Perhaps other heads will roll.
Amidst the anxiety of being down 0-2 to the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, the Milwaukee Bucks shared the news that Jon Horst has been signed to a multiyear extension:
FROM SHAMS:
The Milwaukee Bucks and general manager Jon Horst have agreed to a multiyear contract extension, sources tell ESPN. The Bucks and Horst’s agent, Brian Elfus, reached a new deal this week for the NBA championship executive and one-time exec of the year before his contract expired.
— Shams Charania Tweets (& Other NBA News) (@shamsbot.bsky.social) 2025-04-24T15:00:39.696Z
Horst has been GM of the Bucks since 2017 after spending nine years here as the Director of Basketball Operations (and a hot year in Detroit as the Manager of Basketball Operations). During the span, you might have noticed that the Bucks have been pretty successful, racking up a hefty win percentage and a little ole championship. Horst played a big role in acquiring the pieces needed for said championship, and he won Executive of the Year in 2019 as those pieces began to coalesce.
It hasn’t all been rainbows, though. There have been varying levels of quibbles over various aspects of his portfolio, including his drafting (despite limited quality picks), offseason acquisitions (generally good), and deadline acquisitions (a mixed bag). But there’s a reason that, as of our weekly tracker from April 18th, 59% of Bucks fans polled approved of the job that he is doing as the Bucks’ GM—outpacing both Doc Rivers’ performance as coach (unsurprisingly, lol) as well as the current Bucks’ title chances. A large part of that is that one Giannis Antetokounmpo remains a Buck, despite the collective frothing of the association’s vultures.
The Bucks are in a tough spot in this series and heads very well may roll based on how the rest of the playoffs goes. And we here at Brew Hoop are no monolith in our views of Horst, with some giving him laurels and some advocating for him to follow Jae Crowder and others out the door (perhaps the Shanghai Sharks are looking to fill out their front office). But some of us—and more importantly the Bucks organization—believe that he is a net positive or at least low on the list of issues that this team faces. We congratulate Horst on his extension and will continue our vigilant examination of his tenure.