The Bucks will receive a salary cap benefit as a result of Damian Lillard‘s new three-year contract with the Trail Blazers, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN and Sports Business Classroom (Twitter link).
Milwaukee waived Lillard earlier this month and used the stretch provision to spread the $112.6MM he was owed on his previous contract over the next five years, resulting in annual cap hits of about $22.5MM.
As Marks explains, since Lillard’s salary with Portland exceeds the one-year veteran’s minimum salary ($2,048,494) for each of the next two seasons, the Bucks will receive a set-off amount of approximately $11.65MM. The formula for determining the exact amount involves taking Lillard’s new salary with the Blazers, subtracting the one-year vet minimum, and dividing that amount in half.
The set-off, which will be applied after the 2025/26 regular season, will reduce Milwaukee’s annual dead-money cap hits from $22.5MM to $20.2MM through ’29/30.
While $2.3MM annual savings might not seem like much, every little bit of financial flexibility could be helpful for the Bucks as they try to retool around Giannis Antetokounmpo. The reduction of Lillard’s dead money may also help the team waive-and-stretch another contract down the road without exceeding the maximum allowable 15% of the cap.
Before word broke this evening of Lillard’s agreement with the Blazers, Marks predicted on ESPN’s NBA Today that the seven-time All-NBA guard would reunite with Portland (Twitter video link).
While the Bucks are benefiting a little financially as a result of Lillard signing a new contract, it’s worth noting that the same won’t be true of the Suns with Bradley Beal, since the right to set-off is typically forfeited as part of a buyout agreement — Milwaukee simply waived Lillard rather than buying him out.
Luke Adams contributed to this story.
He needs to give $42m in salry also to Bucks. This is BS!
No, they knew the risk and waived him.
What? Why? The Bucks traded for Lillard, his contract comes with him. They chose to waive him.
Bucks made the bad choices not Lillard why should he do anything for them?
What bad choices? You make that trade ten out of ten times… expletive happens though.
No YOU make that trade 10 out of 10 times. I wouldn’t have risked it all for Lillard.
That trade was a toss up. Drew was fantastic here, but Lilard is an all time great HOF player. It could have been great, with some luck being healthy rather than having your stars all injured in the POs. I still maintain the Bucks horrible firing of Bud and the coaching cause that followed (in Giannis’ actual prime) were the root cause of all the issues. Not to mention the Karma of firing someone, based on performance during a stretch where his brother just died. Thats was some cold ass shit! And IMO they are still paying the karma piper for that a-hole move. That’s a lifetime of bad luck earned right there.
Facts alone, a healthy Giannis, Khris and Dame would have gone deep each year even last year the decline of Middleton was far more devastating. 23-24 is a an ECF appearance, minimum, if they aren’t playing the 2nd rotation 70% of the time in the Indy series. Side note: luckiest plaid team ever, Indy, always catches injured teams in the playoffs. They won’t reach the finals in the next 10 years. Their luck ran out in game 7.
Ah yes, that poor Billionaire who owns the Bucks. Let’s all shed a tear for him.
Lmao exactly
Why? The Bucks were the ones that waived Dame and knew they were would be responsible for paying his entire remaining contract when they did so. The cap relief is a bonus for Horst and company to help build a competitive roster around Giannis.
I think they should get rid of the waive and stretch provision. Forcing badly managed teams like the bucks to have to eat that stupid contract they traded for.
Awesome News! Next year they will have the right mix of youth and vets!
nba contracts are a damn joke. signs contract with blazers cries for trade. then wines 2 years in milwaukee like a baby and gets to resign with blazers. what a lil bit**
The Blazers wanted to trade Dame as well, it was mutual.
I’d complain too if I was stuck in Oregon and fkn Wisconsin.
Clearly he wasn’t “stuck” in Oregon, since he just resigned there. SMDH.
Also, if you’re a guard seeking an NBA championship, you go to the Arctic Circle Alaska if that’s where Giannis is playing. There are two players you go anywhere to play along side of. Giannis and Jokic. That’s it. It’s a two player list.
He “wines”, eh? Did he beer as well?
Bucks made a bad trade and bad roster construction. These highly paid smart guys in front offices make the darndest moves that very many couch potatoes can see won’t work. But the brightest minds in the NBA world convince themselves that their ideas are the best.
The trade made sense at the time. They needed offensive creation, and Dame was one of the best in the league. They believed they had enough defense to make up for the loss of Jrue Holiday, relying on Lopez, Giannis, Middleton, and Crowder. Unfortunately Middleton and Crowder got injured so it didn’t work out.
Wrong. That trade never made any sense. It was a publicity driven move, not an on the court basketball move. Dame may he a nice highlight player to watch on ESPN, but he is not a winner. Like the original post said, many couch potatoes saw this coming. No 20/20 hindsight needed.
Hard to know all the inner going-ons of what took place. On the surface it seemed like Bucks management was desperate to appease Giannis and made all their decisions with strictly him in mind – remind you of another NBA franchise out west? I don’t necessarily think Dame precipitated the Bucks’ downfall; I’d side more with too many coaching changes in such a short timespan being the main factor. Letting go of Budenholzer (not long after his brother was killed in a car crash??) was a big eye opener/blemish.
At the time of the trade, it looked as if the Bucks sent out less value than they received. Also they surprised everyone when the trade was announced as most people were certain Dame was going to Miami. The Bucks front office does a good job working behind the scenes and making solid moves similar to them signing Turner this offseason. What surprises me is how Horst gets flack for the moves he’s made to keep their competitive window open yet Rob Pelinka gets praised for building around LeBron. Both GMs have one championship to show for mortgaging their franchise’s future to keep a star player happy. Seems like the different treatment is driven by media bias not reality.
The three point shooting in the playoffs better that trade was terrible. It got Bud feed and Drew traded. Drew had an awful series from beyond the arc. That’s why they did the deal. But even if they kept Drew, they exit early without Gannis in 23-24, and the same in 24-25 with Khris unable to play on his ankles at all, basically. They were very created and successful, in low end deals and trades, to surround Giannis with shooting and perimeter defense. A healthy Turner will be a huge improvement over Brook. They have a chance to make noise, you can win with a superstar and a good shooting and a defensive minded roster. They need to get Kuzma’s head back to where it was in 21/22 through 23/24. They get 46+ %FG out of him, and his fast break game back on track, they will be actually quite good this coming season. That’s the wild card though.
This is obviously hypothetical, but what if the Blazers signed him to rehab in Portland this year and then said we’ll try to get you where you want next year. That could benefit both sides, just talkin out my a$$ so chill
That could easily happen. It may be a longshot though. I’m really not sure how he would fit in with Scoot Henderson.
I thought this initially too but in that case why wouldn’t he sign 1-2 years at the mid level range to make himself more tradeble? The 3 year deal is a sign in my mind at least he will probably retire in Portland.
He literally lives in Portland. His children are there. He’s in the middle of a divorce. He loves the city of Portland. These are all reasons he might not be doing this as part of an elaborate plan to get traded somewhere else.
What is Portland doing?
Stretch provision and buyouts need to go. Hand checks and dribbling violations back