The Naz Reid deal just gave Bobby Portis all the leverage, and the Bucks are paying the price.
According to ESPN's Shams Charania, Naz Reid is putting ink to paper on a new five-year, $125 million contract to stay with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The deal includes a player option and, as opposed to his player option worth $15 million, now skyrockets Reid’s average annual salary to $25 million, which is nearly double what Bobby Portis would have been owed next season.
That’s where this gets messy. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Jim Owczarski put it plainly on BlueSky: “No doubt this is where [Bucks] forward Bobby Portis Jr. feels his contract value is/should be. He has until the 29th to decide on his $13.4 million player option.”
It’s a nightmare setup for the Bucks, who are already over the cap, struggling to find ways to improve the roster around Giannis Antetokounmpo, and can’t afford to commit long-term money to a stagnant core. But Portis, who’s been vocal about getting his as of late, might force their hand.
Bobby Portis has been firm about wanting a raise, and now he has a reason to stand pat
In a June 16 appearance on Run It Back on FanDuel TV, Portis made his stance clear: “I just want to be compensated fairly to my peers. I’m not really asking for much. I’ve taken a lot of team-friendly deals to be here. We're at a point now where I just want to be compensated fairly.”
He stopped short of saying he’s leaving Milwaukee, but that tone doesn’t exactly scream “hometown discount.” If he opts out, the Bucks will need to either re-sign him at a bigger number, or explore sign-and-trade options fast. But if he opts in and refuses to be moved, Milwaukee loses one of its only mid-sized tradable contracts and faces even tighter constraints in trade flexibility.
To state the obvious, Naz Reid isn’t Bobby Portis, even if they've been compared to one another ad nauseam. But he’s younger, more mobile, and coming off a season where he won Sixth Man of the Year on a conference finalist. And the $25 million price tag he laid out for himself just set the new precedent for what backup bigs with offensive punch can ask for.
Simply put, Naz Reid and the Wolves just skewed the market with one move, and Bobby Portis is now well within his rights to demand $18–20 million annually, even if Milwaukee can't afford it.
And that’s the issue: the Bucks may not be able to meet those numbers, but they can’t afford to lose Portis for nothing either.
The situation can now go one of two ways here. If Portis opts in: the Bucks likely keep him on the roster for the season, limiting their trade flexibility and kicking the cap problem down the road. And if he opts out: Milwaukee either gives him a raise (and risks overpaying, which limits their flexibility to find other solutions at center), or loses him via sign-and-trade, assuming they can find a partner.
There's still a chance he chooses the latter, of course. With the Bucks likely losing Brook Lopez for nothing, Portis could very well choose to stay and become their next starting center, which could easily secure him an even bigger bag down the road.
Either way, Naz Reid just moved the goalposts, so to speak. And Milwaukee is stuck in a corner with a player who knows his value, and a market that suddenly agrees.
For a team already paralyzed by the apron, Bobby’s bag could be the one that breaks the Bucks going forward. And perhaps the hard part is that he's not wrong to ask for it, either.