After the Milwaukee Bucks had opted to cut former second-round pick Chris Livingston, they were down to 16 players on the roster who had fully or partially guaranteed deals. That left Andre Jackson Jr.,
Tyler Smith, and Amir Coffey to duke it out for the final two available slots. It appears that a decision has been made, as according to Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints, the Bucks have opted to cut Smith, presumably keeping Jackson and Coffey.
While the Bucks technically have until Monday to get down to 15 contracted players, today was the last day they could’ve cut someone who was on a partially (like Jackson) or fully guaranteed contract (like Smith) and not have the rest of their contract count against the cap. In this case, Jackson only had $800k of his $2.2m salary for this season guaranteed up until opening night on Wednesday. Siegel notes that Jackson was a Doc Rivers favorite, so with Smith having a $2m salary for this season, they opted to keep the player they presumably like more, and save a little over $500k in the process. This was also the last guaranteed year for Smith, meaning the Bucks will only have to pay out his salary for this season.
As for Coffey, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype confirms that he’ll make the roster. Coffey came to the Bucks on an Exhibit 9 contract during the offseason, and he’ll have his contract converted to a standard one-year veteran’s minimum for opening night, once the cut of Smith is made official. Exhibit 9 contracts are non-guaranteed, so if the Bucks want to move on from Coffey, they can waive him before the league-wide guarantee date of January 10 and remove his cap hit from their books.
This is an unfortunate end for Smith, who was drafted in the second round of the 2024 draft at no. 33 overall. With this move, both players from the 2024 Bucks draft class are gone, as Milwaukee shipped out first-round pick AJ Johnson to the Wizards in the Kyle Kuzma trade. Smith didn’t get a chance to play a lot with a veteran roster, especially in the front court with Giannis, Brook Lopez, Bobby Portis, Kuzma, and the midseason addition of Jericho Sims. All told, Smith played in just 23 games with the Bucks, playing 5.3 minutes per contest and scoring a grand total of 67 points. Smith joins another former G-League Ignite player the Bucks have drafted that didn’t work out, with MarJon Beauchamp currently sitting in camp with the Sixers after he was traded to the Clippers in the Kevin Porter Jr. trade.
Barring any unforeseen move yet to come from Milwaukee’s front office, this looks to be the construction of the 15-man roster heading into the season opener on Wednesday against Washington.
