Milwaukee could retain two key guards from their full midlevel exception
Earlier this week, we polled you about the Bucks’ two prominent (unrestricted) free agent guards: Kevin Porter Jr. and Gary Trent Jr. Each finished the season as not only rotation mainstays but the starting backcourt. The lineup that featured them alongside Giannis, Bobby Portis, and AJ Green was instrumental in the Bucks’ eight-game win streak to close the season and one of their few positive units in the playoffs. Naturally, most fans seem to want them both back.
But at what cost, though? As explained the other day, the Bucks don’t have Bird or Early Bird rights on either to retain them without going over the cap, so for them to get a salary commensurate with their likely market value, the franchise has to use one of their cap exceptions. Those would be the $5.1m biannual exception or the midlevel exception of up to $14.1m. While that would probably be enough for either, going beyond $5.7m of that exception hard caps the team at the first apron. While they project to have plenty of room beneath that, is it worth it for either guard? Let’s see what you had to say.
It’s interesting that the number is a fair bit lower for KPJ, perhaps reflecting his domestic violence arrest, which is still under league investigation and could result in a suspension. But also because he would seem to be the heir apparent to start at point guard next year with Damian Lillard likely to miss most of the season, if not all. It’s not entirely clear what either’s market is, but KPJ declined his $2.5m player option, so he’s confident in getting higher than the minimum. $8–10m has been thrown around among pundits for GTJ’s next starting salary.
Important to note that the Bucks could spend over that $5.7m figure on both guys and use up the entirety of that $14.1m. $9m on Trent and $5m on Porter, say. Then they’d be hard capped at spending no more than $195.9m on the roster, but with those two figures, they’d have just over $35m to fill out five more roster spots and reach the mandated minimum of 14 players, not including Bobby Portis’ player option (but including Pat Connaughton’s). Their biannual exception would still be available, they could aggregate salaries in a trade, and they could take back more money in a trade than they send out.