Figuring out who will start and who will close games for the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2026-27 NBA season is one of the toughest tasks you can ask for. At this stage of the offseason, it's unlikely that the Bucks' coaching staff even knows the answer to this, yet it's safe to say that everyone has an opinion about the best way to roll this lineup out.
Between newcomers from the Giannis trade, emerging talents from the 2026 NBA Draft class, hungry veterans who want to prove their worth, and those who've been waiting in the wings for their shot to crack the rotation, it's an extremely crowded field. But ultimately, someone has to make the tough call, so we're going to try our best to predict how the Bucks' rotation will look to start the 2026-27 season.
What will the Milwaukee Bucks' starting five and bench rotation look like for the 2026-27 NBA season?
STARTERS:
PG: Ryan Rollins
SG: Tyler Herro
SF: Jaime Jaquez Jr.
PF: Kyle Kuzma
C: Myles Turner
BENCH:
6. Kel'el Ware
7. Brayden Burries
8. Kevin Porter Jr.
9. Ousmane Dieng
10. AJ Green
BACKUPS:
11. Nate Ament
12. Kasparas Jakucionis
13. Jericho Sims
14. Gary Trent Jr.
15. Bogoljub Marković
16. Caris LeVert
Assessing the Milwaukee Bucks' starting five: Who should make the cut?
The starting lineup was actually the easiest part to focus on, because it's clear which players the Bucks want and need to prioritize first. Sure, there's a debate between whether Rollins or Porter should take the starting point guard spot, with an argument that the team should throw Brayden Burries into the fire from day one, but Rollins is someone the Bucks found, invested in, developed, and it has paid off every step of the way. It's hard to imagine them giving that up so easily.
Herro is obviously the best player on the team entering the season, so he'll start at his natural two-guard position, while Jaime Jaquez Jr. should get a chance at a starting role after excelling as the runner-up for the Sixth Man of the Year award in only his third year in the NBA. And if the Bucks aren't trading Myles Turner, it's hard not to start him given his salary and status in this league, even while Ware would be the more exciting option to jumpstart the rebuild.
Kuzma starting at the four was the biggest question mark. Many have suggested that Ware could start at the power forward, but the seven-footer should play his natural five position as much as possible so that his progression is not stunted. There's a case for Ousmane Dieng to take over the starting four spot, given his stellar late-season run in Milwaukee, but for all his faults, Kuzma simply makes the most sense positionally for his size, rebounding, mobility, and ability to connect the rest of the lineup.
Assessing the Milwaukee Bucks' bench: Too many cooks in the kitchen?
Milwaukee has 10 players who legitimately make sense coming off the bench for most teams in the league, which is a confounding problem for a team ranked at the bottom of the East by most NBA analysts heading into the 2026-27 season. We might see an unprecedented approach from Taylor Jenkins and Co., picking their bench lineups game-by-game based on matchups and performance versus sticking to a dedicated rotation.
With that said, it's hard to imagine any scenario in which both Ware and Brayden Burries don't see at least 20 minutes per game for the Bucks, as their two most promising young prospects. Ware is a little bit older, and with Turner hitting the later stages of his career, staggering them makes perfect sense, with Jericho Sims sprinkled in as the Bucks' third big.
Burries, Porter Jr. and Green are going to bump up against each other as three guards vying for the same minutes in the rotation. While Burries and Green are better shooters than Porter, Burries and Porter are better defenders than Green, and, well, Burries simply hasn't proven anything in the NBA just yet. So this will be the most fluid and potentially contentious situation as the year plays out.
Finding minutes for Ousmane Dieng is a must, as the Bucks just brought him back on a highly valuable three-year deal. But the truth of the matter is, he'll need to prove that he belongs on the court once again in order to get the minutes he deserves.
This leaves Caris LeVert, Kasparas Jakucionis and Gary Trent Jr. as three legitimate role players who might not see the court often for the Bucks this season. For LeVert, it makes sense, as the Bucks absorbed his contract to acquire draft capital, but Jakucionis is one of the most exciting young players on the team, and Trent just got a massive yet controversial payday from Milwaukee.
Meanwhile, Ament and Marković are the clearest candidates to spend extended time in the G League, finding their footing as pros before cracking an NBA rotation, but training camp and pre-season will be their greatest opportunity to prove they're ready for something more.
As you can see, there is no clear answer about what the Bucks are going to do in terms of distributing their minutes this season. So, Taylor Jenkins has his work cut out for him, because every single one of these players is hungry, has something to prove, and feels like they belong on the court. Best of luck to him in figuring out how to make that work in the long run.
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