ESPN Insiders say Bucks will look to complement Giannis this offseason
Welcome to day one of the NBA offseason. We have a new champion in the Oklahoma City Thunder, but we’ve already had two massive trades with the Houston Rockets, acquiring Kevin Durant from the Phoenix Suns and the Orlando Magic getting Desmond Bane from the Memphis Grizzlies. With so much going on, you might have missed this important nugget that ESPN Insider Bobby Marks dropped about the Milwaukee Bucks back on June 18:
“It would be easy for the Bucks to put Antetokounmpo on the trade market, especially in light of Lillard’s Achilles injury and consecutive losses in the first round. However, sources confirmed to ESPN that Milwaukee will be aggressively exploring options in free agency and trades to complement Antetokounmpo.”
Ignoring the horrendous trade proposals in this same article, this is yet another indication that Giannis will stay with the Bucks for the foreseeable future.
They do have some options available to them, like the $14.1m full mid-level exception and a $5.1m biannual exception which could help bring back back two of their seven pending free agents, Gary Trent Jr. and Kevin Porter Jr., since Milwaukee has only Non-Bird rights on them. That means they could only offer those two small raises on their near-minimum salaries from 2024–25 unless they used one of those exceptions. The MLE can also be used to acquire a player via trade.
Speaking of trades, their best salary-matching pieces appear to be Kyle Kuzma and Pat Connaughton, who reportedly has exercised his 2025–26 player option. Thanks to the Khris Middleton trade, Milwaukee has a $7.2m trade exception at their disposal (more on that tomorrow). Young pieces like AJ Green and Andre Jackson Jr. could appeal to trade partners as well. If they wanted to go big, they could dangle their 2031 first-round pick, and if they wait until after the draft this Wednesday, they could trade their 2032 pick too, possibly as a pick swap if it’s traded alongside 2031. They’ll also have a 2032 second round pick to dangle after the draft ends.
Be sure to keep an eye out for all our coverage this offseason, starting with Jackson’s and Finn’s mock off-seasons, the draft this Wednesday, and the start of free agency, which begins next Monday evening.