An NBA spokesperson confirmed that the league’s investigation into the Bucks’ four-year, $64MM deal with Gary Trent Jr. is ongoing but declined to answer any further questions, writes Joe Vardon of The Athletic. However, Vardon hears that both the Bucks and Klutch Sports Group (Trent’s agency) are cooperating with the NBA.
The law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz would typically be the league’s choice to conduct an independent investigation into this sort of matter, but Wachtell was already in the midst of another cap-circumvention probe this summer, having finally wrapped up a year-long investigation into the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard earlier this month. So, according to Vardon, the NBA tabbed the national investigations law firm Hecker Fink to look into Trent’s deal with Milwaukee.
Word broke in July, shortly after Trent officially re-signed with the Bucks, that the NBA was looking into the fully guaranteed contract, which appeared to be far above the market value for a player coming off a down year in which he averaged 8.1 points, 1.2 assists, and 1.0 rebounds per game on 38.7% shooting.
Trent signed with the Bucks for the veteran’s minimum in 2024 and then accepted a small raise to $3.7MM via Non-Bird rights in 2025 on the heels of a productive first season with the team. The lucrative new deal this summer fueled speculation that the veteran wing agreed to those first two team-friendly deals with a promise that Milwaukee would reward him once the club had the ability to offer more money using his Early Bird rights.
According to Vardon, rival executives believe the fact that the agreement wasn’t reached until July 11, when league-wide cap space and roster spots had become scarce, was among the reasons why the deal drew the NBA’s attention. If the Bucks had reached a similar agreement in June or early July, it still would have been criticized but may have simply been viewed as a misread of the market, those execs suggested to The Athletic.
For what it’s worth, the Bucks have maintained to rival teams that they believe Trent’s new deal is commensurate with his value and that they always believed he’d be roughly a $15MM-per-year player on the open market even though he accepted less in his first two seasons in Milwaukee, Vardon writes.
The NBA came down hard on the Clippers for violating cap circumvention rules, docking them five first-round picks, fining the team $30MM, and suspending several top executives, including owner Steve Ballmer. That case, which involved the Clippers allegedly arranging no-show endorsement deals for Leonard, is different than the Trent situation, but the Bucks could face a similarly harsh punishment if Hecker Fink finds proof they circumvented the cap, says Vardon.
The logical point of comparison would be the Timberwolves’ illegal agreement with Joe Smith in 1999, which resulted in Smith’s contract being voided and the franchise losing five first-round picks (two were later returned). A legal battle between Smith’s two agents led to a secret agreement between the team and player coming to light through the discovery process — the forward had agreed to take below-market one-year deals until the Wolves controlled his Bird rights and could offer him a lucrative long-term contract.
There has been no indication yet what the timeline for the completion of the investigation into Trent’s deal looks like.