Bucks Limited by Salary Cap Woes Amid Early-Season Struggles

The Bucks are off to a horrid start in the 2024–2025 season, but the team may be stuck with its current roster due to the NBA’s strict salary-cap regulations.

Milwaukee entered the year expected to be in contention for a top seed in the Eastern Conference despite a first-round exit last year—expectations that come from having two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and eight-time All-Star Damian Lillard on the roster. But the Bucks have a 2–8 record through the first nine games of the season, and are 13th in the Eastern Conference.

Antetokounmpo is locked until at least the 2026–2027 season after signing a three-year, $186 million deal last October that includes a player option for 2027–2028. But given player movement around the NBA in recent years—including Lillard’s trade from the Trail Blazers to the Bucks last year—Antetokounmpo’s future with the team is a looming question amid the team’s struggles.

“Yeah, if we don’t win a championship, I might get traded. Yeah, this is the job we live. This is the world we’re living in. It’s everybody,” Antetokounmpo told The Athletic before the start of the season.

ESPN’s Bobby Marks and Brian Windhorst shut down rumors that either Antetokounmpo or the Bucks are looking to part ways this season. But Windhorst confirmed the Bucks are looking to make a move to improve the team around Antetokounmpo, especially as three-time All-Star Khris Middleton remains sidelined. It’s also unclear how healthy Middleton will be once he returns, especially as he’s played just 88 regular-season games over the last two years.

Antetokounmpo did not mince words after a blowout loss to the Knicks. “If you’re not going to go out there and compete, you’re not going to win the game,” he said Friday night.

No Flexibility

The problem for Milwaukee is there are few options to improve. Many of its best players—including Lillard, Middleton, and Brook Lopez—have diminished trade value around the league given their contracts and age. (Middleton is the youngest of the trio at 33 years old.)

Even if the Bucks did decide to make a trade, they would need to find a very specific trade partner because they are one of four teams above the second apron, a $188.9 million payroll threshold nearly $50 million above the soft salary cap and $17.5 million above the luxury tax.

Violators are given several roster construction restrictions. One is the inability to aggregate salaries to make a deal, so the Bucks can’t trade two players for another who has a larger contract. Milwaukee also cannot take back more money than it is sending out. 

The Bucks are also not allowed to sign a player who is bought out, which typically happens later in the season around the trade deadline.

It’s not impossible for the Bucks to make some trades, but given their current situation, it’s unlikely they will be able to move the needle in the short term.
Marks said on NBA Today last week that the team’s best option is to hope for “internal” development from younger players like AJ Green and Andre Jackson Jr., who head coach Doc Rivers placed in the starting lineup Thursday.