The LA Clippers and Kawhi Leonard were at the center of the main cap circumvention scandal this summer (and over the past year), so much so that the Bucks' investigation became an afterthought. But Milwaukee is still under investigation for the four-year, $64 million guaranteed deal Gary Trent Jr. signed this offseason, and, as Joe Vardon of The Athletic wrote on Wednesday, if they're found guilty, their punishment could be just as harsh, if not more so (subscription required).
If league investigators find proof that the Bucks and Trent are guilty of what the Clippers and Leonard were guilty of, the punishment could be equally severe, if not worse.
LA's self-inflicted nightmare is over, at least in the sense that Leonard is now in Toronto, but the Clippers will be paying for their mistake for the next several years. Rightfully so — they messed up.
This isn't an attempt to defend what Steve Ballmer and the front office orchestrated, but rather to point out that they circumvented the cap for an accomplished player. It's wild to think that Milwaukee might've done something similar (though the scenarios are different) for a player like Trent. Giannis Antetokounmpo? That's still wrong, but okay. Trent, though?
Bucks are under investigation for violating the salary cap
Trent signed a veteran minimum deal with Milwaukee in 2024, and that season, he made $2.6 million. The following offseason, he re-signed with the team on a two-year, $7.6 million deal with a $3.9 million player option in the second season (2026-27). He declined that to become an unrestricted free agent and sign a four-year, $64 million deal with the Bucks.
The kicker is that Trent is coming off a season in which he averaged 8.1 points on 38.7% shooting from the field and 36% shooting from deep. Those three numbers were the lowest for him since his rookie season, so the fact that that kind of production translated to a significant pay increase didn't make sense, hence the investigation.
If the investigation shows that the Bucks and Trent agreed to smaller contracts with the promise of a larger one later, it will all have been for nothing.
Milwaukee desperately tried to build a winning team around Antetokounmpo in his final years with the organization, which is why Trent would've agreed to take less money (if he did). The Bucks don't have anything to show for it other than a first-round playoff loss to the Pacers in 2025.
The Clippers didn't win the championship they expected after agreeing to sign Leonard in 2019 (and trading for Paul George), but they at least made it to the conference finals.
And again, Kawhi is on a completely different tier than Trent, who can be an effective role player but not a go-to guy on a contending team. Milwaukee's justification for doing so for Antetokounmpo won't cut it if the Bucks are at fault. They'll have to take their punishment, just as the Clippers did.
At the end of the day, LA still jeopardized its future, but it might not have been the only team to do so recently, thinking it wouldn't get caught. But if Milwaukee did actually circumvent the cap for Trent, it would take some of the heat off the Clippers. That's a plus, right?
