Earlier this offseason, we asked you, the community, to put your Nostradamus hats on and tell us how many games you think the Bucks will win this season and which Buck has the best chance of earning some hardware. Soon, courtesy of our first Roundtable of the season, we’ll talk predictions too. But what do folks outside of our Bucks-centric universe think? Let’s check in.
Record
The community predicted the Bucks winning 31 or more games. Outside, the vibes are less optimistic. ESPN picked the Bucks to finish
with a 25-57 record and in 14th place in the East:
Meanwhile, the Bucks will pivot after reaching the end of the Antetokounmpo era but still have a collection of solid veterans, led by Tyler Herro and Myles Turner, and a mix of young talent.
Sports Illustrated had Milwaukee finishing 15th in the East with a 24-58 record—an average of Chris Mannix, Liam McKeone, and Blake Silverman’s individual picks—but didn’t offer a justification beyond that. The Sporting News’ Stephon Noh sees things similarly for the Bucks, also predicting them going 24-58:
The Bucks were a bad team when they were missing Giannis last year, going 15-31 in those games. Now, they’ll have to live through a whole season without him. Milwaukee does have some solid players on its roster… But the Bucks have no high-end talent. The Bucks also have a lot of young players who are going to have to play and may not contribute to winning right away. Brayden Burries looked impressive in Summer League but is still just 21 years old. Nate Ament is much more of a project.
Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey, on the other hand, sees things even more grimly, envisioning the Bucks mustering just 18 wins:
The Milwaukee Bucks emerged from the Giannis trade with a decent collection of quality NBA players. On some nights, they’ll probably look pretty competitive. But we had to balance the wins and losses somehow. The East is going to be loaded and someone has to finish last in the conference. Without a single superstar on the roster and a handful of veterans who seem destined to be traded before February, the Bucks are a prime candidate for that dishonor. On the bright side, Milwaukee fans should be treated to plenty of developmental minutes from Brayden Burries and Nate Ament.
But it’s not all doom and gloom! The Athletic’s John Hollinger sees the Bucks exceeding expectations—at least as far as surpassing BetMGM.com’s preseason over/under of 26.5 wins:
One consequence of the Giannis trade is that the Bucks have a much deeper roster than last season. Adding the grab bag of surplus Miami Heat players — Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Tyler Herro, Kasparas Jakučionis and the draft pick that became Nate Ament — gives the Bucks several halfway-decent players, making it difficult for them to be truly horrible. The Bucks also traded two fungible players for Caris LeVert, which, again, didn’t send an earthquake through the East but gave them another rotation-caliber player.
Combined with a couple of other factors, I think this is a beatable number for Milwaukee, even if the Bucks move on from a couple of vets in-season (Herro, Myles Turner and Kyle Kuzma seem to be likely trade candidates). First of all, they have a first-year coach in Taylor Jenkins, who should be a major upgrade from Doc Rivers playing out the string a season ago. (Rivers had a great coaching career, but the tail end of it … yeeeeah.) Second, rookie Brayden Burries looked awesome in summer league and may have been severely underdrafted at No. 10.
I certainly don’t expect the Bucks to be good. But are 30 wins that outrageous for a Rollins-Herro-Jaquez-Ware-Turner lineup that brings Burries, Kevin Porter Jr., LeVert and Kuzma off the bench? I think they have a decent chance to be annoyingly frisky and stay on the fringes of the Play-In Tournament race. Not exactly “Bucks in six!” material, but my outlook is more optimistic than most.
If this isn’t enough to return your spirits to where they were, Bucks legend Jeff Teague will. He thinks things will work out just fine in Milwaukee, predicting the Bucks to be a “seven seed, six seed” with Taylor Jenkins taking home the Coach of the Year award.
Beyond wins and losses
As part of his 2026-27 Central Division preview, Yahoo! Sports’ Nekias Duncan had quite a bit to say about the Bucks—likes, question marks, best and worst case scenarios, and more. But it was his lineup to watch that caught my attention:
LINEUP TO WATCH: Rollins-Burries-Dieng-JJJ-Ware. If the “likes” section wasn’t enough of a signal, these are probably the five players I’m most excited to watch this year. Give me the mix of drives and pull-up shooting this group could provide and live with the results.
I had Rollins-Herro-Dieng-Jaquez-Ware sitting in my “Notes” app as my preferred starting five since the Giannis trade—well, at least until I came to accept the seemingly inevitable double big approach—but even with all my Burries fantasying didn’t dare insert him into that. Of course, as I should have realised, this doesn’t preclude that lineup from existing (forgive me, it’s been a big offseason). And now I need to see it. Often.
Draymond Green weighs in on Gary Trent Jr.
As you know, the NBA is still investigating the Bucks and Gary Trent Jr. for possible cap circumvention. On his podcast, Draymond Green shared his two cents on the matter. As you’d expect, he did so in typical stream of consciousness manner, with thoughts jutting angularly from one spot to the next as if his jump shot caroming off iron:
The Bucks are reportedly being investigated by the NBA for possible salary cap circumvention in the deal with Gary Trent Jr. The punishment could be equally as severe, if not worse, than the Clippers’ punishment if found guilty. Now, here’s what I will say. No way this could be worse, a worse punishment, because I mean I guess when you think about it it is circumvention ‘cause you could get a player for cheap. But it’s not the same. It’s not near the same. I do think the punishment will be extraneous but this really will set the Milwaukee Bucks franchise back. And I think if this was to happen—see what you got to remember is this. I think if this was to happen, I think the Bucks owner would then sell. Because, unlike Steve Ballmer, who’s the wealthiest owner, um, unlike Steve Ballmer who has a team that’s in Los Angeles, the Milwaukee Bucks lose five first round draft picks and they can never be good for 20 years. So, I think you’d see that owner sell the team, uh, if this is the case because they’re going to, they’re going to be—like they can’t rebuild. No free agent’s going to Milwaukee. They’ll have to pay like a fourth tier player max money to come to Milwaukee. So, if this is the case, I think the Milwaukee Bucks will be on sale shortly thereafter. But we saw how long it took the Kawhi investigation to play out. So, I think this will take a while. And I don’t think it’ll come back nearly as bad or, or any, um, punishment because I just don’t think—even if that was the case, like how do you get record of that? I just don’t know. I don’t foresee it. You know, there’s—what I will say, you know, there are deals made beforehand in any business all the time. So, no one puts it on paper. When you’re doing good business with someone, you don’t put it on paper. So, I don’t know how they would be able to find this if this even is the case.
Yeah, time to take a breath. Then again, this is the same guy who thought it was “absolutely beautiful” Kawhi Leonard didn’t get the bulk of the punishment for the Los Angeles Clippers’ salary-cap circumvention, has taken Leonard’s word that he didn’t know anything about it, and questioned why the league even has a salary cap.
More Milwaukee community moments
After recently being spotted surprising Lincoln Avenue Elementary students who were displaced after their school was destroyed by a fire earlier this summer, the Bucks continue to embed themselves into the Wisconsin community. Tyler Herro appeared at the Green Bay Packers’ home opener, while Ryan Rollins, Cormac Ryan, Kel’el Ware, Jericho Sims and Taylor Jenkins attended WWE’s Monday Night Raw at Fiserv Forum:
PR working overtime? Perhaps. But it’s great to see these Bucks out and about in their community regardless.
Okay, now we can get back to our Bucks bubble and wait for the actual games to play out—prove ‘em wrong, fellas!—starting next week when preseason kicks off. In the meantime, if you’ve heard anything more about the Bucks, whisper it down the lane in the comments.
