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The Cream City Chronicle · Cap watch

Cap Watch: Milwaukee's Numbers After the Miami Swap

Payroll, player options and swap-heavy draft picks a season after Milwaukee's biggest roster overhaul in years.

By the Bucks Nightly Desk · Thursday, October 1

Milwaukee carries $193.8M in salary across twenty contracts, over the $165.0M cap and under the $200.4M luxury tax threshold. Herro, Turner, Lillard, Kuzma and Trent Jr. account for the top five commitments, while heavily swap-based draft capital and a thinning 2027-28 sheet define how much room the front office actually has.

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Illustration by Hoops Nightly.

This summer

The June trade that sent Antetokounmpo and Portis to Miami rewired the cap sheet along with the roster. Milwaukee took back Herro, Jaquez Jr., Ware and Jakucionis, each carrying a contract that now anchors the team's 2026-27 commitments alongside holdovers Turner and Kuzma, both signed before the deal and now central to the sheet's largest numbers.

Now

Total payroll sits at $193.8M, above the $165.0M cap and below the $200.4M tax threshold, with the two aprons at $209.0M and $221.7M. Herro leads at $33.0M, followed by Turner, 30, at $26.6M, Lillard's $22.5M player option, Kuzma, 31, at $20.3M and Trent Jr. at $15.2M.

2026-27

Beyond the top five, Caris LeVert carries $14.8M and AJ Green $10.0M, while Porter Jr. holds a $5.4M player option and Jericho Sims a $2.8M player option. Rounding out the twenty contracts are rookies and recent additions — Burries, Dieng, Ament, Jakucionis, Nance, Butler, Markovic and Vasilije Micic — spread from $6.4M down to Micic's $0.7M.

2027-28

Next season's sheet already looks different. Herro, Kuzma, LeVert, Jaquez Jr. and Porter Jr. do not appear on it, while Turner's number rises to $27.9M, Lillard's holds at $22.5M and Trent Jr.'s climbs to $16.4M. Rollins carries a player option, Nance a team option.

Picks owed

Milwaukee holds swap rights on most first- and second-round picks from 2027 through 2030, owns its 2027 second outright, and owes a 2030 second to Orlando. No pick has been surrendered outright beyond that Orlando second, leaving the swap language — not an outright loss — as the real variable in how much draft capital changes hands over the next four years.

Next Milwaukee's preseason opens October 5 against the Timberwolves, but the cap picture stays theoretical until the regular-season opener October 21 at the Wizards, the first time these numbers face real games.
Are the Bucks over the salary cap for 2026-27?

Yes. Milwaukee's $193.8M payroll is above the $165.0M cap but below the $200.4M luxury tax threshold.

Do the Bucks own their own first-round picks going forward?

No. Milwaukee holds swap rights on most first-round picks from 2027 through 2030 rather than owning them outright, and it owes a 2030 second-round pick to Orlando.

By the Bucks Nightly Desk, written from the club's data and the reports on file, with every name and number checked against them. How the desks work.

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