Bucks News, Trade Ideas, Transactions - Rollins Back, 3/$12 million

[tsamo]

At this point, I'd like us to win a championship this year just so all these so called experts can suck a bag of dicks with their out of tune "expert" opinions. At this point some of them are straight up gaslighting us for keeping Giannis and trying to compete!

[worthlessBucks]

Agree with Simmons for the most part before the trade Giannis thing.

Wouldn’t have gone for Turner after the garbage I just watched from him in the finals.

[jakecronus8]

Keep coming back to the Lakers with the hope and dream that Lebron and co. think they can recreate magic with Kuzma. Some sort of three way with expirings to Miami, Kuzma to Lakers and Wiggins here. The offseason would be complete.

[SupremeHustle]

I keep forgetting about Gary Harris. I can't see us not being as good as last year which might even mean more wins. The only teams definitively better right now are Cleveland and NY. I'd put Orlando next. Then MKE and ATL fight for home court.

The Bucks could jump into that second tier with Orlando if they can upgrade from Kuz.

[bucksfansince88]

They're all furious that neither Giannis nor the Bucks front office is capitulating to the narrative they've tried so hard to create out of nothing. Instead we're doubling and tripling down and they cannot stand it. Milwaukee vs everyone

If the Bucks won the title, it'd be the most satisfying one ever as a fan for me, but I think of a team in NBA history. We'd have beaten the entire media & league, doubly. Have never seen this level of deceit and bias in sport.

every guy on the roster should be taking note of all the media disrespect and come in with a chip on their shoulders. Giannis especially, he needs to go out and flat out Dominate and will this team to 60 Wins to get his rightfully due respect

[Chad34]

They're all furious that neither Giannis nor the Bucks front office is capitulating to the narrative they've tried so hard to create out of nothing. Instead we're doubling and tripling down and they cannot stand it. Milwaukee vs everyone

Take it to the bank we will compete for a championship this year as long as we have good enough health. Can’t wait for them to prove all the haters wrong

[BigO]

Hollinger and Nehm published an article laying out part of how the Bucks were able to afford the signing, some notable parts IMO:

Let’s start with the fact that they needed to generate cap space to do anything involving Turner, unless they could get the Pacers to participate in a sign-and-trade, which wasn’t plausible for a Bucks team that has basically no draft capital to insert into a deal. (Ironically, Indiana may now have an incentive to turn this back into a sign-and-trade, but that didn’t exist when the Bucks were imagining this outcome.)

Not entirely sure how it would all work, but maybe possible still that we're able to restructure this as a sign-and-trade, give Indiana a massive trade exception, and stay over the cap, allowing us to use the MLE?

He goes on to add that if Micic's cap hit is less than $2 million, we can then waive and stretch him to free up the amount we need to sign Turner outright. If his cap hit is over $2 million, we would need to waive Livingston or possibly trade Tyler Smith to get the rest of the needed space.

Lastly, he says that we can still sign Rollins to a minimum deal, but couldn't risk him signing the qualifying offer because it would mess up the Turner math.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6467602/2025/07/02/myles-turner-damian-lillard-bucks-salary-cap-explained/

That all checks out. Thanks for posting.

FYI, regarding "Not entirely sure how it would all work, but maybe possible still that we're able to restructure this as a sign-and-trade, give Indiana a massive trade exception, and stay over the cap, allowing us to use the MLE?" - I touched on this in one of my previous posts. Even if it turns into a sign-and-trade, we'd still need the cap space unless we're also sending salary (Kuzma) out in the deal. If it gets turned into a sign-and-trade and we're sending Kuzma out as part of that deal (likely to a third team, because otherwise Indy wouldn't get as big of a trade exception and then in that case, why are they doing it), only then is it potentially possible to stay over the cap and have the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception (minor general note: just saying "MLE" can be a bit confusing - what is often referred to as the "Room Exception" is still technically a Mid-Level Exception, with its CBA name being "Mid-Level Salary Exception for Room Teams").

Thanks for the explanation.

[jakecronus8]

I'm loving the disingenuous overreactions from the hack media members. You can feel the vitriol and its all because they thought the Bucks were screwed. They weren't ready for the creativity and gamesmanship shown by Horst. I also love how Dame was left for dead by all the same blowhards and now they think dumping him torpedoed the franchise. The hypocrisy is rampant. And we all know the hypocrisy is the worst part (Norm reference for those who appreciate GOATs).

