2026-27 Milwaukee Bucks / NBA Thread

[Joseph Zarr]

Ament showed things again in the final Bucks SL game. Just needs to fill out and keep grinding. There is promise there for sure - big relief.

AND, Burries is a starting Guard Day 1. What an absolute stud. He showed steady improvement using his body to draw contact while still finishing throughout SL - he's so strong. So composed. Plays hard on the defensive end. Shooter. Better handle than suspected. Unbelievable draft pick. It's already there. 

Great way for the young Bucks to end there Vegas time:

 

[GAME05]

Even though they're probably going to have a pretty bad team, I think I'm more excited for this season than the past many. I don't know much about the non-Herro guys we got and I can't remember when I've been this anxious to see a draft pick play. Oh my goodness I had to look it up and the last particularly exciting draft pick was Thon Maker a decade ago. I really liked that guy even though he was the worst rebounder I've ever seen.

But it does feel like we have the makings, even if it's not a complete team yet. Like we've just completely restocked our role-player squad. Now all we need is to trade for that guy Giannis in Miami and we'll be set!

[patrickgpe]

From what I saw, everything that had to be accomplished for the summer league team was. The 3 players that I cared about (Bogi, Ament and Burries). As a bonus and on a selfish note, Kam Jones did play well enough to warrant his 2 way contract. 

[Joseph Zarr]

I mean, I think we have to thank Dusty May for insisting on a U of M player over Burries. That was key. It is very possible the Bucks got the best most complete Guard of the coveted top 6. At #10. What an absolute steal Burries is. A LOT of prognosticators and FO's failed to see how much more was in his bag and how quickly he could add wrinkles to his game.

[Brian]

The new OG squad. 

[GAME05]

Boy the amount of flopping and crying that's going to come from one single team next year...

[CheezWizHed]

I have to say that I'm probably more interested in watching the team this year than last year's team (though Rollins' development was interesting to watch last year).  

This year, Herro is an obvious draw, but he probably doesn't have much upside now.  Burries is going to be exciting to watch.  Also to see if Rollins can repeat or improve from last year. 

But we have so many new people that have some upside.  Who else are you excited to watch this year?

[homer]

RIP Don Nelson

[HarryDoyle]

Don Nelson, second-winningest coach in NBA history, dies at 86 - ESPN

No, he didn't win a championship here in Milwaukee, but as far as I'm concerned, he's the GOAT of Milwaukee Bucks head coaches.

[HarryDoyle]

On 7/25/2026 at 11:17 AM, GAME05 said:

Boy the amount of flopping and crying that's going to come from one single team next year...

I now know why they are named the Sixers. That's the average amount of flops they'll commit per game.

[BrewerFan]

On 7/18/2026 at 8:49 PM, GAME05 said:

Even though they're probably going to have a pretty bad team, I think I'm more excited for this season than the past many. I don't know much about the non-Herro guys we got and I can't remember when I've been this anxious to see a draft pick play. Oh my goodness I had to look it up and the last particularly exciting draft pick was Thon Maker a decade ago. I really liked that guy even though he was the worst rebounder I've ever seen.

But it does feel like we have the makings, even if it's not a complete team yet. Like we've just completely restocked our role-player squad. Now all we need is to trade for that guy Giannis in Miami and we'll be set!

This is basically the perfect team... to build around Giannis ironically. 

But it's going to be interesting. They have a lot of guards. They clearly owed Gary Trent some money... that's unfortunate but they got 4 good players from the Heat. 4 young players who have a chance to make an immediate impact. 

[BrewerFan]

On 7/18/2026 at 6:14 PM, Joseph Zarr said:

AND, Burries is a starting Guard Day 1.

Burries is definitely a player to build around. I don't think he's a Day 1 Starter. 

They're waaay too deep at the 1-3 IMO, to start him. But he'll get plenty of playing time and he may be one of the first 2 players off the bench. 

The more I sit with this trade, the most excited I am about it and the depth we now have. Need to be smart with who they trade, but if they can get Watson from Denver? I love the breakdown of this roster(for it's 1st year post-Giannis, not quite as a "we can win a playoff series" obviously). 

Backcourt
Ryan Rollins is 24 and looks like a REALLY good two way player. 
Herro-Not a huge fan, but he's a very good SG. I'd prefer to flip this for future firsts. 
KPJ-He's gotta prove he can make other players better, but just on TALENT... he's elite. That hasn't meant much thus far. 
Burries-This is exactly the type of OG we needed when Giannis was here. A Desmond Bane type or a better version of Brogdon who can defend multiple positions, run the offense and shoot the ball at a high level. 
AJ Green-Great shooter. 
Kasparas Jakucionis- Big PG who can shoot the ball and is just 19-years-old. 
Gary Trent Jr-.... no lipstick for this pig. They had to pay him... obviously. 
Caris Lavert-?? An expiring contract. A guy who'd have gotten PT the last couple years. 
Cormac Ryan-I think he had a couple nice games last year when nobody cared. Maybe I'm wrong... we'll see. 

SF-If they can actually get Peyton Watson, that'd be HUGE. A guy who can defend at an ELITE level and is still developing as a scorer?
-JaimeJaquez Jr-- 15/5/5 and just a really smart player. Probably the guy they'd have to trade to get Watson, but if they just go with him, a really nice player who does everything well. 6MOY runner up last year. 

Not much else here. 
-Deign has a ton of upside... that's obvious. Taylor Jenkins is a much more likely coach to get something out of him. 
-Ament is a... who knows what he is. He's got a great athletic profile, great size, was projected to go much higher but was wildly inconsistent during the College season. Probably going to take him 2-3 years to develop... which is fine. 

