The Milwaukee Bucks have made what’s amounted to a flurry of offseason moves, signing back a number of key names as well as Myles Turner, their splash of the summer, and Magic guard Gary Harris. As the dust settles and free agency wanes almost as soon it started, the roster retains two main holes: another ball handling guard and someone who can play the wing. If the Bucks don’t meaningfully address the latter need, they may have to fall back on an undesirable but familiar option.
Milwaukee Bucks Wing Rotation Might Have Trouble Taking Flight
In the projected starting lineup, Milwaukee will insert Gary Trent Jr. at shooting guard. Suboptimal as it may be, he is currently the roster’s only legitimate wing defender.
Sure, Kevin Porter Jr. has the size and toughness to defender bigger players, but at 6-foot-4 there’s only so far he can stretch. Trent is 6-foot-5. Off the bench, AJ Green plays much closer to a typical two-guard than small forward.
Kuzma, the likely starting three, is versatile and has decent quickness, but he is better suited as a backup four. Agile shooting guards will be a problem if he’s forced to defend them. Taurean Prince is wing-sized but was atrociously awkward at shooting guard last season, which reflects his lack of flexibility. Essentially limited to small forward, or maybe the four in super small-ball lineups, he isn’t nimble enough to chase guards around on defense.
Ryan Rollins and Harris are both backcourt players. There’s a small chance that Keita Bates-Diop, who spent 2024-25 playing in China and was invited to Summer League, could make the team. That covers just about everyone who could conceivably fill wing minutes for the Bucks.
Andre Jackson Jr. Should Be Last Resort, Not a Regular Starter
Just about. There’s also the option of plugging in Andre Jackson Jr. The Bucks pulled that card quite often last season. Across 67 games played, Jackson started in 43 of them.
The former second-round pick from UConn does some good things defensively. He can hit corner threes. Unfortunately, that’s about all he does. In year two for Milwaukee, 3.4 points per game and 2.7 rebounds are the highlights of his stat sheet (14.6 MPG). Not to box-score read, but even extrapolating to starting-level minutes, he doesn’t meet minimum standards.
His offensive limitations agonized Bucks fans who had to see his name penciled into the starting five more nights than not. He was actually excellent on his 3-point chances, making 39% of them, but got up just 76 attempts. Unsurprisingly, non-playmakers tend to have low shot volume. By the end of the season, Jackson had all but disappeared from the rotation.
At 6-foot-6, however, he has both the size and the quickness to defend opposing guards and forwards. He’s only 23, so maybe he can develop a bit offensively, but there isn’t much to suggest untapped potential. As thin as Milwaukee is, his roster spot is in jeopardy. A poor showing in Summer League and training cramp might be enough to earn Ajax the ax.
On the other hand, the Bucks might be forced to employ him just as much this season as last, simply due to a lack of alternatives. That sounds suboptimal at best, disastrous at worst. They need to find a better solution.
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