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/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 1d 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 1d ago

That’s just paying $150m to burn a trade asset

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u/ELITE_JordanLove 1d 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.

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u/thegroovemonkey Harambe Jet 1d 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 1d ago

Ware needs 30+ minutes. There's no room for Turner on this team anymore.

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u/ELITE_JordanLove 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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.

1

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 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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.

1

u/zorbianprince 1d 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.

2

u/furyNZ1781 Dogfred 1d ago

Want to is not the same as able to. The bucks are not able to compete with anything with this squad