{"id":147866,"date":"2025-07-05T00:20:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T00:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/147866\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T00:20:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T00:20:11","slug":"free-agent-rejected-bucks-bid-to-be-possible-damian-lillard-replacement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/147866\/","title":{"rendered":"Free agent rejected Bucks bid to be possible Damian Lillard replacement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Milwaukee Bucks are coming off a respectable 48-34 season run that ended with a disappointing five-game first round playoff series exit, marking the third straight year the team was booted that early.<\/p>\n<p>More critically, the Bucks lost their second-best player, superstar point guard Damian Lillard, to one of the most devastating injuries it&#8217;s possible to suffer in the NBA. The 6-foot-2 Weber State product tore his Achilles tendon, and the ailment figures to knock him out of most or all of the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n<p>Per <a href=\"https:\/\/hoopshype.com\/lists\/nba-intel-jonas-valanciunas-deandre-ayton-free-agency\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Michael Scotto of HoopsHype;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Michael Scotto of HoopsHype<\/a>, the Bucks had been eyeing free agent point guard Tre Mann ahead of his decision to re-sign with the Charlotte Hornets on a three-year, $24 million deal.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Milwaukee is evidently still on the hunt for a Lillard replacement, having waived-and-stretched the remaining $112.6 million left on the nine-time All-Star&#8217;s contract to carve out a spot for 3-and-D center Myles Turner. The 29-year-old Texas product signed a four-season, $107 million deal to serve as the Bucks&#8217; Brook Lopez replacement, after Turner embarrassed Lopez while playing for Milwaukee in the first round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>The 6-foot-3 Florida product played sparingly for Charlotte in 2024-25, but he did put up solid numbers, averaging 14.1 points on .435\/.400\/.905 shooting splits, 3.0 assists, and 2.9 rebounds in 13 healthy bouts.<\/p>\n<p>Just because Mann, 24, went elsewhere, doesn&#8217;t mean the Bucks are totally bereft of options. Former 12-time All-Star Chris Paul and former Sixth Man of the Year Malcolm Brogdon remain on the market, as does the more offensively-limited Russell Westbrook. Bulls restricted free agent Josh Giddey may be beyond the Bucks&#8217; budget. Milwaukee&#8217;s own free agent point guard, Ryan Rollins, remains unsigned, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Milwaukee Bucks are coming off a respectable 48-34 season run that ended with a disappointing five-game first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3775],"tags":[7,369,103,920,473,2596,125,1586,5005,6890,965,150,2729,7057,102,121,3871,367,6,3269,4163,254,2763,361,6358],"class_list":{"0":"post-147866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-bucks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brook-lopez","10":"tag-bucks","11":"tag-bulls","12":"tag-charlotte-hornets","13":"tag-chris-paul","14":"tag-damian-lillard","15":"tag-deandre-ayton","16":"tag-free-agent","17":"tag-jonas-valanciunas","18":"tag-josh-giddey","19":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","20":"tag-malcolm-brogdon","21":"tag-michael-scotto","22":"tag-milwaukee","23":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","24":"tag-milwaukeebucks","25":"tag-myles-turner","26":"tag-nba","27":"tag-nba-free-agency","28":"tag-point-guard","29":"tag-russell-westbrook","30":"tag-ryan-rollins","31":"tag-the-bucks","32":"tag-tre-mann"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114797767964557252","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}