Why NBA Launched Investigation on Bucks for Strange Gary Trent Jr. Contract, Similar Past Cases

When the Milwaukee Bucks handed Gary Trent Jr. a four-year, $64 million contract after he came off his worst scoring season since his rookie year, the NBA world collectively scratched their heads. The league office did the same, apparently.

The NBA is now investigating the deal and the Bucks for possible salary cap circumvention, according to a report from ESPN’s Shams Charania. Trent signed a one-year, $2.6 million veteran minimum contract when he first arrived in Milwaukee two seasons ago. Last summer, he signed a two-year, $7.6 million deal and declined his $3.9 million player option for next season to become a free agent.

Trent remains a solid player—he shot 41.6% from three-point range in his first season with the Bucks and connected from deep at a 36.0% clip last season in a step back. He’s mostly come off the bench over his time in Milwaukee and he could be a valuable veteran, even in a crowded guard room after the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade.

The fact that the Bucks retained Trent on a new deal isn’t the issue. It’s the price at which the franchise did it. A $64 million contract over the next four seasons gives him $16 million annually. That’s not a huge number in today’s NBA landscape, but it’s a long commitment and much too high of a price for a player who’s regressed over the past three seasons. Especially when you consider that the Bucks should be interested in keeping their books relatively clean for the long haul in this new era without Antetokounmpo.

That’s before you even take the current roster into account. Trent is useful as a volume shooter, but the Bucks already have Ryan Rollins, Kevin Porter Jr. and AJ Green. They acquired Tyler Herro and Kasparas Jakučionis in the Giannis trade, plus Milwaukee drafted Arizona guard Brayden Burries and took Caris LeVert’s expiring contract from Detroit. With the roster makeup and state of the franchise, $64 million is a lot to commit to Trent.

The contract raised alarm bells that it was potentially a handshake deal after Trent took team-friendly contracts with the Bucks the past two seasons, which has now led to the NBA’s current investigation.

Why the NBA is investigating Gary Trent Jr.’s new contract with the Bucks

According to ESPN, the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement contains a clause against a “prior agreement.” Based on the ESPN report, rival executives around the league expected Trent to re-sign with the Bucks for months after he played for Milwaukee below his perceived value last season. Charania reported that at least one other team had interest in a sign-and-trade for Trent.

When Trent signed his two-year contract last season which included a player option for next season, it established his early Bird rights which allowed the Bucks to go over the salary cap to sign him. With the early Bird rights, Milwaukee signed Trent for a much larger price than he was presumedly worth on the free-agent market. Once the new contract was reported, NBA media members wondered aloud if the league should investigate the baffling move after Trent averaged just 8.1 points per game and shot 38.7% from the floor last season.

On Wednesday, Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix mentioned that there would be a push for an investigation once the league received the Trent contract. With the contract in, the investigation was promptly initiated. Mannix reported that some rival team officials suggested being forced to keep Trent at that salary is punishment enough, though. We’ll see what the league’s investigation amounts to and what punishments are handed out if deemed necessary.

Other NBA salary cap circumvention investigations

The most notable salary cap circumvention investigation is ongoing. The NBA is looking into allegations that the Clippers circumvented the cap to pay Kawhi Leonard through a no-show endorsement deal with Aspiration, a company that purportedly aimed to reduce carbon footprints which is now bankrupt after its co-founder Joseph Sanberg was arrested and later prosecuted for two counts of wire fraud. Last month, he was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison.

The NBA’s investigation has dragged on and gotten messier recently when the Clippers agreed to trade Leonard to the Raptors, the franchise he led to a title in 2019. The deal that would send Leonard to Toronto will not be completed until the NBA’s investigation into the Clippers is complete, Charania reported last week.

In 2000, the NBA investigated the Minnesota Timberwolves for salary cap circumvention surrounding Joe Smith, the No. 1 pick in the 1995 NBA draft. He signed a one-year, $1.75 million deal with the Wolves in ‘99, which was surprising because he rejected an $80 million extension from Golden State a year earlier. The league found that the Wolves had an under-the-table agreement with Smith where the franchise would sign him to a series of one-year deals at low dollar amounts. That would eventually give Minnesota Smith’s Bird rights and at the end of the last one-year contract, the Wolves could’ve signed Smith to an $86 million contract.

After the investigation, the league voided Smith’s contract (which took away the Bird rights), fined the team $3.5 million and suspended team owner Glen Taylor and forced general manager Kevin McHale to take an unpaid leave of absence. The NBA took away five first-round picks from the Wolves, but ultimately returned two of them.

It’s unclear what punishments the league would levy based on its findings through the Trent and Leonard investigations. But if the NBA finds that either team circumvented the cap, the sanctions will likely be severe.

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