Rollins, Portis and Rivers speak on Bucks’ 120-110 win over Warriors
Ryan Rollins, Bobby Portis and Doc Rivers speak on the Bucks’ 120-110 win over the Warriors on Oct. 30, 2025 at Fiserv Forum.
Ryan Rollins scored a career-best 32 points on Oct. 30, helping the Milwaukee Bucks stage an improbable 120-110 win over Golden State at Fiserv Forum on a night when the Bucks were without Giannis Antetokounmpo.
It’s the third season Rollins has logged some time with the Bucks, but you’d be forgiven if he hasn’t been on your radar.
The 23-year-old guard has spent time on a two-way contract, came from a mid-major college and entered the league as a second-round pick, and he’s already been with three franchises.
Here’s what to know about the early candidate for the NBA’s Most Improved Player award:
Rollins is 23 years old. He stands 6-foot-4.
When did Ryan Rollins join the Milwaukee Bucks?
Rollins actually first suited up for Milwaukee in the 2023-24 season, playing three games after he was waived by the Washington Wizards in January 2024. He signed a two-way contract with the Bucks in February, and he returned to the team on a two-way contract for the 2024-25 season.
But he proved too valuable. He reached the maximum threshold for a two-way player by late February when he was active for 50 games, meaning the Bucks either needed to convert him to a full-time member of the roster or leave him in the G-League for the rest of the year. They chose the former, converting him to a regular contract in March 2025.
That meant Rollins could get a spot on the postseason roster and got a pay bump. He indeed played in three playoff games, starting one.
He ultimately played in 56 regular-season games last year, averaging 14.6 minutes, 6.2 points and 1.9 assists per game.
When was Ryan Rollins drafted and where did he play before Milwaukee?
Rollins was drafted by Atlanta, technically, with the No. 44 pick in the 2022 draft. But he was sent immediately to Golden State, appearing in 12 games before getting dealt to the Washington Wizards, alongside Milwaukee-area high-school players Jordan Poole and Patrick Baldwin Jr.
Rollins worked alongside Steph Curry for a brief stretch. That played into a full-circle moment when Rollins received a signed game jersey from Curry after toppling the Warriors.
Rollins played only 10 games with the Wizards, too, before getting waived. That’s when Milwaukee jumped in.
In all, he appeared in 22 games before Milwaukee and scored a grand total of 64 points in 66 minutes.
What contract did Ryan Rollins get before the 2025-26 season?
Rollins is on a three-year, $12 million deal that he signed before the 2025-26 season.
Initially, the Bucks offered Rollins a $2.6 million qualifying offer, making him a restricted free agent at the end of June. But the Bucks had to formally rescind that offer in order to make salary-cap space to sign Myles Turner.
That made Rollins a free agent, and if the Bucks wanted to keep the guard, they needed to spend far more than a bare-minimum deal. With some of the space created by the team’s decision to waive Damian Lillard, the Bucks were able to bring Rollins back.
Was Ryan Rollins injured last year?
Rollins showed flashes throughout the 2024-25 season despite playing with a left shoulder injury that required surgery after the season. He still shot 40.8% from three-point range and provided a spark on both ends of the floor despite the pain.
Where did Ryan Rollins play basketball before he became a pro?
A Detroit native, Rollins played college basketball at Toledo under head coach Tod Kowalczyk, a De Pere native who was head coach at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay for eight seasons, from 2002 to 2010.
“I came back and said, ‘Fellas, this is a must-get,'” Kowalczyk said of a recruiting trip to see Rollins play, relaying the story to the Journal Sentinel’s Ben Steele earlier this month. “‘He’s going to be a pro,’ He glides. He’s long. He makes the game so simple.”
Rollins was named freshman of the year in the Mid-American Conference and then first-team All-MAC as a sophomore when the Rockets repeated as regular-season conference champions. Rollins averaged 18.9 points per game that second season, with 1.7 steals, 6.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists.
Rollins tested the NBA waters after his sophomore year and elected to stay in the draft. He became the first member of the program drafted since Casey Shaw in 1998 by the Philadelphia 76ers.
Rollins showed no shortage of confidence, even then. When he learned Dick Vitale called Rollins a “slam dunk sleeper” in the draft class, Rollins said, “I believe so, too.”
“Me and Dick think alike a little bit … I was pretty underrated coming from a mid-major and whatnot,” Rollins said. “Not everybody got to see me still through this process, but I think I’m one of the better players in this draft.”
How has Ryan Rollins fared this season before the Warriors game?
Rollins came off the bench in the opener against Washington but played 29 minutes after starter Kevin Porter Jr.’s injury and finished with nine points. Since then, with Porter out, he’s started every game and finished in double figures each time, a steady ascension of 13 points, 14, 25 and, finally, 32. He already has 25 assists in the five games, and he’s shooting 44% from three-point range. He also has 2.4 steals per game.
His 18.6 points per game represents a three-fold increase from his previous career best of 6.2 points per game last season.
Could Ryan Rollins win the NBA’s Most Improved Player?
Of course, but it’s only five games.
The annual award went to Giannis Antetokounmpo after the 2016-17 season. Last year’s winner, Dyson Daniels of the Atlanta Hawks, bears some similarities to Rollins.
Unlike Rollins, Daniels was a top-10 draft pick. The native Australian averaged 14.1 points per game last year after he was traded to Atlanta by his original franchise, New Orleans, and the 6-8 guard led the league with 3.0 steals per game, not to mention 14.1 points and 34% shooting from three-point range. Daniels earned a spot on the NBA’s All-Defensive Team and finished second in the Defensive Player of the Year voting behind Evan Mobley.
Rollins, at 6-4, doesn’t have the same height but does have a penchant for taking the ball away, alongside his marked improvement in offensive numbers — at least, for now.
Did Ryan Rollins dress as Blade for Halloween?
It might only seem like the star-studded Warriors are immortal as one of the oldest teams in the league, but Rollins dressed the part as the vampire-slaying Blade prior to the win one night before Halloween.
Jim Owczarski and Ben Steele contributed to this story.