The Milwaukee Bucks started a new era on Wednesday night — the post-Giannis Antetokounmpo period of the franchise.
It’s a painful reality to face, that the best player to ever don a Bucks uniform is gone, traded to the Miami Heat.
All the Bucks can do is move forward, and they didn’t get off to a great start of that with a 128-116 loss to the Washington Wizards to open their season on Wednesday.
There were positive signs, though, mostly coming from the players they got in return for Giannis.
In fact, three of the trade return players were the three-leading scorers for the Bucks on Wednesday.
And for what it’s worth, the Heat lost their opener to, falling to the Minnesota Timberwolves. So improvements can be made all around.
Tyler Herro Debut
Tyler Herro is a Milwaukee-native, so it’s got to be special for him to get to play for the Bucks.
Wednesday’s game was on the road, not yet home cooking for Herro, but he did lead Milwaukee in scoring.
Herro put up 24 points on 9-for-21 from the floor, including 4-for-11 from 3, while making both his attempted foul shots.
Herro added nine assists, two rebounds and a steal while turning the ball over four times.
He’s going to have to lead the Bucks in scoring most nights to have a chance.
Jaime Jaquez
The forward Jaime Jaquez had a great Bucks debut after coming over in the Giannis trade.
He put up 22 points on 8-for-12 from the field, including 1-for-3 from 3, and made 5-of-6 free throws.
Jaquez also had seven rebounds and two assists while turning it over twice. He was the only member of the Bucks without a negative plus-minus (his was actually 0).
Kasparas Jakucionis
Jakucionis was just drafted in 2025, but he had a great start for the Bucks after the trade.
He put up 15 points on 4-for-7 shooting, including 1-for-3 from 3, while making all six of his foul shots.
Jakucionis added three rebounds and three assists with one block and one turnover.
Kel’el Ware
Ware was the quietest player to have arrived in the Giannis trade.
He got 14 minutes off the bench and put up seven points with three rebounds, one assist, one steal and one turnover.
Ware was 3-for-6 from the floor, but 0-for-2 from 3 and 1-for-3 from the foul line.
It could be tough for Ware to play much more in the early going with Jaquez, Kyle Kuzma and Myles Turner all in the starting lineup, and on Wednesday, Ousmane Dieng got more minutes off the bench, too.
3 Players Heat Traded Lead Bucks in Scoring in Opener