[Vecenie] For two months now, I’ve gotten asked by league sources not connected to the Bucks or Klutch (Trent’s agency) if I’d heard that the Bucks were going to give Gary Trent Jr. something in the ballpark of the full MLE and my response was typically something along the lines of “No way”.
For two months now, I’ve gotten asked by league sources not connected to the Bucks or Klutch (Trent’s agency) if I’d heard that the Bucks were going to give Gary Trent Jr. something in the ballpark of the full-midlevel exception for four years, and my response was typically something along the lines of, “There’s no way they can do that coming off of the season he had, right?” This deal, as Sam Amick and Eric Nehm reported, has been anticipated.
The NBA should pretty clearly look into this contract in regard to salary-cap circumvention. I cannot remember a player agreeing to sign for the minimum one year, having his worst season in seven years where he was a below-average player by any standard, and then receiving five times as much money in free agency the following year — let alone four guaranteed years in a marketplace where starting-quality players on good teams, which Trent proved that he was not this past season, had an exceptionally difficult time getting multiple guaranteed years. Regarding what Vorkunov said above, that feels at the very least some real circumstantial evidence that this deal cannot be rationally explained.
But then again, the worst punishment the Bucks can receive here might be paying Gary Trent Jr. $64 million for the next four years, given that he’s seen downticks in scoring average in each of the last five years and overall offensive efficiency in four of the last five outside of a spike season in 2024-25, his lone season since 2020 where he’s had a true-shooting percentage above league-average as a player who derives most of his value as a shooter and scorer.