[DanoMac]

The NBA is gonna try moving us to Mexico City as soon as Giannis leaves as punishment

[RRyder823]

They're all furious that neither Giannis nor the Bucks front office is capitulating to the narrative they've tried so hard to create out of nothing. Instead we're doubling and tripling down and they cannot stand it. Milwaukee vs everyone

1 of 3 things is happening with the national coverage

#1 They legitmatly believe that Dame is the player he was 3 years ago (even after an achilies) and Brook is still the player he was 4 years ago because they haven't watched a Bucks game in years

#2 They're idiots

#3 They're lying idiots trying to generate clicks and want to run the Giannis clicks well dry before focusing on Jokic

Sent from my SM-S918U using RealGM mobile app

[drew881]

This season is probably rigged if LeBron gets traded to Cleveland.

[drew881]

They're all furious that neither Giannis nor the Bucks front office is capitulating to the narrative they've tried so hard to create out of nothing. Instead we're doubling and tripling down and they cannot stand it. Milwaukee vs everyone

1 of 3 things is happening with the national coverage

#1 They legitmatly believe that Dame is the player he was 3 years ago (even after an achilies) and Brook is still the player he was 4 years ago because they haven't watched a Bucks game in years

#2 They're idiots

#3 They're lying idiots trying to generate clicks and want to run the Giannis clicks well dry before focusing on Jokic

Sent from my SM-S918U using RealGM mobile app

#4 they are worried about the precedent and if it can harm the product. Seems like every CBA has its growing pains with people overpaying and doing stupid things. Seems like big market teams could do this more easily as they could afford it (and not have to stretch the cap hit as many years?).

[DanoMac]

Read on Twitter

Rent. Free.

[MikeIsGood]

They're all furious that neither Giannis nor the Bucks front office is capitulating to the narrative they've tried so hard to create out of nothing. Instead we're doubling and tripling down and they cannot stand it. Milwaukee vs everyone

1 of 3 things is happening with the national coverage

#1 They legitmatly believe that Dame is the player he was 3 years ago (even after an achilies) and Brook is still the player he was 4 years ago because they haven't watched a Bucks game in years

#2 They're idiots

#3 They're lying idiots trying to generate clicks and want to run the Giannis clicks well dry before focusing on Jokic

Sent from my SM-S918U using RealGM mobile app

Only 1?

[BigO]

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/free-agents

Still some guys out there that can help

That's a bad list. I never cared for Exum, despite being much more efficient the last few seasons (he also just resigned with Dallas).

I get the Gary Harris signing for defense and smarts. There's no point guards on that list that are decent for the minimum.

The two vets, Brogdon and Smart, are worth looking at. Why isn't Brogdon on the list?

[bucksfansince88]

This season is probably rigged if LeBron gets traded to Cleveland.

its all Rigged

[PG Graveyard]

Read on Twitter

Rent. Free.

Someone tell fat boy the offseason isn't even 2 days old yet.

[BigO]

At first, I thought posters on the board were over hyping how much Bucks negativity there is from the national meatheads. But it really is amazing.

I'd give up a second round pick if Giannis agreed to public denounce all those who make up stories about what he's thinking.

And I'd give up another second rounder for Horst to get up and state that none of these guys no anything about bball. The problem with this one is he just traded for Kuzma.

[DingusBojangles]

Anyway, we can take back up to 31.64m if we send out Kuzma and one of Dre/Livingston. I know I've seen Murphy and Alvarado tossed around here, and that would both require and warrant using the pick. I legitimately think Dumars can be sold on Kuzma in part because he's from Flint.

That would be a home run, IMO.

Quibble: (using Spotrac numbers) Sending out Kuzma ($22,410,605) plus Dre or Livingston ($2,221,677) would allow us to take back up to $33,159,292.54.

Article VII Section 6(j)(1)(iv)(y)(B) ends up being the relevant one here, so "one hundred percent (100%) of the aggregated pre-trade Salaries of the Traded Player(s), plus an amount equal to $7.5 million multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which is the Salary Cap for the then-current Salary Cap Year and the denominator of which is the Salary Cap for the 2023-24 Salary Cap Year."

1.0 * ($22,410,605 + $2,221,677) + $7,500,000 * ($154,647,000 / $136,021,000) = $33,159,292.54.

We could actually take back Murphy and Alvarado sending out just Kuzma (could take back up to $30,937,615.54, based on his Spotrac number).

[Rstuedes24]

My hope is the constant Giannis doubt boosts the value of our 31 pick a lot, which helps us get a higher value player out of it and then Giannis and Horst laugh at the media