Gary Trent Jr. played 18 minutes in Milwaukee’s preseason opener and attempted nine shots. Eight of them were threes. Exactly one was inside the arc.
Minnesota won 116-97 at Fiserv Forum on Oct. 5. Trent finished with 11 points on 3-of-9 shooting, 3-of-8 from deep, with one rebound and one assist. He tied Tyler Herro as Milwaukee’s third-leading scorer and was top-three on the team in attempts.
The Sequence Everyone Is Replaying
Early in the first quarter, with more than four minutes left, Trent fired consecutive three-pointers on a single possession. He never put the ball on the floor. He relocated, teammates rebounded, he shot again.
Minnesota’s broadcast crew did not let it pass: “Gary Trent still able to play even when his four-year contract is causing a little bit of a stir in league offices.”
That line is the whole story.
The Contract the NBA Is Looking Into
Trent signed a four-year, $64 million deal with Milwaukee on July 11, 2026, roughly $15 million a year. The year before that he made about $3.7 million. The year before that, about $2.6 million. He played last season on a veteran minimum.
The Athletic reported in September that the NBA is investigating whether Milwaukee circumvented the salary cap through alleged handshake agreements, the kind where a player takes below-market deals with an understanding that a large contract follows. Trent is represented by Klutch Sports. The league retained the law firm Hecker Fink to run it. The NBA, the Bucks and Klutch all declined comment.
The comparison being drawn is the Clippers case, which carried fines and draft-pick forfeiture. Nothing has been concluded and no findings have been announced.
The Production Does Not Match the Money
Trent is 27. Last season he averaged 8.1 points, 1.0 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 21.2 minutes across 65 games, shooting 38.7 percent from the floor and 36.0 percent from three. That was his lowest scoring average since his rookie year. His career three-point mark is 38.7 percent.
Those are real rotation numbers for a minimum contract. They are not $15 million a year numbers, which is precisely why the league is asking questions.
The Optics Problem
Preseason stat lines mean nothing. Nobody is forming an opinion of Trent’s season from 18 minutes in October.
But when the league office has lawyers reading your contract, firing eight threes in nine attempts without a dribble is not the week to do it. Trent did not create the investigation and he did not write the deal. He is just the face attached to it, and he spent his first public appearance of the season looking exactly like the player people are arguing he is not worth paying.
No count has been confirmed on how many threes came in that single possession, and neither Trent nor the Bucks have addressed the game. They will have to eventually.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.