Giving either more than $5.1m would hard cap the team at the first apron.
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Milwaukee Bucks fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
Last week, we asked you about how you’d approach free agency for the Bucks’ two (current) free agent centers: Brook Lopez and Jericho Sims. We’ll go on to the guards expected to hit the open market—assuming Kevin Porter Jr. declines his player option—but things are a little different here. Whereas Milwaukee can use the Bird rights they possess on Lopez and Sims, allowing them to sign them to any contract regardless of their lack of cap space, they don’t have that luxury with Porter and Gary Trent Jr.
Here’s what that entails, again assuming that KPJ opts out: since both will have been under their current contracts for just one season, the Bucks only have their Non-Bird rights. That limits the team to offering them a 120% raise on their 2024–25 salary. Since GTJ was on a vet minimum and KPJ made just a little bit (relatively speaking) more, that wouldn’t amount to much of a raise, around $3m for each of them. You can read about how Jack thinks Porter’s next contract will look here, and Jackson will tell us his thoughts on Trent early next week. But suffice it to say that they can probably do a whole lot better than another minimum (or close to it) this summer.
So, how can the Bucks retain them? With the news that Pat Connaughton will pick up his player option as expected, Milwaukee can’t create functional cap room to re-sign either Porter or Trent. That leaves them with the midlevel and biannual exceptions, which allow teams to sign (or acquire by trade, in the case of the MLE) players without using cap space. The former is projected to be worth up to $14.1m in starting salary over a four-year term ($60.1m total), while the latter is projected at $5.1m for two years max ($10.5m total).
But here’s the catch, and let’s forget about duration for a second: if the Bucks use more than $5.7m of their midlevel exception (also known as the taxpayer midlevel) or they use the biannual exception, they become hard-capped at the $195m first apron for 2025–26. We’re just completing a year where Milwaukee faced significant apron concerns, but next year won’t have the same issues. Their current commitments (including Connaughton’s and Bobby Portis’ $13.4m player option) have them at $162.2m for nine players, giving them about $33.7m in space below the first apron and five roster spots to fill. Take Portis out, and that jumps to $47.1m and six spots.
Since the TPMLE and BAE are pretty close in value, let’s just use the bigger one for the purposes of this survey. Would you go over that amount in 2025–26 salary for either of these guys, thus hard-capping the Bucks at the first apron next year?