What Jon Horst and Doc Rivers had to say about the 2024-25 Bucks roster and free agency
Milwaukee Bucks general manager Jon Horst and head coach Doc Rivers met with the media Tuesday to introduce 2024 draft picks AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith. But during the nearly 20-minute session, Horst and Rivers offered some insights into how the 2024-25 Bucks will look.
As currently constructed the Bucks are operating as a second-apron team, meaning they are under heavy roster-building restrictions. With Horst and assistant general manager Milt Newton previously stating the intention was to sign and roster the two picks – which was re-emphasized Tuesday – the Bucks entered free agency with just three open roster spots.
While the day was for Johnson and Smith to be introduced to Milwaukee for the first time, Horst and Rivers offered some hints on the roster going forward.
And while the team reportedly agreed to sign veteran combo guard Delon Wright, he could not be discussed as free agent deals cannot be made official until 11:01 a.m. CT July 6.
Here are some highlights from Horst and Rivers:
Q. The Bucks have a older top of the roster, a very youthful back of it. What do you like about that?
Horst: “Here’s what we like about it. It’s intentional. We’ve got six returning core guys that we know are ready now to compete at a high level and take us to where we want to go. We’ve got three returning young vets that contributed last year and should take another jump this year in MarJon (Beauchamp), AJ (Green) and Andre (Jackson Jr.). Chris Livingston had a great first year with us. He’s working his (butt) off and he’s going to be ready to contribute also. And now we’ve got Tyler and AJ pushing them. And we’ve got three spots on our roster right now in free agency that we’re going to go and figure out the best balance in how they fit the rest of that group. When you talk about playoff rotations being nine or 10 and shortening as you go deeper, regular season rotations, that’s Doc’s wheelhouse. But the balance is intentional.
“We’ve got really great core depth at the top. We’ve got young veterans that can come in and help and contribute like they did last year and we’re going to add more to this team through free agency. And we’ve got these guys who are going to push them every single day. And it’s on them. It’s on them how hard they want to work and they have the opportunity to contribute and play. When they do that, how quick they do it, how they do it is really up to them and how much they work at it.”
Q. How have the Bucks approached the balance of winning a title this season while bringing in such young prospects?
Rivers: “The balance is what it is. We wanted young talent. We did. We think that skill development in our league is becoming more and more important. The more of the young talent you can get to bring up with the veteran talent, the better. And that's what we're going to do all summer. Free agency is here right now, and now we're looking for other guys, more veterans, to add to the mix. I like the mix of guys I think we're going to end up with and it's exactly the ratio that we want right now.”
Q. Unrestricted free agency began on June 30, and it’s been a bit slow. Has that surprised you at all?
Horst: “It's all one day, just for the record, it hasn’t started or stopped. I don’t know about (being) surprised. I think free agency is always kind of a domino effect. There are certain big chips or dominoes that always have to fall and kind of onload the next phase of it. We’ve seen a couple of those fall so far. There will be a couple others that fall today. You just do your work in between it and navigate it as best you can. We have a great playing opportunity, winning opportunity, culture opportunity, coaching opportunity in our organization. We feel very confident that we’ll be able to get the right fits to finish off this roster.”
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jon Horst, Doc Rivers talk about Bucks roster, free agency
