‘One of the Most Overpaid Role Players’ — NBA World ‘Stunned’ by Gary Trent Jr.’s ‘Egregious’ $64,000,000 Deal With Bucks
The Milwaukee Bucks are entering a full-scale rebuild. Since their 2021 NBA championship victory, the team hasn’t found the right combination around Giannis Antetokounmpo. As a result, trade rumors ran rampant about one of the most dominant players in league history.
Even as they desperately tried to cling on, it wasn’t meant to be. Finally, this offseason, he was traded to the Miami Heat, as the organization opted to rebuild from the ground up. However, in the process, they might have dished out one of the worst contracts in the entire NBA to Gary Trent Jr.
Gary Trent Jr. Finds Perfect Team in the Milwaukee Bucks
A former second-round pick, Trent was the ideal role player for the Portland Trail Blazers. As they tried to build the right lineup around Damian Lillard to potentially compete in the Western Conference, GTJ’s mix of perimeter defense and sharpshooting was the perfect complement.
However, when things didn’t work out with the franchise, Trent found his way to the Toronto Raptors, where he spent three seasons. Eventually, the Bucks picked him up in 2024, with his skillset meshing beautifully with Antetokounmpo, at least on paper.
At the time, he had signed for the minimum, hoping to play his way to a larger contract extension. That payday finally came due, and it cost the Bucks dearly, as they signed him to a four-year, $64 million deal, as confirmed by ESPN insider Shams Charania
.Sam Quinn of CBS covered the bizarre sequencing of events, detailing, “Gary Trent was a pretty surprising minimum-salary free agent two years ago. Last year, he more or less played at the level of a minimum-salary player. Now he’s one of the most overpaid role players in the NBA.”
Going a step further, he explained just how high the 64 million number truly was. “Gary Trent got the eighth-highest total contract of 2026 free agency so far. Only Trae Young, Austin Reaves, Walker Kessler, Ayo Dosunmu, Tari Eason, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Coby White got more. Pretty much every metric paints Trent as a negative last season.”
The analytics are firmly against Trent being an extremely productive player. But even the raw statistics are hard to ignore. Averaging 8.1 points, 1.2 assists, and 1 rebound per game, he shot an abysmal 38.7% from the field and just 36% from downtown.
Add in his regressing defense, and the move becomes more puzzling by the second. It led Sam Vecenie of The Athletic toimplore the NBA to intervene, as he wrote, “The NBA should probably take a look at what is a truly nonsensical contract here given that Trent just averaged 8 PPG and shot 39% from the field in 22 minutes per game last season.”
In an offseason where LeBron James is in free agency, while Antetokounmpo, Ja Morant, and Jaylen Brown were traded, this took the cake for Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report as the most shocking news of the offseason. “This is the craziest NBA news of the summer. I am genuinely stunned.”
On the other side of the equation, though, was the reality for the Bucks. With no long-term contracts on the books and out from under the Antetokounmpo business, the organization would have to pay someone. That is where Trent swooped in at the perfect time.
AsBasketball University pointed out, “Pretty egregious contract, wow. Good for GTJ,” the sentiment was shared by Oregon beat writer Aaron J. Fentress, who added, “Wow. He got $16 mill per season after averaging 8.1 ppg. on 38.7% shooting? Good for him.
For some, though, it pointed to the work done by Trent’s agent, Rich Paul of the Klutch Sports Group. “Rich Paul is the greatest bag collector of all time.”
YouTube creator Six Rings of Steel echoed the sentiment, adding, “Put Rich Paul in the agent hall of fame for this contract alone.”
However, it didn’t take long for the jokes to start pouring in against the team’s front office. As they remarked, “This immediately puts Milwaukee’s front office on ‘first team you call to swindle’ probation.”
Meanwhile, Josh Llyod added, “Has to be hacked. What the [expletive] is happening?”
The outrage on social media was hard to ignore, as the contract was nearly unanimously seen as an overpay from the Bucks.
Now, it’s going to be on Trent to prove his value once again and potentially lure a team into trading for him, which could give Milwaukee additional assets in the future of its rebuild.
