The Bucks’ final two games before the break were a coming-out party for their only deadline trade acquisition, Ousmane Dieng. A combined 13/22 from the floor—with 8/14 from deep—resulting in 36 points over 59 minutes, plus 14 boards, 4 blocks, 6 assists, and 0 turnovers. A career-best three-point performance in the second Orlando game. Certainly something to dream on in the years ahead.
Those two weren’t a coming-out party for Cam Thomas, not because he was a meh 5/13 (12 points) in the OKC win, nor
because he took over with a game-high 34 in Orlando the night before. It’s because that’s what the dude does—he apparently introduces himself as “a bucket,” after all. Well, this Bucket also appears to be the spark Milwaukee desperately needs in non-Giannis minutes, and he might be a long-term fit with the team moving forward.
But both guys are free agents this summer. Dieng will be a restricted free agent if the Bucks extend an $8.8m qualifying offer, meaning they can match any contract another team presents him with in the offseason. If they decline that QO (like they did with Ryan Rollins in summer 2025), he’ll be unrestricted and can sign anywhere. But in either case, Milwaukee owns his Bird rights, so they can pay him any amount up to the max without worrying about the salary cap, whether it’s their own contract offer or another team’s.
With Thomas, however, the Bucks only have Non-Bird rights, since he just changed teams in free agency. That means they’d have to use an exception to give him a new deal in July (since they don’t project to have cap room), and here are their options…
- The full (non-taxpayer) midlevel exception: starting salary between $6.1m and $15.1m, up to four years
- The taxpayer midlevel exception: starting salary of $6.1m at most, up to two years
- The biannual exception: starting salary of $5.5m at most, up to two years
- The Non-Bird exception: starting salary of $3.6m, up to four years
In this week’s Tuesday Tracker, let’s look ahead to the summer and pick the Bucks’ best option with these two: should they re-sign them or not? If yes, how? We also have a bonus question about the All-Star game format, and of course, the debate between tanking and going for the playoffs.
As always, this poll will be open until midnight Central on Friday, and we’ll post the results later that day. Thanks for voting!
