BUCKS TO SIGN FREE-AGENT SWINGMAN
Free agent swingman Gary Trent Jr. has agreed to sign a one-year contract with the Bucks, agents Rich Paul and Lucas Newton tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Shams Charania had reported on Monday that Milwaukee was among the contending teams pursuing Trent.
While Wojnarowski doesn’t specify the financial terms, Milwaukee currently operates over the second tax apron. It can only offer a minimum-salary contract to an outside free agent like Trent, so it seems safe to assume the deal won’t be worth more than that.
Trent is a talented scorer and shooter who averaged 16.4 points per game during his three-and-a-half seasons in Toronto and has made 38.6% of his career three-point attempts. He’s not much of a playmaker and is inconsistent defensively, but he’s opportunistic on that end of the court, having averaged 1.5 steals per contest across his past three seasons.
A 25-year-old player with that sort of résumé isn’t typically available for the veteran’s minimum, and reporting as recently as last week indicated Trent was reluctant to settle for an offer in that range, so it represents a coup for the Bucks to get him at that price.
Milwaukee had been in the market for help at shooting guard after losing starter Malik Beasley to Detroit earlier this month. Wojnarowski said the Bucks recruited Trent “hard” during his free agency.
Trent earned $18.5M in 2023-24 and had reportedly hoped to earn a raise as an unrestricted free agent. While the Raptors are said to have discussed the possibility of a deal in the $15M range, they never formally put that offer on the table and essentially moved on from Trent in late June after drafting Ja’Kobe Walter, exercising Bruce Brown‘s team option, and taking on salary in a trade with Sacramento, as Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca reports.
Once they officially finalize their deal with Trent, the Bucks will have 15 players on standard contracts, including 14 on fully guaranteed salaries and Andre Jackson on a partially guaranteed deal.
The move to Milwaukee will reunite Trent with Bucks point guard Damian Lillard. The two were teammates in Portland from 2018-21.
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