Rookie Brayden Burries is a key piece for the Bucks as they move forward after trading Giannis Antetokounmpo.
When a franchise loses a colossus, a level of player who made all the difference, it doesn’t just turn the page; a whole new book needs to be written.
Therefore, in Milwaukee, in the immediate aftermath of trading Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Bucks must undertake scripting a new identity and path.
Antetokounmpo was a force of nature in town. He won a pair of Kia MVPs, came close to a few more such awards, and was the centerpiece of the 2021 championship. As legendary players tend to do, he elevated the team to championship level, and the Bucks reaped all the goods that came with that.
The club enjoyed a degree of focus and attention that’s reserved for just a select few teams. The area around the arena — the Deer District — stayed swollen with fans and frosty mugs. And a generation of fans were hooked.
So now that the game has changed in town … who’s got next? And exactly what’s next?
In these cases, as these teams press the reset button, there’s a mixture of relief, suspense, uncertainty and a splash of determination. Essentially, the team is being challenged by the situation and embraces the opportunity to remake itself.
That’s what the Bucks are doing — welcoming new faces, plunging into the draft for solutions, keeping their salary cap as clean as possible and doing as much as possible to find the next Antetokounmpo, however how long and difficult that might be.
As Jon Horst, the team general manager, said after sending Antetokounmpo to Miami:
“For us, it was just about the opportunity to build and to again, set a foundation. Can we set something in place with a new coach and take advantage of an opportunity to truly build from a place of strength on a roster that hopefully makes our city proud, our franchise proud and gets us to the place where we are competitive? And we can sustain that competition and that competitive level year in and year out?”
Brayden Burries sits down with Lauren Green after being selected No. 10 overall in the 2026 NBA Draft.
It starts with, among others, Brayden Burries and Nate Ament, their two first-round picks. Neither will have the advantage of playing next to Antetokounmpo, but they also won’t enter his shadow, either. The floor is open for these two incoming rookies, and the future, along with the hopes of the club, belongs to them.
Burries, who’s having a solid showing at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, is embracing the situation.
“I get to come in and learn and be me and still be able to play through experiences, play through mistakes and be the stepping stone in the right direction,” Burries said. “There will be challenges, but any challenges you have in basketball, you have your ups and downs. I’ll just stay in the moment, not get too high or low regardless of what’s coming my way. Just stay confident.”
Ament added: “Every rookie wants to contribute immediately. Obviously you have to earn it, nothing’s going to be given. I think this situation is about just how quickly it can come together and quickly everyone buys in.
“We’re not just a young group, we’re a new group, with a new head coach. So it’s how quickly we can learn from each other.”
In the Antetokounmpo trade with the Miami Heat, the haul in return was reasonable, but not substantial.
At least the Bucks will have an instant 20-point scorer to absorb the loss of Antetokounmpo’s offense. Tyler Herro will certainly have the green light all season, and a flashing one at that. This situation is ripe for the guard to launch often and place himself among the league’s scoring leaders next season.
Herro will enter his eighth season in 2026-27 and comes from a winning situation as Miami reached the NBA Finals twice during his time there. He averaged 21.4 points per game over his last five seasons, although two of those seasons were injury-filled.
As a bonus, Herro is coming home — he’s from Milwaukee — and the former Kia Sixth Man Award winner should be willing to put down roots.
The rotation will also add Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kel’el Ware from Miami. Both have a chance to start or command starter’s minutes in the rotation.
Tyler Herro talks about joining the Milwaukee Bucks with Chris Haynes while at NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.
This situation isn’t the first time the Bucks traded a foundational rock. That would be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who, in 1975, approached management and said he wanted out. The difference is Antetokounmpo wanted a change of scenery because the Bucks, who finished 32-50 last season and missed the playoffs, were stuck in a rut and no longer winners.
Abdul-Jabbar led Milwaukee to the 1971 championship and captured three MVPs with the Bucks, but he didn’t want to live in Milwaukee anymore for cultural and religious reasons. He preferred New York, his hometown, or Los Angeles, and the Bucks weighed the choices and sent him to the Lakers.
The return in 1975 for Abdul-Jabbar — a legend who only had six years of NBA tread wear at the time — was surprisingly light. Officially, the Bucks got future fan favorites Junior Bridgeman and Brian Winters — as well as journeymen Dave Meyers and Elmore Smith — while dealing Abdul-Jabbar and Walt Wesley to the Lakers. That’s it.
(Worth noting: Abdul-Jabbar had his No. 33 retired by both the Lakers and Bucks, while Bridgeman’s No. 2 jersey and Winters’ No. 32 were retired by the Bucks.)
The Bucks did manage to reinvent themselves after losing Abdul-Jabbar and spent a good portion of the early 1980s as a solid Eastern Conference playoff team. But they had the misfortune of competing against the Larry Bird-led Boston Celtics and the Julius Erving-led Philadelphia 76ers, and later, the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls.
The Bucks had a ceiling in the East and never returned to the NBA Finals until Antetokounmpo fueled the run in 2020-21.
That’s the luxury of having an MVP contender on the roster: he’s a game-changer. Without him, the chances of sipping champagne in June are exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. Those players only come around once a generation in most cases.
But to the fortunate team, those players are often not that far away. The Bucks hope that’s the case with them, that their wait time after losing Antetokounmpo is small.
Relive all of the jaw-dropping, iconic, and historic moments from the Giannis’ unforgettable 2021 NBA Finals!
Meanwhile, between now and whenever that might happen, they’ll build a core and try to compete in the very near future. Taylor Jenkins, the new coach, will steer the reset. He presided over Memphis’ rise with the Grizzlies and showed patience with their young core, led by Ja Morant. That’s why the Bucks sought him, as Jenkins knows how to develop players and puts them in roles to help them learn.
The main issue with the Bucks during their Antetokounmpo era was their inability to find and develop their draftees. None of their picks this decade is still with the team, and only one (AJ Johnson, Memphis) is still in the league.
Aside from Ament, Burries, Ware and AJ Green, the Bucks will give Ryan Rollins and Ousmane Dieng a chance to compete and earn minutes and gain traction. Rollins was in the Kia Most Improved Player Award discussion all season, while Dieng averaged 11 ppg, 4.6 rpg and 3.9 apg in 30 games with Milwaukee after being dealt there by OKC in February.
The goal is to find solutions among a mixture of young players and veterans and forge a path forward. The Bucks know it won’t be simple or easy.
“No one’s sitting here today and saying that we’re a better team today after trading Giannis,” said Horst. “He’s one of the greatest players to ever play, greatest player in the franchise history. We’ve had an incredible amount of success.”
It’s a new chapter in town because the Book of Giannis is closed.
“There is a sense of excitement because it’s a different challenge,” said Horst. “It’s something new. I get excited about trying to put pieces together. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
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Shaun Powell has covered the NBA since 1985. You can e-mail him at spowell@nba.com, find his archive here and follow him on X.
