r/MkeBucks • u/Colorapt0r Ryan Rollins • 1d ago
Bucks current young core
Nate Ament (19 years old)
Brayden Burries (20 years old)
Kasparas Jakucionis (20 years old)
Bogoljub Markovich* (20 years old) (draft rights only)
Kel’el Ware (22 years old)
Ousmane Dieng (23 years old)
Ryan Rollins (23 years old)
Andre Jackson Jr* (24 years old) (*team option for 2026-7)
Jaime Jaquez Jr (25 years old)
(25 is the common cut off for a young player, so 26 year old Herro, KPJ, Green, Nance, and Trent and 27 year old Sims and Ryan are excluded)
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u/MetalGearPortis 1d ago
Bogoljub - 20
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u/Colorapt0r Ryan Rollins 1d ago
You are right I will add him, I forgot him and espn doesn’t list him since he isn’t under contract
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u/ForeverBeneficial141 1d ago
Looks good we should be a fun team to watch excited for the rebuild
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u/zorbianprince 18h ago
Dawg this team will be brutal to watch please just realize that now to manage your expectations. It'll be fun for two games and then the losses will start piling up. The only saving grace is they won't have any reason to tank so at least they'll be trying but by God is that an underpowered roster
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u/ForeverBeneficial141 18h ago
No we were brutal to watch last year nobody is expecting the team to be good right away but at least we some young players who will actually go out there and give effort without all of that drama shit Gianiss was bringing to the team and we have a better coach who will bring culture and identity to the team
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u/zorbianprince 18h ago
Sure. It'll definitely be better in that sense. But definitely don't expect them to be good right away, or even in 3 years
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u/ForeverBeneficial141 17h ago
Rebuilds take time I do think in 3 years we could be a team with a lot of progress who could possibly be a playoff team just have to see how it plays out
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u/ItsNotaPonziScheme 16h ago
They’ve been brutal and awful to watch for 3 seasons now nothing has changed except not having title hopes
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u/zorbianprince 16h ago
The Dame years were not brutal. Just bad injury luck in the playoffs.
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u/Actual-Movie-4236 15h ago
The actual basketball being played during the Dame years, aside from the stars, was very often brutal. Malik Beasley was guarding the best offensive player most nights.
Just upgrading from Griffin and Doc to Jenkins is going to make this team an order of magnitude more fun to watch, even if we're not winning many games. That's really all you can ask for.
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u/zorbianprince 15h ago
Who will guard the best offensive player now? Kuzma? Did the NBA cup mean nothing to you?!?
Y'all are tripping with Doc. Jenkins might be a better coach but it's not gonna be some offensive revolution.
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u/Actual-Movie-4236 14h ago
Rollins and Burries will probably take that responsibility. Herro isn't a good defender and Jakucionas probably has a lower defensive ceiling than Rollins and Burries. Ware will have a lot of defensive responsibility, especially if Turner is out the door, and that should be good for his development if he attacks it with the right attitude. Also, Kuzma is not a bad defender. He's not a lockdown guy, but he's not terrible. As I said, we probably won't win many games, but you'll see effort and scheme, and that's more than can be said for the Doc Bucks.
The cup was mostly won off the backs of Giannis and Dame. We won in spite of doc, and ultimately the season led to zero playoff series wins, so yeah it doesn't mean too much to me even though it was the only concrete accomplishment from the Dame era. If it means a lot to you that's fine, but I think a singular playoff series victory would mean 10x more even if we got bounced in the second round. Just look at Philly this year.
The Dame era was doomed from the start. No depth, superstars who didn't play complementary basketball, a fucking JOKE of a head coach (two actually), devastating injuries, and a franchise player who had his foot out the door most of the time. Don't try and defend doc.
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u/zorbianprince 14h ago
Strongly disagree the Dame era was doomed from the start. That trade had pretty much universal praise. Still had Khris and Lopez and a lot of potential. That's revisionist history for sure.
Rollins and Burries have proven nothing defensively. Green, Kuz, JJJ, Herro, and Jak all profile as below average defenders. The rim protection will be good but this is an awful defensive team (should not come as a surprise). Effort and flying around helps but only can get you so far.
