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LAS VEGAS — After a flurry of moves to start free agency, the Bucks tip off NBA Summer League action on Friday in Las Vegas.

It will be the first chance for Adrian Griffin to lead his new team because the Bucks’ head coach will also be serving as the Summer League team’s head coach, a move many new coaches will do in their first year to get to know their team better and start working with their team as closely as possible. As the Summer League team has prepared for action, they’ve been given the first chance to understand Griffin’s vision for the future.

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“I like it a lot,” rookie Andre Jackson Jr. said after practice on Saturday. “It’s definitely defensively focused and that’s my strength, so I definitely like that.”

Fans that want to see that vision won’t need to wait long. The Bucks will be one of the first teams to hit the floor in Las Vegas as they play the first game at the Thomas and Mack Center on July 7 at 4 p.m. CT. And while that will be the first chance to see Griffin on the sidelines as well as draft picks like Jackson and Chris Livingston out on the floor, there is still plenty of other business to discuss among the veterans on the Bucks’ roster that will not be making their way to Las Vegas.

So, let’s take a closer look and try to understand the state of the roster as it stands before the Summer League Bucks hit the floor in Las Vegas.

Official signings

On Thursday, NBA teams could officially sign contracts with players and finish the deals they had previously agreed upon with players once the league’s legal tampering period opened on June 30.

The Bucks officially announced deals with three players: Brook Lopez, Khris Middleton and Malik Beasley.

While the reporting on the deals for Lopez and Middleton was initially done in the first 24 hours of the legal tampering period, the details of each of their contracts actually help paint a much clearer picture of the Bucks’ salary cap situation.

Shortly after the Bucks could begin talking to free agents, the Bucks and three-time All-Star forward Khris Middleton agreed upon a three-year, $102 million contract with a player option in the third year.

Now, The Athletic has learned that while that three-year, $102 million contract is accurate for Middleton, the contract actually contains bonuses to get it to that total. Per confirmation from a league source, Middleton’s deal with the Bucks has roughly $9 million in bonuses — $2 million of which come in the form of likely bonuses, while close to another $7 million are unlikely bonuses. So, rather than paying Middleton more than $31 million in the first year of his contract, the Bucks will have a $29.3 million salary cap hit for Middleton next season.

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Similarly, while it might have been expected for Brook Lopez’s two-year, $48 million contract to feature a normal eight percent raise from Year 1 to Year 2, the Bucks actually negotiated a contract that gives Lopez $25 million in Year 1 and $23 million in Year 2, a league source confirmed. ESPN was first to report the contract figures for Middleton and Lopez.

Before adding Middleton and Lopez, the Bucks’ salary cap total for their six players on guaranteed contracts — Giannis Antetokounmpo ($45.64 million), Jrue Holiday ($36.86 million), Bobby Portis ($11.71 million), Pat Connaughton ($9.42 million), Grayson Allen ($8.93 million), MarJon Beauchamp ($2.57 million) — was $115.14 million. Adding the contracts for Middleton and Lopez to that total takes the Bucks’ salary cap total for eight players for the 2023-24 season up to $169.45 million.

As covered in the free agency primer one week ago, the Bucks are well over the salary cap of $136.021 million for next season and already nearly at the first apron of $172.346 million with just eight players, which means they need to fill out the rest of their roster with minimum contracts to avoid going over the second apron of $182.794 million. With their current salary cap situation though, remaining under the second apron might not matter all that much. Next season, far more punitive rules go into place to make sure teams avoid the second apron, but this season, the major reason to stay below the second luxury tax apron is keeping access to the taxpayer mid-level and the Bucks already project to be too close to the second apron to use it anyway.

On Thursday, the Bucks made one of those signings official by announcing they had signed Malik Beasley. Our Shams Charania originally reported that deal on Monday. While Middleton and Lopez’s spots on the Bucks roster are clear, it will be interesting to see what type of opportunity Beasley receives in Milwaukee.

Last season, Beasley was one of the players the Lakers acquired around the trade deadline in an attempt to turn their season around and he immediately made an impact. The 26-year-old shooting guard started 14 of the 26 games he played and averaged 11.1 points and 3.3 rebounds in 23.9 minutes per game. A majority of those points came from behind the 3-point line as Beasley fired up 7.2 3-pointers per game and made 35.3 percent of those attempts. During the playoffs though, Beasley fell out of the rotation of coach Darvin Ham against the Warriors and Nuggets after playing a consistent role in the Lakers’ first round series against the Grizzlies.

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While Grayson Allen was a regular in the starting lineup for former head coach Mike Budenholzer, the same might not be true under new head coach Adrian Griffin. While Beasley and Allen are similarly sized and both are great shooters, Beasley tends to get up 3-pointers at a far higher rate than Allen. That could mean Beasley would be perfectly suited to come in as a bench scorer, but it might also provide a different look for the Bucks’ starting lineup. It will be interesting to watch which way Griffin goes at the starting shooting guard spot on his roster.

