The severe punishment that the NBA has brought down on the Los Angeles Clippers for their attempt of salary cap circumvention has been the talk of the NBA in the days since the punishment was announced and with it, the NBA has set a startling precedent for the kind of consequences that a team trying to get around the salary cap might face.

Owner Steve Ballmer was hit with a $30 million personal fine, Ballmer and president of team business operations Gillian Zucker were both suspended from all team activities for one year while president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank was suspended for six months and on top of that the Clippers have to forfeit five first-round draft picks.

The scale of this punishment is the kind of thing that can cripple a team and while the Clippers will have to face these consequences for years, the Milwaukee Bucks should be worried about being next.

The Bucks may not have been accused of anything as severe as what the Clippers were found to have done, but they too are being investigated for salary cap circumvention surrounding some odd circumstances around Gary Trent Jr.'s new four-year, $64 million contract that he signed earlier this offseason.

When Trent Jr. first joined the Bucks in 2024, he did so on on a one-year, veteran minimum contract. After that, he signed a two-year $7.6 million contract and declined his player option after one season. 

Now a free agent, Trent Jr. signed his massive new deal, which represents an average annual value increase of over 300%. This kind of contract would have been an overpay for one of Trent Jr.'s best career seasons, but he signed it after his production for the Bucks and he had the second-worst scoring year of his career. 

That raised some major alarm bells within the NBA, who could have already bee feeling on edge because of the Clippers, and they launched an investigation into the Bucks for possible salary cap circumvention in July, to see if the Bucks and Trent Jr. had some kind of handshake deal where Trent Jr. took a discount one year with the promise of this massive contract coming later. 

Looking at the kind of consequences that the Clippers now have to deal with and the way that their perception around the league has been damaged, especially to prospective free agents, the Bucks would be completely right to sweat that even if the accusations being levied against them aren't as severe, the punishment they could face will be.