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Evaluating Milwaukee’s top trio and how they compare to the rest of the league
Aug 14, 2025, 1:00 PM UTC
The 2025-26 season will be the start of a new era for the Milwaukee Bucks—one without a true big three. Gone are the days of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, and Jrue Holiday channeling their championship chemistry to drive success for the team. Giannis, Damian Lillard, and Middleton/Brook Lopez had a disappointing journey that came to an unexpectedly quick end this offseason. Giannis, Middleton, and Eric Bledsoe playing together is a distant memory. Today, Giannis is the only survivor from all of those trinities, and for the first time in a long time, his partner-in-crime isn’t an All-Star. Myles Turner is a formidable talent on both ends of the floor, one that has posted huge numbers in the postseason, but he’s well behind the curve in terms of second bananas in a stacked league. Flanking Giannis and Turner as a third option, at this point, is simply a help wanted sign. Kyle Kuzma, Kevin Porter Jr., Gary Trent Jr., and even AJ Green _could_ fill that role on any given night, but relying on the power of friendship is a risky bet (unless you’re the Brewers), and at least one of those guys will need to find some consistency as a featured contributor. But which one will it be? All that uncertainty begs the questions: how good is Milwaukee’s big three relative to the rest of the league, and is what they have in that department enough to make them contenders? To answer those questions, I’ve ranked every team’s best trio in two different ways.
For my first list, I ranked big threes as more than the a sum of their parts: not ignoring the individual talent of each player, but primarily weighing how well each trifecta gels together and how much potential to win they have. Here’s what I came up with:
1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren (OKC)
2. Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Darius Garland (CLE)
3. Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby (NYK)
4. Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon (DEN)
5. Kevin Durant, Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson (HOU)
6. Anthony Edwards, Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert (MIN)
7. Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Ivica Zubac (LAC)
8. Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Austin Reaves (LAL)
9. Trae Young, Kristaps Porzingis, Jalen Johnson (ATL)
10. Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Paul George (PHI)
11. Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Desmond Bane (ORL)
12. Victor Wembanyama, De’Aaron Fox, Devin Vassell (SAS)
13. Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green (GSW)
14. Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Cooper Flagg (DAL)
15. Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., Santi Aldama (MEM)
16. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Myles Turner, Kevin Porter Jr. (MIL)
17. Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Anfernee Simons (BOS)
18. Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan (SAC)
19. Zion Williamson, Dejounte Murray, Jordan Poole (NOP)
20. Brandon Ingram, Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett (TOR)
21. Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Tobias Harris (DET)
22. Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Norman Powell (MIA)
23. Pascal Siakam, Andrew Nembhard, Bennedict Mathurin (IND)
24. Deni Avdija, Jrue Holiday, Shaedon Sharpe (POR)
25. LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges, Brandon Miller (CHO)
26. Devin Booker, Jalen Green, Mark Williams (PHO)
27. Coby White, Nikola Vucevic, Matas Buzelis (CHI)
28. Lauri Markkanen, Walker Kessler, Keyonte George (UTA)
29. Michael Porter Jr., Nic Claxton, Egor Demin (BRK)
30. CJ McCollum, Bilal Coulibaly, Alex Sarr (WAS)
Oklahoma City’s championship crew was an obvious choice for the top spot. Other contenders make up most of the rest of the top ten. I tentatively placed Philadelphia’s injury-prone banana boat at ten, afraid of discrediting Joel Embiid (_editor’s note: have no fear_) in the event he remains mostly healthy next season. Milwaukee’s trio of Giannis, Myles Turner, and Kevin Porter Jr. checks in at 16th, right around the middle of the pack. I went with KPJ as the third guy over Kuzma and Trent Jr. because I believe he’ll be a starting guard for most of the season and play a more important creation role than anyone outside of Giannis. The Bucks avoided the bowels of this ranking in large part due to the Greek Freak’s greatness, but also because his synergy with Myles Turner should be exceptional and make up slightly for the fact that Turner is nowhere near the players Middleton and Lillard were for this team. While KPJ is a bit of a wild card, the chances of him having a really productive year are high enough to be cautiously optimistic about what he can do as a lead point guard/secondary shot creator. If Dame were still here, Milwaukee could have been as high as seven or eight, even with Brook Lopez as the third guy instead of Turner. The Giannis-Dame pairing was never fully optimized, but the pure talent there cannot be underestimated. Sigh, what could have been. Anyways, moving on.
To build this second list, I ranked big threes as the sum of their parts. I first ranked the best, second-best, and third-best players from each team on three separate lists. Then, I averaged out where each team’s top three guys slotted in. For example, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was third on the best player ranking, Jalen Williams was seventh on the second-best player ranking, and Chet Holmgren was second on the third-best player ranking, good for an average placement of 4.0, which was higher than any other team. Here’s the full list:
1. Oklahoma City Thunder (average ranking: 4)
2. Los Angeles Lakers (4.3)
3. New York Knicks (5.7)
4. Cleveland Cavaliers (6.3)
5. Los Angeles Clippers (7)
6. Minnesota Timberwolves (8)
7. Philadelphia 76ers (8.7)
8. Orlando Magic (9.7)
9. Denver Nuggets (10.7)
10. Houston Rockets (11.3)
11. Dallas Mavericks (11.3)
12. Atlanta Hawks (11.3)
13. San Antonio Spurs (11.7)
14. Golden State Warriors (12)
15. Sacramento Kings (15)
16. New Orleans Pelicans (15.3)
17. Milwaukee Bucks (17)
18. Toronto Raptors (17.3)
19. Boston Celtics (18.7)
20. Memphis Grizzlies (19)
21. Miami Heat (19)
22. Phoenix Suns (20.3)
23. Detroit Pistons (20.7)
24. Charlotte Hornets (21)
25. Indiana Pacers (23.3)
26. Portland Trail Blazers (24.7)
27. Chicago Bulls (26.7)
28. Utah Jazz (27.3)
29. Washington Wizards (28.3)
30. Brooklyn Nets (29.3)
This list doesn’t differ much from my more holistic one, but teams with multiple All-Star caliber players certainly had an advantage. The Bucks fall in at 17th, with Giannis dragging up that average significantly, as he ranked second behind Jokic on the best players totem pole. Myles Turner was 24th amongst second-best players, right behind Nikola Vucevic, Jalen Green, Miles Bridges, and Derrick White, and ahead of Jrue Holiday, Jaden Ivey, and Andrew Nembhard. In my head, I had KPJ as perhaps the worst third-best player in the league, but after parsing things out I ended up placing him 25th, ahead of Santi Aldama, Keyonte George, Alex Sarr, Matas Buzelis, and Egor Demin (it’s worth noting here that Josh Giddey and Cam Thomas were not included in this exercise as they aren’t yet signed, resulting in the Buzelis and Demin inclusions). The unsurprising bottom line here is that Giannis makes this team look a whole lot better.
I’ll just rip the band-aid off here: As their roster currently stands, the Milwaukee Bucks won’t be true championship contenders next season. That’s probably not a hot take, but it’s an unfortunate reality. There just isn’t a world where Myles Turner and Kevin Porter Jr. (or Bobby Portis, Kyle Kuzma, etc) can be the second and third most important players on a title team. It’s true that the NBA has moved away from the superteam era and placed more emphasis on depth, but still, none of the solidified top teams (OKC, both LA teams, Cleveland, etc) have just one star leading the show. The Bucks do have a quality group of role players, and could make the second round on the back of Giannis, but their current big three just won’t be enough for them to do it big.
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