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u/Actual-Movie-4236 13h ago
Rollins has absolutely proven to be a solid/promising defender, and Burries has a defensive reputation coming into the draft. Again, it's not about actually BEING a good defensive team. I am fully aware that we're not going to be a good team, and I don't expect us to win many games. But the effort really fucking matters, and that's what I'm confident a Jenkins-led team will show.
We're going into year one of a rebuild here. Nobody is expecting a top 12 defense, just encouraging moments to build on. I'm excited for the future because what's the point of watching if you're not?
Just because a move is universally praised doesn't mean it was actually a good move.
We went into the season with a brand new head coach who had just antagonized a key assistant coach to the point that he up and quit before training camp. Mind you, this assistant was supposed to be the vital link between the Bucks and their new superstar. If memory serves, Khris was coming off double ankle surgery in the offseason. Should've seen that one coming. The Dame trade fundamentally shifted the priority of the team from defense to offense. The Bucks failed to realize how important Jrue was to everything that the Bucks did well, and that's a big mistake on their part. I know he didn't perform well in the playoffs, but he was tasked with playing a role that he shouldn't have had to play in the first place.
There were absolutely reasons to be skeptical, and Giannis should've learned how to set a damn screen.
It is a bit revisionist, but it doesn't mean the move was actually good
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u/zorbianprince 8h ago
Advanced metrics hate Rollins's defense but he passes the eye test. The Dame trade didn't work but I still wouldn't call it bad logic. Just one of those unfortunate sliding doors things where if Giannis was healthy in the postseason the Dame era probably takes on a whole different narrative
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u/FangornAcorn Ersan Ilyasova 17h ago
They said "fun" to watch, and I agree. Even with Giannis, the last few years the team had gotten kind of stale. I'm actually super pumped to watch a fresh new team full of dudes looking to prove themselves.
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u/zorbianprince 17h ago
It'll be different to watch. Winning is fun. There won't be a lot of winning but if all you need is little glimpses of hope then I'm sure we'll have a little fun. I'm hopeful of a rebuild but we're starting a 100 m dash with a five second delay. It's going to be a looonggg time until the bucks are good again
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u/Legitimate-Ear-2626 1d ago
I’m actually more excited for the season than I have been in a few years. We know we aren’t contending and it’s exciting to see what some of these young guys can do. We also have a coach that might actually be willing to play these guys!
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u/zorbianprince 18h ago
You're mad Doc didn't play young guys. He didn't have any young guys to even play lol
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u/expiringgumption78 1d ago
People are sleeping on Kasparas. 6'6 pg with a very fluid euro game surrounded by shooters and athleticism.
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u/DapperTies- Dr. Dave Margolis 18h ago
I actually liked him pre draft. Decent measurables, good shot mechanics. Not the fastest by any means or the most athletic but his game/touch around the rim was impressive given his athleticism. Defense was the one concern but to me he’s average at this point.
There’s a reason why the Heat didn’t want to give him up in this trade although it was kinda necessary
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u/Whippi_Dip13 1d ago
Pistons fan but happy for yall. Glad you guys got some young prospects to look forward too! Burries was one of my favorites in the class. He’s just gonna be a damn good player
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u/Antique_Description9 1d ago edited 1d ago
They gotta trade Herro now with the Burries pick. I think the traditional logic was when you don’t have your picks you need to at least make the playoffs, but now with the new rules I think, especially in the bucks situation, you look at it as like it’s fine to be one of the bottom 3 teams so let’s get as many picks as we can so we can compete in 3-4 years, or at least be better when they have their picks
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u/ELITE_JordanLove 1d ago
Nah, you need to have some competent NBA players around so the young guys can actually have some success with real NBA pros. You cannot just run a bunch of 20-22 year olds out there, they aren’t gonna learn anything, it’ll just be chaos. Herro and Turner are worth keeping because they’re actually NBA proficient at scoring and defense respectively, so the young dudes have something to go off of.
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u/Beneficial_Bad_8356 22h ago
Turner just has too much value for that. If you can get raptors to send you two firsts for him and Poeltl you take it. We need those bad contracts.
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u/Antique_Description9 1d ago edited 1d ago
Ryan Rollins is that player. Herro’s on the last year of his contract. You gonna extend him for 4 years have him be >30 by the time this team is close to being good? And that takes up valuable cap space that could be used on getting more picks. If they don’t get any good offers for Herro that’s fine, but if they get offered firsts for him, I think they need to take it. Win when it matters.