-Kuzma- He's not terrible, but he's just terrible to watch. I dislike the guy. Can't help it. 
-Pete Nance- Might be able to work his way into the rotation with his energy and athleticism. Probably not, but maybe. 

Big Men-
-Kel'el Ware- Ware looks like the EXACT type of player you could have used next to Giannis(in fact the whole roster looks perfect... if... you had Giannis). But the dude is a 7 footer who can shoot it, step out and defend a bit. 

Turner-Need to try and deal him, but wait until someone is desperate for a stretch big who can protect the rim... and hope he's better than he was last year. 
-Sims-I love Sims. I mean, he's not much more than a defender, rebounder, lob threat, but he's athletic and plays hard and in Jenkins defense I could see him playing a bigger role. 

-I think this is a team that COULD win 40 games. This is just so much better than last years team and given where they were a year ago, the age and depth of this roster, one that played without Giannis for most of the year, they should at least be more exciting this year. 

If they can manage to get a 1st out of Turner(probably involves taking back a bad contract)... that'd be nice. Kuzma will be gone next year. Peyton Watson would be another potential young star on this team(and by "star" I mean a really good but not quite All-Star type player at this point, though he could get there). 

[CheezWizHed]

On 8/15/2026 at 4:50 PM, BrewerFan said:

Herro-Not a huge fan, but he's a very good SG. I'd prefer to flip this for future firsts. 

Turner-Need to try and deal him, but wait until someone is desperate for a stretch big who can protect the rim... and hope he's better than he was last year. 

I think there is a huge potential for mid-season trades here. I'm higher on Turner than you.... I think he didn't mesh with Giannis very well (which we saw a few times unfortunately...).  

Give them a few months to play well with the youngsters and flip them.  With the ability to take on bad contracts (shorter ones), you could really refill the draft coffers. 

Then in 2027 you clear Herro's ($33M), Turner ($27M), Kuz ($20M) and LeVert($15M) and the slate is pretty clean to build on. 

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

8 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

I think there is a huge potential for mid-season trades here. I'm higher on Turner than you.... I think he didn't mesh with Giannis very well (which we saw a few times unfortunately...).  

Give them a few months to play well with the youngsters and flip them.  With the ability to take on bad contracts (shorter ones), you could really refill the draft coffers. 

Then in 2027 you clear Herro's ($33M), Turner ($27M), Kuz ($20M) and LeVert($15M) and the slate is pretty clean to build on. 

I like your line of thinking… but also conscious that the GM who would ultimately have that cap space to work with is the same one that brought in all of these players

[BrewerFan]

17 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

I think there is a huge potential for mid-season trades here. I'm higher on Turner than you.... I think he didn't mesh with Giannis very well (which we saw a few times unfortunately...).  

Give them a few months to play well with the youngsters and flip them.  With the ability to take on bad contracts (shorter ones), you could really refill the draft coffers. 

Then in 2027 you clear Herro's ($33M), Turner ($27M), Kuz ($20M) and LeVert($15M) and the slate is pretty clean to build on. 

I'm not really down on Turner, I think he's a good big man who can shoot, but I don't think he's one of the 3 best players on a contender and he's too old to really be in our timeline. 

I'm also more than happy to deal for players. If you get a couple picks out of Turner, maybe you flip one fore Watson(a player I'd be very aggressively going after, but not giving up an additional 1st for). 

And sure, take on all the salary you can... for this year and next. You have a lot of players who could demand 20M+ to re-sign... Ware is one. I like him a lot and I think if you give him more Playing Time, he could be worth it. 

 

Herro is the bigger question. I think he's worth multiple 1sts and I'd sooner re-sign him than let him walk... but that's also before I've seen this team play together, so that could change. What I think many teams know is the value he brings. I don't know what a team like the Lakers would offer or... Boston, but I think he's a valuable trade piece. 

To build around Rollins, Burries, Peyton Watson, Ke'el Ware would be a very nice starting point with some very interesting depth, assuming you get Watson for Jaime Jaquez Jr(without a 1st attached).... which would be a good value, though I'd be fine keeping Jaquez Jr as well as I think his Basketball IQ and play making is very high... but mostly, just a much better start to the rebuild than I anticipated. 

Taylor Jenkins and hopefully Horst is more effective without having to try and take those big swings he had to when he was trying to add a star next to Giannis. 

[CheezWizHed]

15 hours ago, TwinsBrewersWorldSeries said:

I like your line of thinking… but also conscious that the GM who would ultimately have that cap space to work with is the same one that brought in all of these players

Two things:

1. Those four players mentioned... ALL of them were good acquisitions. No, Khris for Kuz was a bad player trade off, but the trade did much more for getting the Bucks under the second apron so they had the ability to make other moves. Herro and Turner are valuable assets...just not in the Buck's team-rebuild window. LeVert looks like a useful player that we got in a salary dump for table scraps.  So if these are your examples of how Horst is a bad GM, you have bad examples. 
2. Trying to bring in talent and make trades with Giannis on the team is much harder than people remember.  Not only does he consume a huge part of the cap with his salary, he did as much damage with trying to keep him happy (signing his brothers, getting the bad coach he wanted...twice, constantly trying to stretch his playoff window...).  I think there is a reason why LeBron keeps changing teams... the superstars suck the resources of a team dry and then when they can't build around them anymore, they move on. 
   1. Interesting to note that LeBron only won two championships while with the heat.  And that took him leaving in FA, forming a super trio and won in back-to-back years.   Something that could've easily happened with the Bucks (or even 3 years) if it wasn't for health reasons with Giannis-Mids-Holiday trio.  Of course Lebron left for Cleveland for a single championship and then had to leave for LA for a single championship. 

I think we are going to find out that Horst is a better GM than we give him credit for...