The Milwaukee Bucks have a deep roster full of young, intriguing players vying for playing time this season. Caris LeVert is not one of them.
Shifting from a contender for the past eight years to a rebuilding team means Milwaukee’s front office has to view trades differently. Instead of always trying to immediately upgrade the roster, the Bucks can now use the trade market to take on undesirable salaries in exchange for future assets.
That’s exactly what they did with LeVert.
At the beginning of July, Milwaukee sent veterans Taurean Prince and Gary Harris to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for LeVert and two second-round picks.
LeVert signed a two-year, $29 million deal with Detroit just last summer and is owed $14.8 million for the 2026-27 season. Meanwhile, Prince and Harris combine for a cap hit of roughly $7.6 million, creating meaningful savings for the Pistons.
After spending years trading away draft picks in pursuit of roster upgrades, the Bucks were happy to add two more selections to their cupboard—even if they are lowly second-rounders.
LeVert was the 20th overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft and has played for five franchises throughout his career. His best seasons came with Brooklyn and Indiana from 2019-20 through 2021-22, when he showed the ability to score in bunches, albeit inefficiently. He topped out at 20.2 points per game in 2020-21.
His production has declined considerably since then, and he’s coming off the worst season of his career. After receiving a nice payday from Detroit, LeVert averaged a career-low 7.4 points per game last season. That helps explain why the Pistons were so eager to move on.
LeVert does still bring good size to the table. At 6-foot-7, he’s tall and long enough to bother opposing wings and provide some defensive versatility. His foot speed has declined, however, and that’s where he tends to struggle most on that end.
Now the resident grandpa on Milwaukee’s roster—he’s the oldest player on the team—LeVert will try to prove he still has something left in the tank.
Here’s one realistic and one ambitious goal for him this season.
Realistic goal: Crack Milwaukee’s regular rotation
It isn’t necessarily Milwaukee’s goal for LeVert to crack the rotation.
The Bucks acquired him primarily because of the draft picks attached to the trade and would probably be perfectly content allowing younger players to soak up most of his potential minutes.
Head coach Taylor Jenkins would love to give those opportunities to Jaime Jaquez Jr., Ousmane Dieng, Nate Ament and anyone else on the right side of 30 who can prove they deserve time on the wing.
LeVert, of course, won’t be satisfied simply being on the roster.
He’ll work to earn his way back onto the court and prove last season was an outlier rather than the beginning of the end. If he can defend well enough, knock down open shots and provide some secondary creation, he could force Jenkins to find room for him.
For LeVert, simply becoming a dependable rotation player again would qualify as a successful bounce-back season.
Ambitious goal: Become the first wing off the bench for the Bucks
If we’re focusing on LeVert’s goals rather than Milwaukee’s long-term priorities, the ambitious target is simple: prove he still has enough left to become the first wing off the bench.
At 32 years old, the rest of the NBA is beginning to wonder whether the league has started to pass him by. He certainly wouldn’t be the first player to experience a sharp decline in his early 30s.
Then again, it was only two years ago that LeVert was averaging 14 points, 4.1 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game while coming off the bench for the contending Cleveland Cavaliers.
That version of LeVert doesn’t need to fully return for this goal to become realistic.
If he can rediscover even some of that shot creation while providing steady defense and competent shooting, he could separate himself from Milwaukee’s younger wings and become one of Jenkins’ most trusted reserves.
The Bucks may view LeVert as little more than an expiring salary attached to draft capital. His goal should be to make them reconsider that evaluation.
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