Milwaukee Bucks’ 2026-2027 roster rebuild begins without Giannis Antetokounmpo

Giannis Antetokounmpo is no longer part of the Milwaukee Bucks’ roster for the 2026-2027 season. The team’s 20-man group for the campaign brings in four players who spent last season with the Miami Heat — Tyler Herro, Kelel Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kasparas Jakucionis — alongside Ousmane Dieng, who played for Oklahoma City, and Caris LeVert, who played for Detroit, as the franchise enters 2026-2027 without him.

Giannis Antetokounmpo now wears Miami Heat colors

The Bucks’ 2026-2027 roster lists 20 players — and Antetokounmpo’s name is not among them. His most recent team listing places him with the Miami Heat for the 2026 season, a reversal from the previous year’s entry, which still had him in Milwaukee.

His 2025-2026 line with Milwaukee: across 36 games during the regular season, he averaged 27.6 points, 9.8 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 0.7 blocks in 28.9 minutes, shooting 62.4% from the field and 33.3% from 3-point range.

Journalist Christopher Kline wrote that the Bucks traded Antetokounmpo to Miami “around midnight on the eve of the NBA Draft, ending a months-long saga in the most predictable way possible.” Milwaukee now heads into 2026-2027 without Antetokounmpo, who appears under the Heat banner instead.

A Miami pipeline reshapes the frontcourt and backcourt

Much of Milwaukee’s overhaul traces back to South Florida. Tyler Herro spent the 2025-2026 season with the Heat, appearing in 52 games and averaging 13.5 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 20.5 minutes, shooting 47.8% from the field and 38.2% from deep. Kelel Ware, who played 79 games with the Heat that season, put up 10.8 points, 8.8 rebounds and 0.7 assists in 21.8 minutes, hitting 53.1% of his shots and 39.5% of his 3-point tries.

Jaime Jaquez Jr. also played a full 82-game slate in Miami last season, averaging 14.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists in 26 minutes. Kasparas Jakucionis split time between the Heat, the Sioux Falls Skyforce and the Lithuanian national team, appearing in 67 NBA games with averages of 4.9 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 14.1 minutes.

Two more additions arrive from outside Miami. Ousmane Dieng played 73 NBA regular-season games for Oklahoma City last season and was also listed with France, averaging 5.9 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 15 minutes. Caris LeVert spent the year with the Detroit Pistons, appearing in 76 games with 6.8 points, 1.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 18.1 minutes.

Ryan Rollins headlines a projected starting five

Two independent projections converge on the same opening lineup for Milwaukee this season, with Ryan Rollins at point guard, Tyler Herro at shooting guard, Jaime Jaquez Jr. at small forward, Kyle Kuzma at power forward and Myles Turner at center penciled in as starters.

That alignment hands the backcourt to a holdover in Rollins and a Miami transplant in Herro, while Jaquez Jr. slots in on the wing alongside two returning frontcourt pieces in Kuzma and Turner. Taylor Jenkins is set to be Milwaukee’s head coach entering the season. As Kline put it, “Taylor Jenkins is a fine coach, and he has led undermanned teams to unexpected success in the past.”

The holdovers anchoring continuity: Kuzma, Turner and company

Not everything changed. Eight players who suited up for Milwaukee in 2025-2026 remain on the books for 2026-2027: Kyle Kuzma, Myles Turner, Gary Trent Jr., Kevin Porter Jr., Ryan Rollins, A.J. Green, Pete Nance and Jericho Sims.

Kuzma averaged 12.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists across 71 games last season, shooting 49.1% overall and 34.7% from 3-point range. Turner posted 11.3 points, 5 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game over 75 appearances, connecting on 44% from the field and 38.3% from deep. Rollins was the group’s leading scorer last season, averaging 17.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists in 75 games, while Porter Jr. added 16.5 points and 7 assists in 40 games.

Trent Jr., Green, Nance and Sims round out the returning group, with Green providing 10.4 points a night across 78 games. Kam Jones, also on the 2026-2027 roster, appeared in 54 games last season with modest averages of 3 points and 2.2 assists in 11.4 minutes, giving Milwaukee another depth option.

Two college products complete a 20-man overhaul

The final pieces of Milwaukee’s roster came straight out of college basketball. Nate Ament (2.06m, born 10/12/2006), a forward who played for the Tennessee Volunteers last season, joins a Bucks frontcourt now built around Turner and Kuzma rather than Antetokounmpo. Brayden Burries (1.93m, born 09/18/2005), a shooting guard and small forward out of the Arizona Wildcats program, adds another wing option to a backcourt already reshaped by Herro and LeVert.

Neither has an NBA statistical line for 2025-2026 in the database, meaning both step directly into a roster in flux rather than an established rotation. With no obvious replacement for Antetokounmpo’s production on paper, how quickly Herro, Ware and Jaquez Jr. adjust to larger roles — and whether Rollins or Kuzma absorb more shot volume — will shape Milwaukee’s identity as the 2026-2027 season gets underway.

A new era begins in Milwaukee

Milwaukee’s 20-man roster now stands as a fully reshaped group, built around the Miami Heat pipeline of Herro, Ware, Jaquez Jr. and Jakucionis, the additions of Dieng and LeVert, and holdovers like Kuzma, Turner and Rollins. No player on the roster replicates Antetokounmpo’s production on paper, but under Taylor Jenkins, the Bucks enter this new era with a roster built from the ground up rather than around a single superstar.