Now that the smoke has settled over the free agency chaos of the past few weeks, and the who-stays-and-who-goes phase that naturally comes with a rebuild has come and gone, questions still remain over what the Bucks are going to look like this season. Most of the roster is set, but it's still hard to imagine where shooting guard AJ Green fits into Jon Horst's masterplan going forward.
To recall, the Milwaukee Bucks in the past week acquired Caris LeVert and elected to sign Gary Trent Jr. to a stunning four-year $64 million deal. That leaves the Bucks with eight players who can play either guard position in Ryan Rollins, Tyler Herro, Kevin Porter Jr, Gary Trent Jr., Caris LeVert, Brayden Burries, Kasparas Jakucionis, and Green himself.
Where does AJ Green fit into the Milwaukee Bucks' future?
Despite going undrafted, AJ Green eventually went on to average 7.3 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 242 games for the Bucks in his career while sporting an incredible 42.0 percent shooting clip from distance. He is, by any objective measure, a massive success story for the organization: an undrafted prospect who blossomed into a legitimate, high-level sharpshooter. He’s locked into a four-year, $45 million extension. He brings gravity as a knockdown shooter and provides reliable, gritty defense.
But therein lies the problem. Because Green is both affordable and statistically proven on both sides of the ball, he is also the easiest "veteran" (if you can even call him that) for the Bucks to move. Any team would be lucky to have a player of his calibre in the modern NBA. That's not something you can say for a lot of the other names currently on the Bucks roster.
The new reality in Milwaukee is that this team is no longer playing for the immediate championship window that defined the last five years. They are playing for a timeline that can hopefully be headlined by names like Jakucionis, Ware, and Burries a few years down the line. But while Green is a fantastic win-now role player, he doesn’t fit the long-term age profile or the upside-first mandate of the current rebuild as cleanly as the team’s younger acquisitions, given his current age at 26 years old.
Keeping him in a logjammed rotation, where his minutes will likely be squeezed by higher-usage players or developmental projects, serves neither the player nor the team. (The same is true for Gary Trent Jr., but that is neither here nor there.) For a franchise that is desperately trying to clear the decks and prioritize long-term asset collection, keeping a player of Green’s caliber on the bench is a luxury they may no longer be able to afford.
Circumstance may force AJ Green out of town sooner than later
So this is only to say that Jon Horst clearly has a decision to make sometime soon. Does he keep a reliable hand in a chaotic rotation, or does he leverage Green's clear-cut value to bring back further assets more aligned with the timeline? It's not hard to imagine Green can fetch perhaps another draft pick or a prospect who can develop under the tutelage of Taylor Jenkins and company. And that's exactly what the Bucks should be looking for.
It’s an uncomfortable move to make, especially for a homegrown talent who earned every bit of his contract, but in the ruthless math of a total rebuild, sentimentality is a luxury the Bucks can't afford.
Even this writer has to admit that Green is the easiest veteran to move. He has league-wide value as a knockdown shooter with excellent defense, a reasonable contract, and perhaps the biggest thing: doesn't fit the team's long-term timeline as cleanly as the younger guards.
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