MILWAUKEE — It’s the end of an era in the Cream City as 2021 NBA Champion and three-time NBA All-Star, Khris Middleton is being traded from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Washington Wizards for 2020 NBA Champion, Kyle Kuzma, according to ESPN NBA Insider, Shams Charania.
The Bucks are also reportedly sending rookie AJ Johnson and a future first-round pick swap, where Washington will decide whether to keep its own draft pick or trade it for the Bucks’.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks says the pick swap will come in 2028, with the Bucks also receiving former UW-Milwaukee forward Patrick Baldwin Jr. and a future second-round pick.
Middleton, 33, was in his 12th year with the Milwaukee Bucks, averaging 12.6 points, 4.4 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game while returning from offseason surgery on both ankles. He finishes his Bucks career first in 3-point makes (1,382) and attempts (3,552) while finishing second behind Giannis Antetonokounmpo in games and minutes played.
Kuzma, a 29-year-old Michigan native, is in his eighth NBA season and fourth with the Wizards, where he was traded as the cornerstone in a deal that sent Russell Westbrook to the Los Angeles Lakers one year after the Lakers won their most recent championship.
This move puts the Milwaukee Bucks under the NBA’s second apron — a restrictive roster-building parameter that previously limited the team from combining players’ salaries in a trade, signing free agents from the buyout market and incurring an expensive luxury tax for the team.
Kuzma had a trade kicker in his contract which would’ve cost the Bucks, but Shams is also reporting that he is waiving part of that kicker.
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