While most basketball fans are familiar with the scandal surrounding Kawhi Leonard, fewer are aware another team is also under similar investigation.
After the massive penalty issued to the Los Angeles Clippers for salary cap circumvention, it is possible that the Milwaukee Bucks could get soon hit with a similar fate. While the Leonard storyline dominated news cycles, there is also an ongoing investigation involving the contract Gary Trent Jr. signed this offseason.
The NBA is probing the signed $64 million free-agent deal for Gary Trent Jr. with the Milwaukee Bucks, per a league spokesperson. https://t.co/EIkahRn6Tq
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 16, 2026
Trent Jr. signed a suspiciously large four-year, $64 million deal with the Bucks and the investigation has reportedly continued
since July (via The Athletic):
"If league investigators find proof that the Bucks and Trent are guilty of what the Clippers and Leonard were guilty of, the punishment could be equally severe, if not worse.
An NBA spokesman said the league’s investigation into Trent’s contract is ongoing and declined to answer further questions."
The idea of stripping the Bucks of five first-round picks, among other harsh punishments to the organization, is difficult to imagine considering how little this narrative has bubbled up compared to the one investigate reporter Pablo Torre found with Leonard and the Clippers.
According to Joe Vardon, both the Bucks and Trent Jr.'s representation at Klutch Sports are cooperating. Vardon also reported that the law firm Hecker Fink is examining this case after Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz handled the Leonard investigation.
While this is not fully analogous to what happened with Leonard, it is more similar to what happened with Joe Smith and the Minnesota Timberwolves:
The NBA needs to learn if the Bucks and Trent purposefully agreed to enter into smaller, cheaper contracts with a plan to reward Trent in a future deal – which is a violation of the league’s salary rules.
This very thing happened 27 years ago to the Minnesota Timberwolves and forward Joe Smith, who were found to have entered into cheaper, one-year deals with the promise of a maximum contract down the line. Then-commissioner David Stern suspended then-team owner Glen Taylor and general manager Kevin McHale for a year, took five first-round draft picks from the Wolves, fined them $3.5 million and voided Smith’s contract."
According to reporting, the Bucks have argued they paid "market value" for Trent Jr. this offseason.
Considering the difficult place that the franchise is in right now after trading Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat, it is difficult to imagine Milwaukee suffering such a brutal fate for a middling role player.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: How 1 NBA team may get 'worse' than Clippers penalty for cap violation
