With less than two months to go before NBA teams start their training camps in late September, the Milwaukee Bucks need to eventually work out their roster size to cut their current roster of 17 standard NBA contract players down to 15 players.
How the Bucks will pursue their necessary roster reduction is shrouded in the aftermath of a transformational 2026 NBA offseason in which the franchise ended the worst-kept secret in the NBA by trading their face-of-the-franchise player, forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, to the Miami Heat for guard Tyler Herro, center Kel’el Ware, guard Kasparas Jakucionis, forward Jaime Jaquez Jr., and a collection of draft picks.
The post-Giannis Bucks roster is a mixed bag of middle-class salary players like Herro, forward Kyle Kuzma, and center Myles Turner. Additionally, there are journeymen players like guard Gary Trent Jr. and forward Caris LeVert.
Guard Ryan Rollins likely enters the 2026-27 NBA season as the Bucks' de facto locker room alpha, after starting 67 games in the 2025-26 NBA season, while finishing the season as the Bucks' third-highest scorer, averaging 17.3 points per game behind guard Kevin Porter Jr. and the departed former Bucks alpha, Antetokounmpo.
As the Bucks are in the maiden voyage of their own roster rebuild, logically, the closest thing to a roster core in Milwaukee should center on the youth of Rollins, Ware, and Jakucionis.
The Bucks roster stew should be a strong signal wafting 92 miles south to the Chicago Bulls that the finishing touches on the Bulls' offseason should come from hammering out a deal with the Bucks to save them from their roster crunch.
Bulls' game plan for a Bucks deal
Not insurmountable, yet a challenge nonetheless, is that the Bulls have only one avenue to facilitate a trade without engaging in more complex salary matching logistics to land a trade with the Bucks, and that is the Bulls $9.4 million room mid-level exception (MLE).
Absent an appetite by both the Bulls and Bucks to explore deals for the higher-priced salary players currently on the Bucks roster, the Bulls should engage the Bucks specifically with their room MLE to help Milwaukee trim its roster fat.
Fortunately for both the Bucks and Bulls, there are multiple Bucks players who can move to the Bulls as a tandem within the Bulls’ $9.4 million room MLE.
The most intriguing Bucks player the Bulls should consider is center Jericho Sims, given he’s still relatively young going into his age 28 season in the 2026-27 NBA season and size at 6’10” and 250 pounds.
Sims would be a good veteran to audition for a Bulls front-court that really doesn’t have a long-term center despite the 2026 offseason addition of Nic Claxton.
If the Bulls were to acquire Sims, whoever the second player the Bulls acquired from the Bucks would be somewhat inconsequential because ultimately that player is probably a middle-to-back-of-the-bench rotational player who also forces the Bulls to potentially waive forward Leonard Miller to create the roster spot for the second player acquisition from the Bucks.
Alternatively, a trade like this might trigger a roster move for center Noa Essengue to a new NBA franchise or free agency altogether.
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