Other deals to fill out the roster

While Thursday was the first day to make deals official, the Bucks have come to terms on other deals as well, according to our Shams Charania. On Monday, Charania reported that the Bucks agreed to a one-year deal with center Robin Lopez. While on Thursday, he reported that the Bucks agreed to a multi-year contract (with the first year fully guaranteed) with A.J. Green.

Bucks fans should already be familiar with both players. Robin Lopez is, of course, the twin brother of Brook Lopez and already played for the Bucks during the 2019-20 season. Following one season in Milwaukee, Lopez went to the Wizards, where he played in 71 games during the 2021-22 season and then spent the last two seasons in Orlando and Cleveland respectively, where he played in less than half of each team’s games, playing just over 900 minutes combined the last two seasons. While he played a role for the Bucks in the 2019-20 season as the team’s third big man, it seems unlikely for him to find the same type of opportunity the second time around in Milwaukee.

The Bucks already have Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bobby Portis and his brother Brook in front of him and those three have taken the large majority of minutes in the Bucks’ big man rotation when healthy the last three seasons. There is no reason to think things would change all that drastically under Adrian Griffin. Lopez will likely end up being the fourth big man and serve as valuable insurance in case of an injury to one of the three in front of him. This was the role that Serge Ibaka was asked to play last season before he asked out of Milwaukee. If Lopez finds the limited playing time acceptable, he is more than qualified for the position.

For Green, the guaranteed NBA contract serves as a promotion of sorts after the Northern Iowa product impressed as a two-way player for the Bucks this past season. Green appeared in 32 games for the Bucks and performed well, averaging 4.4 points in 9.9 minutes per game across those spot opportunities. The 23-year-old wing proved to be a capable shooter as well, knocking down 41.9 percent from the 3-point line, despite never getting much of a chance to catch a rhythm. The Bucks have not found much success developing their own young talent over the years, so Green is a success story for the organization and a potential player that could provide some upside at the bottom of the roster.

Depth chart

As of now, this is what the Bucks’ depth chart looks like heading into next season:

• Point Guard: Jrue Holiday
• Shooting Guard: Grayson Allen, Malik Beasley, MarJon Beauchamp, AJ Green
• Small Forward: Khris Middleton, Pat Connaughton, Andre Jackson Jr., Chris Livingston
• Power Forward: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jae Crowder
• Center: Brook Lopez, Bobby Portis, Robin Lopez

(Note: Players in italics are not yet officially signed to contracts, but have either reportedly come to terms with the team about a contract or Bucks’ draft picks.)

If all of the players above end up signing NBA contracts with the Bucks, there is just one more roster spot remaining on the 15-man roster. And concerning that roster spot, it remains fair to assume that Thanasis Antetokounmpo will be back for another season with the Bucks. This would leave the Bucks with a full roster heading into next season. If the Bucks sign all of those players to minimum contracts as well, they will be able to keep their salary total under the second tax apron for next season.

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All of which leads back to the Bucks’ Summer League roster…..

What to watch in NBA Summer League

While there might be quite a few things to ponder when watching the Bucks’ NBA Summer League roster take the floor for the first time on Thursday, including the future role of MarJon Beauchamp, Andre Jackson Jr. should be near the top of the list for Bucks fans.

As Jackson made clear in his first media session in Milwaukee after being drafted by the Bucks, he immediately felt like he could be a good fit in Milwaukee.

“I was extremely excited,” Jackson said on Saturday. “Honestly, in the entire pre-draft process, my interviews with the Milwaukee Bucks went the best and I felt like we really connected on a spiritual level. And I felt like they genuinely liked my game and felt like I could help them win. And I really just wanted to be a part of this organization and to make it a reality was even better, so I was really grateful on that night.”

Jackson is among the most interesting players to watch because he represents a serious departure for the Bucks in regards to the type of player that they normally target in the offseason. While the Bucks have typically tried their best to add shooting to the roster around Antetokounmpo, Jackson struggled with his jump shot throughout out his entire career at the University of Connecticut, but still played a major role in the Huskies taking home the 2023 NCAA men’s national championship.

Summer league will not be the best place to show off exactly how he might fit next to a superstar like Antetokounmpo or great players like Holiday, Middleton and Lopez, but it can be a situation where Jackson can show off the other ways in which he can make an impact on the team.

In college, he was a master at finding dribble handoffs for open 3s for shooters like Jordan Hawkins, Alex Karaban and Joey Calcaterra. Can Jackson do the same thing with Green? Few players in college basketball pushed the ball in transition off rebounds better than Jackson. Can he show that same grab-and-go ability in summer league for the Bucks? As Connecticut’s season progressed, he showed an ability to make the right pass and served as a pseudo point guard as the Huskies went on an unexpected title run. Will that show up in summer league for the Bucks?

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The Bucks clearly believed in his skillset, which is different than what they’ve looked for in the past, and willingly traded into the second round for the opportunity to draft him, so there must be a high-level belief in his abilities to contribute going forward. So, while summer league basketball might not be the best venue to show off how he might fit with the NBA roster, it might be a good opportunity for Jackson to show off the diversity of his skillset.

(Photo of Khris Middleton: Fernando Medina / NBAE via Getty Images)

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