It's done. The Milwaukee Bucks have traded Giannis Antetokounmpo for Tyler Herro and a whole host of young pieces and draft assets. And while there will be time to lick our wounds later on, what's in front of the Bucks in this moment is the upcoming NBA Draft.
Therein lies the question: what do they do now with Tyler Herro, and even potentially Jaime Jaquez? Because NBA insider Chris Haynes just reported that Herro is keen on enjoying a fresh start in his hometown after years with the Miami Heat.
"Tyler Herro is thrilled about a fresh start and playing for his hometown team the Milwaukee Bucks. Herro always envisioned returning home at some point during his NBA career," Haynes reported in a tweet.
Milwaukee should be rerouting Tyler Herro for additional draft compensation
If Jon Horst and this front office let that returning hometown hero narrative distract them from the cold, hard truth of their current situation, they’re dooming themselves to years of irrelevance.
For this writer, the Bucks should do everything possible to rebuild now. Hard stop. Because let’s be blunt: The Milwaukee Bucks are not "retooling." They are resetting.
That means they cannot keep Tyler Herro just because he can keep them within reach of the play-in or because he's happy to be back in the 414. Milwaukee no longer has MVP-level talent while still struggling with an expensive roster and limited control of their future picks. If all a second-to-third option at best in Herro offers is a timeline mismatch with any pieces they get, any grand delusions of staying competitive should be dismissed as total nonsense in an Eastern Conference where they have to face the likes of Miami, Boston, Philly, New York, Cleveland, and Orlando.
None of this is to say that Herro is not a good piece to have. He put up 20, 5, and 4 this year for a reason. But this is only to say that Herro raises your floor without raising your ceiling. And the Bucks don't know where they are in either.
If Milwaukee holds onto Herro, they are trying to keep a foot in two worlds. They’ll be too good to bottom out and secure a high-percentage lottery pick, but far too mediocre to actually compete with the East’s elite. That is the purgatory that teams spend half a decade trying to escape.
It's become clear for a few days now that there appear to be camps within the Bucks front office, with one side preferring to tear everything down to rebuild, while the other wants to stay quasi-competitive in the seasons ahead.
Throughout this pre-draft process, Jake Fischer reported earlier on The Stein Line Substack (subscription required), that the Bucks had been informing league front offices around the NBA that they intend to have three first-round selections at the 2026 NBA Draft. After the Giannis trade, they still have just two.
If another move is coming, the easiest way to land another first-round selection is by doing away with Herro and by rerouting him to another team. The front office has a choice: lean into the sentimentality of a Wisconsin kid coming home, or lean into the ruthless efficiency required to build a champion.
The Bucks need to decide where they stand in the NBA landscape
To recall, NBA insider Shams Charania first reported over at ESPN's Get Up that if the Bucks were to Jaylen Brown, he would be staying in town and not be rerouted anywhere else. Kevin O'Connor also reported that the Bucks "want to remain competitive next season."
For a team this cash strapped and devoid of developmental pieces (save for what they've scrapped together from the G-League and the undrafted market, of course), it's time to do things right and build through the draft with or without their picks. And this trade has given them the chance to do just that.
Trading Giannis only becomes worth it if Milwaukee avoids the temptation to chase respectability. Stay tuned for more Milwaukee Bucks analysis.
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