After Kawhi Leonard, Another NBA Star Getting Investigated for Salary Cap Circumvention

The NBA finally closed the book on its Kawhi Leonard investigation. They fined the Clippers $30 million, stripped them of five first-round picks, and suspended owner Steve Ballmer for a year. Hoping that would be the end, the league has now opened an entirely new salary cap circumvention case, this time in Milwaukee.

According to The Athletic's Joe Vardon, the NBA is investigating a four-year, $64 million contract between the Bucks and Gary Trent Jr. They hired the law firm Hecker Fink to lead the inquiry, with investigators examining whether Trent accepted smaller, below-market deals in 2024 and 2025 with an understanding that Milwaukee would reward him with a much larger contract once he'd built up Bird rights.

Trent signed for the veteran minimum when he first joined Milwaukee in 2024. He then took a modest two-year, $7.6 million deal last summer before declining his final-year option to become a free agent again, and then re-signed for $64 million over four years - roughly $16 million annually - despite coming off his worst statistical season since his rookie year, averaging just 8.1 points on 38.7% shooting.

That pattern of accepting team-friendly deals immediately before a much larger payday is exactly the profile the league's Article 13 circumvention rules are designed to catch. It states that circumvention "may be proven by direct or circumstantial evidence... that a Player Contract or any term or provision thereof cannot rationally be explained" absent a prior agreement.

The closest historical comparison is the 2000 Joe Smith case. The league determined the Minnesota Timberwolves had secretly agreed to below-market deals with Smith in exchange for a promised future contract.

That ruling cost Minnesota five first-round picks, a fine, and the voiding of Smith's contract. A punishment that gives real weight to what Milwaukee could be facing if investigators find a similar arrangement here. Both the Bucks and Trent's agency, Klutch Sports, are reportedly cooperating with the investigation, and no public evidence of an actual secret agreement has emerged so far.

The investigation's launch so soon after the Leonard case closed isn't a coincidence in how it's being read across the league. NBA media reaction, including on Nightcap with Shannon Sharpe and Joe Johnson, framed it as a sign the league may be applying heightened scrutiny to any contract that looks statistically unusual in the aftermath of the Clippers' punishment.

Trent's situation now becomes the NBA's next real test of how consistently it's willing to police these arrangements. Milwaukee is coming off a roster change around the departed Giannis Antetokounmpo, and is facing a similar kind of scrutiny that just cost the Clippers one of the most expensive punishments in league history.