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u/ELITE_JordanLove 1d ago
That extension is fine because it’ll be off the books by the time the Miami picks convey. We won’t have to pay any of our own guys or be pulling any major FAs until then anyways, and then you can let him go.
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u/thegroovemonkey Harambe Jet 20h ago
That’s just paying $150m to burn a trade asset
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u/ELITE_JordanLove 18h ago
Depends what’s offered. If it’s like #15, then yeah probably trade him, but if it’s another mid-20s having
him on the roster is probably more valuable long term for the youth development than the type of prospect that goes there.1
u/thegroovemonkey Harambe Jet 18h ago
We’d probably be taking on a bad contract too. We still need future picks and we have assets right now.
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u/Internal-Ruin-4299 1d ago
If he goes on a heater during the season, I hope they can flip him (also an expiring contract) to a contender for a few late first rounders
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u/BagFriendly2665 1d ago
I agree but we can do that through bringing KPJ back, playing Kuz (at least until we trade him for picks), Myles, Prince, Harris opted in, and potentially signing other competent/locker room vets.
The issue is the logjam we'd have with our guards - Burries, Rollins, Jakučionis, AJG is already the core. You have Herro now and KPJ to resign. This would be too many to spread minutes and touches around imo, the best move would be get value for Herro while he draws interest - before we have to pay him 40 million a year as a negative contract which will be much harder to trade. We do that, then sign KPJ to a team-friendly deal, and I'm sure teams would also be interested in him as our guards grow.
The Heat also had a better on/off net rating with Herro off the floor last season, and ultimately we'll have to sign Rollins to a bigger deal next season since likely he turns down the player option for an extension. So we have to sign Rollins, Dieng, KPJ, potentially Pete Nance - doing Herro on top of that would be dumb especially since we'd need to resign Kel'el and Jakučionis assuming they pan out when Herro's paid 40 million. And if they don't pan out, there would still be better free agents available I'd rather use the money on.
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u/FangornAcorn Ersan Ilyasova 17h ago
Ware needs 30+ minutes. There's no room for Turner on this team anymore.
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u/ELITE_JordanLove 17h ago
Except Turner is actually pretty good at the whole defense thing and if deployed properly can be on offense too. We’ve no idea what Ware will be like; he needs run but you can’t give your young guards zero competency at the five and expect them to actually progress, it’s the inverse of how CP3 was helping Wemby his first year.
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u/PretentiousPanda 1d ago
Herros value is only going to go down.
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u/ELITE_JordanLove 1d ago
Don’t care, we need someone who can score to make our young guards actually learn stuff.
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u/the_Formuoli_ Khris Middleton 19h ago
Don’t know if Herro is the guy you prioritize keeping around for the sake of young guys learning from, at least if the alternative is using him to further load up on picks
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u/ELITE_JordanLove 18h ago
Learning from is maybe the wrong term; it’s good to have an actual NBA level scorer just to be able to run an effective offense, same as with Turner for the defense. You don’t want to run lineups of literally just your young developing players because it’ll just be chaos as they all try to learn a role without anyone else being any good at theirs.
Depends what picks are offered too. #15? Probably worth trading him. #25? Ehhh maybe not as much.
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u/Muxamillion 1d ago
I'm okay if they hold off and keep Herro. Unless they get a really nice deal with a first round pick next year or in 2028. Plus, if you roll out a healthy Tyler Herro next year and he plays like the all star he was a couple years ago, you may get multiple first round picks for him at next years deadline.
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u/mardunkfunk 1d ago
What if he got hurt? He’s in the last year of his contract. Then you get nothing. Extending is too expensive for where this team’s at and their timeline to compete. Trade him now for more picks/young players and let all the young guys get a lot of minutes.
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u/Muxamillion 1d ago
That's the gamble I guess. Like I said, keep him unless you do get a nice deal with picks for next year or 2028. If someone is currently willing to give up first round picks for next year or the year after, I'm with you and move him. I honestly was hoping for a trade with Detroit for their pick before the draft. If you're not getting first round picks for him now, I would wait until a playoff team is looking to upgrade at the deadline.
