Milwaukee Cuts the Playmaker It Built the Reset Around

The Bucks waived Kevin Porter Jr. on Monday, trimming the roster to 15 ahead of the new season. Porter led the team in assists per game this past year and ranked second in scoring — and he played 42 games. That last number is the whole story. The playmaking depth Milwaukee needed from him never arrived in any sustained form, and when it did, it was good enough to remind everyone what was missing the rest of the time.

Porter finished at 16.7 points and 7.1 assists per game in those 42 appearances, numbers that would have made him a genuine engine for this rebuild. Ryan Rollins, at 17.0 points across 78 games, was the only player who actually stayed on the floor all year. Everyone else — Porter included — was either hurt, inconsistent, or both, and the 34-54 record reflects exactly that.

The rest of the roster pruning has the same flavor. Nance, Broome, and Stephens all hit waivers last week; Nance was subsequently re-signed to a two-way deal, which is a reasonable salvage move on a player who showed flashes. But cutting the guy who led your team in assists, one year into a rebuild that was supposed to be built on playmaking depth, is an acknowledgment that the plan didn't work.

The Trent investigation still hasn't resolved — I've been tracking that since August — and the front office is now building a 15-man roster around whatever comes next. What that looks like is genuinely unclear. What's clear is that the version of this team they sold coming out of the Giannis trade is already gone.