As the Milwaukee Bucks head into the offseason, they have some major decisions to consider. With Giannis Antetokounmpo expected to return, Jon Horst now has to put the best possible roster around him with Damian Lillard out for much of next year after tearing his Achilles.
Among the decisions they have to make, Brooke Lopez is at the top of the list.
Lopez, who has had an excellent career, winning a championship in Milwaukee, too, is expected to depart in free agency. There isn't much of a reason for the Bucks to keep him around, unless they can't get things done on the free agency market to find his replacement.
Even then, allowing Antetokounmpo to play more of the five seems to be a better plan than bringing back an older Lopez, who didn't look great for much of last season.
Despite his below-average play, The Athletic recently predicted that he could get a contract of $21.5 million per year. That would be absurd for the Bucks to hand out, and absolutely something they shouldn't consider.
“Lopez deserves more than the nontaxpayer MLE, but getting somebody to pay it to him could prove problematic. The Nets don’t need him, so he’s depending on either Milwaukee’s participation in a sign-and-trade or a strong offer from the Bucks to keep him. (Milwaukee has full Bird rights on Lopez, but his deal cannot be extended.)
“If he finds an unfriendly market relative to the BORD$ value above, one thing Lopez could do is a two-year MLE deal for $29 million with a second-year player option that allows him to re-enter free agency a year from now,” they wrote.
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If the Bucks could bring back Lopez under the unfriendly player deal discussed by The Athletic, there's some sense in it, but even then, paying him nearly $15 million per season just doesn't have much value at this point.