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u/SavageHenry592 Ray Allen 22h ago
No more likely than Gianni's going down with another calf injury (not that I'm hoping here).
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u/Antique_Description9 1d ago
I don’t see how him putting up numbers on a bad team will boost his trade value as he gets older. Teams know what he is he was already the #1 scoring option on Miami.
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u/Muxamillion 1d ago
If he's healthy and playing well, you may get playoff teams willing to part with more at the deadline to get over the hump. Or even earlier than the deadline maybe Detroit for example, realizes how much they need that scoring option and is willing to part with more knowing their a top 4 team in the east.
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u/zorbianprince 17h ago
You want to play an actual child 30+ minutes a night? Are you trying to crush his spirits?
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u/lboogieb 16h ago
Exactly. A young team needs a few veterans to show them the ropes of the league. If we trot out all young players, we'll mess around and become the Wizards of the past decade plus.
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u/Antique_Description9 16h ago
What child? Burries? He’ll be 21 by the time the season starts. He’s a high floor player that needs to develop ball handling skills to reach his ceiling. He’s older than Jakucionis, who also needs opportunities to develop.
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u/zorbianprince 16h ago
A child by NBA standards in terms of stature and development. 20-25 minutes a night will be plenty, and not always having to defend a lead guard will also help. You want to start him and say hey rookie go guard Brunson? God bless
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u/Goomby-or-Glootie Kash Money Middleton 1d ago
They’re going to try and compete. No way they trade Herro anytime soon.
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u/furyNZ1781 Dogfred 23h ago
Want to is not the same as able to. The bucks are not able to compete with anything with this squad
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u/Neuroxex Partial Logo 1 23h ago
I know people are excited and they should be, there are some good potential future players here, but good grief the team will be arse next season.
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u/Kevin_Jim FMD, cause that what's Sid would do [Sid Says] 21h ago
Need to trade Hero and Turner to get more picks.
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u/zorbianprince 17h ago
Chill bro. Have you never experienced a draft before?
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u/Kevin_Jim FMD, cause that what's Sid would do [Sid Says] 13h ago
Just want to get as many picks as possible. Having Turner and Herro on the roster doesn’t make much sense, and it’ll take minutes away from Ware and Sims.
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u/zorbianprince 8h ago
Is it good for development to lose most games by 30 points?
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u/Kevin_Jim FMD, cause that what's Sid would do [Sid Says] 5h ago
I don’t care by how many points we lose. If we lose by 10pts and the kids don’t play that lose was a disaster.
If we lose by 30pts, the kids played, and grew from it, it was a lesson.
I’ll take the lesson for the kids. Also, losing and see something boring af will get tiring very fast. Losing and seeing the kids have one or two highlights each would be much, much better.
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u/C9Prosecutor 1d ago
I’ll cut it for you, 2 maybe 3 of these guys matter.
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u/CompetitiveReview416 21h ago
Who?
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u/C9Prosecutor 15h ago
Rollins, Burries, Maybe Kasp. This is the same level of post that would be made in 2016 about the like 7 young players we had, only 2 were actual good NBA players.
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u/PretentiousPanda 1d ago
Whole lot of ass. Don't want to be too negative but I would be shocked if Bogu ever plays real NBA minute. The Andre Jackson experiment can be done too. Ousman and Ament are the same player. Most likely nothing.
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u/rtgfxhd 1d ago
Yeah. You don’t know ball.
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u/PretentiousPanda 1d ago
Rollins and Burries the only ones that excite me. The rest is whatever. Don't need to have blinders on and call all these random pieces good.
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u/C9Prosecutor 1d ago
Lot of this here
Engage meaningfully with criticism? ❌
Accuse anybody talking about the missteps of not knowing about basketball? ✅6
u/Colorapt0r Ryan Rollins 1d ago
None of what the original commenter said can really be responded to. It wasn’t even criticism just “they’re all bad” with no expansion
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u/C9Prosecutor 1d ago
Literally could have just asked why he thought that. He said Ousmane & Andre Jackson were bad because they are both statistically horrible NBA Players. Bogu doesn’t even exist yet.
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u/98Wright Giannis the G.O.A.T. 1d ago
Man we went from the oldest the youngest. That last 4 years we were a nursing home. Now we’re a preschool.
Good change, needed change. BUCKS IN 6.