Good news, Bucks fans! 23-year-old forward Ousmane Dieng is returning to Milwaukee on a deal that's so team-friendly, it might make you think twice about all the slander general manager Jon Horst has taken over the last several months.
None of the major names within the Milwaukee Bucks organization has been safe from scrutiny as of late, and Horst has been near the top of the list. Pundits and fans have looked back at every single signing, trade, or business transaction he's made since winning a title in 2021, using revisionist history to explain what went wrong at the end of the Giannis Antetokounmpo era in Milwaukee.
But often forgotten in that mix is the long line of excellent deals he's signed impact players to over the years. Last year, it was the ability to sign Ryan Rollins on a three-year, $12 million contract that made him one of the best values in the NBA. The same could be said down the line for this Dieng deal, which is reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania to be three years, $17.5 million, at an average annual value of less than $6 million.
These are the types of deals that keep franchises competitive, even during rebuilds, and keep the door open for the Bucks to take big swings later down the road, when the time is right. Dieng is more than worthy of a long-term contract coming off an excellent post-trade-deadline stretch with the Bucks in which he proved his reliable 3-point shooting, three-level scoring potential, and upside as a rangy, versatile defender.
It's safe to say that once again, Jon Horst cooked here and is already proving to the basketball world that he's still one of the most savvy general managers in basketball — even when the world wants to tell him otherwise.
Jon Horst is once again proving himself to be the right leader for the next era of Milwaukee Bucks basketball.
Let's be honest... Horst hasn't always made the right call, but he certainly tries everything he can to position his team for success. For the last seven years, that's meant leveraging some of the team's financial flexibility and draft capital to go all-in on winning in the short-term. We have yet to see him building for the future until this summer.
So far, he has hired who was widely considered one of, if not the best head coaching candidate on the market in Taylor Jenkins. Horst got the best possible return for a disgruntled superstar, acquiring future draft capital and young talent to help reset the timeline. Next up, Horst made two great draft picks — one, a little bit safer, and another, an upside swing with an eye on the future.
He then made the tough but probably right call to decline the team option on Andre Jackson Jr.'s contract. Lastly, he proved my doubts wrong by allowing Dieng to hit unrestricted free agency, securing the young talent on a three-year deal that puts him at a lower annual average than he would've made on the qualifying offer.
So far, Horst is taking a handful of sour lemons and turning them into a delicious lemonade. And this is only on the evening that free agency opens. As negotiations around the league continue, he'll likely assess trade possibilities and find ways to build a competitive yet forward-thinking roster to eventually rebuild a title contender in America's Dairyland.
Whether you love Ousmane Dieng's game as I do, or are skeptical of his potential, you cannot dispute the value of the contract, which is a theme of how Horst handles free agency year in and year out. There's a lot of game left, but Jon Horst is putting the Bucks in a great position so far this summer, injecting some life into a franchise that seriously needed it at this juncture. That's nothing to scoff at.
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