The Milwaukee Bucks are re-signing veteran guard Gary Trent Jr. to a four-year, $64 million contract after Trent declined his player option earlier this offseason. While they may have wanted to reward him for taking team-friendly deals in the past, the move also overcrowds the roster and the backcourt in particular.Â
With 16 players on standard contracts, the Bucks will have to subtract someone to get down to 15. They will also have to find a way to ensure that all the team's young guards receive adequate playing time. Moreover, adding Trent makes landing another wing to balance out the roster even more difficult.
Bucks created a problem they didn't have to
The size of Trent's deal suggests Milwaukee plans to play him. That is no sit-and-watch contract. Not long after sending Taurean Prince and Gary Harris to the Pistons in exchange for Caris LeVert, the Bucks are again faced with shaving down the roster.
As it stands now, their only wing-style forwards are Kyle Kuzma, Nate Ament, and Ousmane Dieng, plus guard-forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. Including Trent - and excluding Jaquez - the backcourt runs eight players deep. That's a problem when a top priority this season will be funneling minutes to Ryan Rollins, Kasparas Jakucionis, and rookie Brayden Burries.Â
The roster was already glutted with guards, and now the Bucks must figure out which one - or more, if they want to add a forward-sized wing - is the odd one out. Maybe they already have another two-for-one trade lined up. Otherwise, creating an avenue to roster equilibrium appears extremely difficult.Â
Ultimately, bringing back Trent makes little sense with where the Bucks are at in their organizational cycle. They are on the cusp of a rebuild and need to allocate reps to future cornerstones. Trent, coming off his worst season since 2018-19 as a rookie, is unlikely to fit that bill.
Roster-crunch predicament has no easy fix apparent
It's easy to see the team flipping Trent at some point down the road. His contract, with an annual value right in the sweet spot for salary-matching purposes, almost seems designed for that very purpose.
For now, though, the Bucks have backed themselves into a corner. Burries, Jakucionis, and the others need minutes, but as it stands now, they would be competing with veteran ballhandlers like Tyler Herro, Kevin Porter Jr., and LeVert.Â
The Bucks can't exactly waive LeVert's $14 million guaranteed salary. Orchestrating a salary dump would likely require outgoing assets. A trade would be the most natural route to cut down the roster and potentially acquire that additional wing. Finding a business partner could prove challenging now that the initial waves of offseason activity have passed.
On top of all that, Milwaukee already has a catch-and-shoot artist in AJ Green, and Trent doesn't give them any substantial upgrade in size. It's a puzzling addition that doesn't fit the rest of the roster. Hopefully the Bucks can circumvent the logjam in a way that helps the team.Â
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