Bucks Waive Kevin Porter Jr. After Injury-Plagued Stint

The Milwaukee Bucks have officially pulled the plug on the Kevin Porter Jr. experiment. Shams Charania reported on Monday that the franchise is waiving the guard right before the regular season tips off.

This is the kind of roster move that makes perfect sense the second you look at the medical chart. Porter has an injury history that reads like a WebMD doom-scroll, racking up 19 different injuries and missing 229 days over his career.

"The Milwaukee Bucks have waived guard Kevin Porter Jr., sources tell ESPN. (Shams Charania)"

Most recently, his right knee has been a structural nightmare. He dealt with a meniscus injury and synovitis that completely derailed the back half of his 2025-26 campaign. Milwaukee was hoping he could be a spark plug off the bench this year, but you cannot be a spark plug if you are constantly in the shop.

The Bucks are trying to figure out their actual rotation after a weird preseason that included a 125-104 blowout loss to the Chicago Bulls and a 128-127 overtime squeaker against the Indiana Pacers. They need reliable depth behind their stars, not a nightly guessing game.

For anyone looking at Milwaukee in the betting markets this season, this is a quiet but meaningful clarity move. Handicapping a team is infinitely harder when a key rotation piece is a coin flip to even put on a uniform. Now, the minutes distribution in the backcourt is set.

Milwaukee heads to Washington to face the Wizards on October 21 with a slightly shorter, but much more predictable, bench. As for Porter, he hits the waiver wire looking for a front office willing to bet on his upside while ignoring the flashing check-engine light on his knee.