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2025 Free Agents - Ryan Rollins

Rollins was a late bloomer, as he was not a high level recruit but immediately made an impact upon arriving at Toledo, playing there for two seasons before entering the 2022 NBA draft. He was drafted in the 2nd round by the Warriors, but did not get any real playing time, and was traded to Washington in the summer of 2023 where he was waived mid-season after some off-court issues involving theft. After being signed by Milwaukee in the '24-'25 season, Rollins had some pretty good moments and earned himself a standard contract. Rollins was a three-level scorer in college, and showed some real shot-creation ability. He has a solid handle, and enough skill to hit contested shots. However, the questions on Rollins coming into the draft were whether or not he would be able to create separation against NBA defenders. He's not an elite athlete, and while he has good length, he's still only 6'3". As a primary ballhandler in college, it was also unclear how he would adapt to being a role player if he didn't become an elite enough scorer to have a high usage. He scored efficiently in '24-'25, but on a fairly low usage for a guard. Defensively, Rollins is somewhat held back by his limited athleticism. He does use his length to get steals, however. He also is pretty thin and can get bullied by stronger wings.  Rollins was effective in the G-League in '22-'23, scoring over 18 points per game on 64.5% true shooting. The sample size was small with just over 200 minutes across nine games, but that is still significantly larger than his NBA sample size. He was a little less productive and less efficient in the G-League in '23-'24. During the 50 games he played for the Bucks in '24-'25, he scored over six points per game on a solid 60% true shooting. Rollins will still only be 23 years old as a potential free agent in 2025, so there's still time for him to grow and a reasonable expectation that he will do so. I thought he showed enough in '24-'25 that the Bucks will likely keep him around, and if they don't I would expect another team to give him a chance.

Summary

Rollins will be a restricted free agent with Non-Bird rights and a $2.7 million cap hold and Qualifying Offer. The Bucks might refuse to tender him a QO, making him an unrestricted free agent. The most they could re-sign him for using his Non-Bird Rights is $2.9 million. They could only match an offer sheet up to this amount as well. Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Rollins as even teams without cap space could likely use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, Taxpayer MLE or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him to an offer sheet (although you rarely ever see offer sheets for less than the full Non-Taxpayer MLE), or outright as an unrestricted free agent. It's also likely that Rollins only gets minimum offers, especially if he's an unrestricted free agent, and may not even get fully-guaranteed offers.

Cap Considerations

Jared Butler (1 year non-guaranteed minimum, 2024) Kevin Porter, Jr. (1+1 year minimum, 2024) Killian Hayes (1 year non-guaranteed minimum, 2024)

Player/Contract Comparison

Potential Teams: Bucks, Clippers, Raptors, Knicks, Kings

Predicted Contract: 1-year, $2.4 million ($2.3 million cap hit) with the Bucks

Actual Contract: 3-year, $12 million (3rd year player option) with the Bucks

Rollins re-signed with the Bucks on a slightly above-minimum contract.

Last updated: 7/8/2025

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