The Bucks salary space will be completely untied by 27 years, but can the letter s patience last for 2 years?

Translator's note: This article was originally published from CBS, and the author is SamQuinn. The data in the article are as of the original article as of June 12, local time. The views in the article have nothing to do with the translator and the platform. The draft, trading market and the 2025-26 season, the Bucks do actually have a pretty valuable asset to trade. While their first-round picks won't be recovered until 2030, they do have an unprotected 2031 first-round pick to trade. If they wait until next summer, they will have 2031 and 2033 draft picks that can be used for trade. Given how bad the situation is and how old Antetokounmpo will be by the time these picks are delivered, they will become quite valuable.

In purely cautious operations, the Bucks will desperately protect the draft pick after 2030. Either they will keep Antetokounmpo and he is old when these picks are fulfilled; or they will trade him, then every time they send out a draft pick, it means another year is far away from being able to rebuild. These draft picks are crucial to their post-Antetokounmpo era future.

But frankly speaking, Antetokounmpo's choice to stay in a team that is already in such a disadvantage does take a lot of risks. If the Bucks stockpile these draft picks that will not be cashed out until he leaves, it will be irresponsible for him. If he chooses to stay, they have to find a way to take advantage of these draft picks in his timeline. If they don't want to do so, he has no reason to believe that the management of this team takes his best interests to heart.

Now let's focus on the 2031 draft picks first, because the 2033 draft picks are currently unavailable. Obviously, they can package it with their existing salary and trade it to get a player. I plan to come up with another solution.

Look at the deal Minnesota completed with San Antonio during last year's draft: The Timberwolves wanted a player that could be developed immediately, and the Spurs didn't want to introduce a second-place rookie if they had already selected Stephen Castle with the 4th pick, so they gave the 8th pick to the Timberwolves in exchange for their 2031 draft pick and 2030 draft pick swap. Essentially, they traded a lot of future assets for an immediate chance to draft in the lottery zone.

There are several lottery teams this season that may be similar arrangements. For example, the Rockets don't give rookies playing time, so they might make such a deal with the No. 10 draw; if the Spurs don't trade the No. 14 draw for the star, they might do the same. The goal of making such deals is to introduce young talents now, and these players have enough time to grow to contribute to high-level victory in a few years, while still being paid inexpensively at that time.

This may not be the only way for Milwaukee to get a lottery draw recently. Yes, the Bucks can’t control their 2026 first-round draft pick. However, they did not give this sign completely. Instead, it belongs to the New Orleans Pelicans through swap rights. The Pelicans may not perform too well next season. Therefore, if the Bucks rank 50% or worse, even if they are swapped by the Pelicans and their picks are down a few places from the beginning, there is a great expectation to finally get at least a good draft pick.

Now, the Bucks obviously cannot play it out blatantly. They own Antetokounmpo and are in the Eastern Conference. However, given the extremely weak lineup of the existing supporting roles, it is a high probability that it will fall into the play-offs no matter how it is. So it feels completely feasible that they get a 10-15 pick. This is not a signing position that can obviously become a star, but it is an opportunity to obtain controllable costs and have certain potential assets.

This is really what the Bucks should do in the next year or two: clear the cap space and bet on any young players they can get, hoping that several of them will make their mark. But the real action will come in two years.

Long-term Plan: 2027 Free agent market

As of now, the Bucks have promised only one player the guaranteed salary in the 2027-28 season: Antetokounmpo, and through the player option. By the summer of 2027, Lillard's contract will expire and Kuzma's contract will expire, and all veterans who block current salary space can leave. Ideally, by then there will be several young players signing contracts and showing potential, but given their expected payroll schedules so clean, creating a lot of cap space would be fairly easy.

You may expect that I would recommend that the Bucks clear a maximum place for star free agents in 2027, and yes, there will be some available stars by then. Jokic, Alexander, Mitchell and several other stars could technically enter the free market that summer. But most of them will complete a renewal before that, and frankly, they may not choose to play in Milwaukee even without a renewal – this is not Los Angeles. What if any star wants to come? Great, sign him.

The more likely scenario is that they don't come, and the Bucks can spread the cap space to several players suitable for partnering with Antetokounmpo. It's too early to predict who that will be, but there may be many interesting quasi-star free agents in 2027, such as Ingram, Michael Porter, Jaylen Green, Dortmund. They are not superstars, but they are excellent players who can partner with core players.

If this sounds not exciting enough, well, it may be. This is how deep the hole the Bucks dug for themselves. They have no obvious path to add a long-time star partner to Antetokounmpo, they have no draft picks to pick or trade to get such players, nor are they in a market where they can recruit such players. They operate under an overly deep talent deficit to build a team in this way. This deficit means they will have to seek to acquire talent in a way that does not cost assets. Therefore, they are preparing salary space for the free market in 2027. At the same time, they need to accumulate and develop any cheap young players they can get, hoping that enough of them can grow up and form a talented and cohesive team with Antetokounmpo and any free agent signings.

This is not a path to a super team, but a path to careful building of a lineup. I hope the overall effect of this lineup can be greater than the sum of the various parts. Unless there is a truly unexpected situation, this is never enough to be a championship favorite. If all goes well, this may be just a marginal competitor. And this brings up the most important question here:

So... is this enough to keep Giannis happy?

Rumors about Antetokounmpo did have really heated up twice before: 2020 and 2023. In 2020, he has one year left before the free agent market; in 2023, he has two years left. But in both cases, he was eligible to reach a contract extension with the Bucks. In the past two years, the Bucks have made big deals - Ju Holiday in 2020 and Damian Lillard in 2023 - and then, after these two big deals, Antetokounmpo immediately completed the contract renewal.

But this time the situation is different. Even if Antetokounmpo likes everything the Bucks do this summer, he won't be eligible for a contract renewal until the next offseason. Therefore, Antetokounmpo is not necessarily binding on any decisions he makes this offseason. In the June 2025 moment, he may be willing to give the Bucks time to rebuild around him, but if he had a disappointing 2025-26 season in Milwaukee, he might change his mind in the summer of 2026, we don't know.

The deals about Lillard and Holiday are very telling. They did it through the acquisition of stars when the Bucks hoped to get a new contract signature from Antetokounmpo in the past two times. But for the reasons we are discussing here, it is unlikely that they will do it again. If they can do it, it's likely to be taking huge risks on an older star, or a star with injury or off-court problems. They may no longer be able to get another Lillard like magic, the tricks used to make Antetokounmpo happy have no longer worked, and they will have to sell him the kind of slower reconstruction plan we outlined above.

This may be the right path, but there is no guarantee that this is the path Antetokounmpo is willing to endure. He is 30 years old and he hopes to win now. He may be willing to sacrifice a year in his championship window, but if the year goes by and it looks like the Bucks aren't heading in the right direction, he may become impatient and change his mind. It seems that Antetokounmpo will stay in Milwaukee next season, but we can only say so much now, and no one can say his future in the future.