The NBA is reviewing the Milwaukee Bucks’ re-signing of shooting guard Gary Trent Jr. for possible salary cap circumvention, a league spokesperson told The Athletic.
“The NBA is continuing to look into it,” the spokesperson said.
Last weekend, the Bucks shocked the NBA world when they reached an agreement with Trent on a fully guaranteed four-year, $64 million contract. Trent, 27, had just completed his second season in Milwaukee and put up 8.1 points in 21.2 minutes per game, his lowest averages since his rookie season during his eight-year career.
The new deal comes after Trent signed much less lucrative contracts with Milwaukee in the previous two offseasons. In the summer of 2024, he signed a one-year contract for the minimum to join the Bucks. In his first season in Milwaukee, Trent averaged 11.1 points per game in 25.6 minutes per game, playing primarily off the bench in the regular season before a strong playoff performance.
After putting together a strong-enough season to draw interest from other teams, he instead agreed to a new deal with the Bucks in the summer of 2025 that offered a modest raise to two years and $7.5 million, with a player option for the second season. Despite having a down year that should have cooled his market, Trent opted out this summer and received the four-year, $64 million deal.
News of the signing immediately drew suspicion from league decision-makers, as such a payday for Trent did not align with the free-agent market, his previous contracts and his production last season. On top of that, as The Athletic reported at the time of the signing, rival executives had anticipated the Trent deal for months, with many predicting the Bucks would reward Trent handsomely for his decision to sign in Milwaukee at a cheaper rate last offseason despite a strong first season with the Bucks.
That has led some around the league to wonder if Trent’s new contract was part of a cap circumvention scheme where the Bucks had some sort of handshake deal or promise with him to take a lesser contract last offseason to give the Bucks greater opportunity to build a roster around Giannis Antetokounmpo in exchange for giving Trent a raise this offseason.
From a salary cap perspective, the Bucks used a provision known as Early Bird rights, which gives teams the chance to re-sign players to a first-year salary up to 175 percent of their previous salary or 105 percent of the league-average salary in the previous season, whichever is greater. However, Early Bird rights are only established once a player has played two consecutive seasons with a franchise without leaving as a free agent or being waived. Trent thus could not have signed his current contract with Milwaukee until this summer.
The most similar case of salary cap circumvention occurred when the Minnesota Timberwolves lost three first-round picks after their under-the-table agreement with Joe Smith in 1999. The free-agent forward agreed to sign three straight minimum contracts in Minnesota to establish Bird rights, and the Timberwolves would eventually reward him with a contract that would have paid him $86 million.
The Timberwolves were punished so drastically because all sides put the under-the-table arrangement in writing, making the evidence clear. It’s unclear if the NBA would require the same level of evidence to enforce a punishment with Trent.
