: It's way less to me about what I thought wasn't happening. And I don't think it was an overly optimistic view, I think it was a pretty realistic view on this group, when healthy as constructed I thought the group could compete with anyone. I think that Kyle gives us more chances to compete with more different teams, different matchups.

I think he – it's early and he needs to play with Giannis – but last night shooting 55 threes and with the amount of assists we had in a game without Giannis. We talked a lot last year about how do we maximize non-Giannis lineups? And one of the things you gotta do is shoot threes and one of the ways you gotta shoot threes is you gotta move the ball. Kyle is a great ball mover. His assists numbers and box score stats may not always show his impact, but he just passes to move the ball, he's not hunting assists. So I think that is something that is going to help us.

You watch him go from guarding Maxey to Embiid in a game and I would say pretty effectively, I think that shows some of his defensive versatility. Coming over on a weak-side shot block, he's a good rim protector. Not always as your primary first rim protector, but as a secondary rim protector coming over and making plays like that, he's very good. Rebounding in traffic, pushing the ball in transition, he's up there in Giannis-like in effectiveness and efficiency and frequency in transition.

There's a big gap between Giannis and the rest of our team in that statistic and so, we still think – and it's harder to do in the playoffs, I get it – but teams are starting to play in transition more in the playoffs. We're at our best or at least one of our best versions of itself is playing fast and so another player that can get out and go with the ball.

And then shooting. He still is a scorer, shooter that has upside. At 29 years old, we strongly believe that he's in his prime and so we can see better basketball out of Kyle Kuzma than we have the last couple years. We believe that, in our system, playing with our guys.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/nba/bucks/2025/02/10/milwaukee-bucks-gm-jon-horst-trading-khris-middleton-kyle-kuzma-kevin-porter/78393707007/

[Frank Nova]

Horst had no choice but to sell Kuzma as a basketball move. I’m pretty confident he actually believes what he said or at least desperately wants to. That’s the elephant in the room now.

He gave up an asset to trade for a player he’ll need to use another asset to trade. D- move, ducking the 2nd apron keeps it from being a F, imo.

Horst gotta pick 1 of the other, Doc coaching or Kuzma on the roster. For the love of everything holy, it can’t be both. I really don’t want to watch that for an entire season+.

[ReasonablySober]

There was nothing else he could have said after the trade. Kuzma was going to get minutes one way or another. Horst had to sell it as a basketball move.