The NBA is taking a closer look at the Milwaukee Bucks’ new contract with Gary Trent Jr., a league spokesperson told ESPN’s Shams Charania on Thursday — days after Milwaukee re-signed the wing to a fully guaranteed four-year, $64 million deal.
The terms drew suspicion around the league on two fronts. Trent is coming off one of the worst seasons of his career — 8.1 points in 21.2 minutes across 65 games, on 38.7% shooting and 36.0% from three, with several DNP-CDs down the stretch. In a soft market for role players, only seven free agents this summer locked in more guaranteed money; comparable veterans such as John Collins and Rui Hachimura signed for similar annual salaries but got only one guaranteed year.
The pattern is what stands out. After earning north of $17 million per year from 2021-24, Trent took a minimum deal to stay in Milwaukee in 2024, then a Non-Bird contract 20% above the minimum in 2025 — each time the most the Bucks could offer. This summer, with his Early Bird rights finally available, Milwaukee gave him $64 million, a few million short of the roughly $68.3 million ceiling the Early Bird exception allows.
Should the league find evidence that the Bucks and Trent agreed back in 2024 or 2025 to deliver this contract once the mechanism existed, it would amount to salary-cap circumvention — grounds for fines and lost draft picks. Proving that kind of handshake is hard, and Milwaukee has a defense ready: Trent’s down year was an outlier, his career earnings establish his market, and he twice accepted below-market money to chase a title alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo, since traded to Miami.
There is precedent in how Milwaukee has worked before. Bobby Portis signed for $3.6 million in 2020 after making $15 million the prior year, took a Non-Bird raise in 2021, then landed a four-year, $48.6 million Early Bird deal in 2022. Charania also reported this week that another team had poked around a sign-and-trade for Trent “at around the same number,” which the Bucks could point to as proof the salary matched his market.
For fantasy managers, the contract matters more than the inquiry, which is unlikely to undo the deal. Guaranteed money is not guaranteed minutes: a backcourt now crowded with Tyler Herro, Ryan Rollins, Kevin Porter Jr., A.J. Green and rookie Kasparas Jakucionis leaves Trent a streaming-only three-point source in deep leagues. If Milwaukee moves one of those guards — or Trent himself — his standalone value rises; until then, he is off the redraft radar in standard formats.
