What should the Bucks do about Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez?

Over the weekend, the Milwaukee Bucks completed their first big decision of the offseason and decided to make Adrian Griffin their new head coach. But while the decision has been made, the team has yet to make it official. So, while we wait on the official announcement and the introductory press conference to follow, let’s get back into the mailbag.

This time around, we’re taking a long look at the Bucks’ salary-cap situation and spending quite a bit of time on the free-agent situations of Brook Lopez and Khris Middleton. Let’s go! As always, questions have been lightly edited for clarity and grammar.

Bucks offseason mailbag, Part 1: Have you heard? The Bucks need a head coach

If Khris Middleton opts in: How much could the Bucks, in theory, offer Brook Lopez? Would they have to sign the rest of the roster to rookie/G League or vet minimum deals? If Khris opts out, how much money do the Bucks have to spend on the rest of their roster (both including and excluding Brook)? —Bcc. B

To answer your first question, the amount of money the Bucks can offer Brook Lopez before June 30 does not change, no matter what happens with Middleton.

A veteran extension — the type Lopez can sign — can only feature a first-year salary that is 120 percent of his salary in the final season of his previous deal. This past season, Lopez made $13,906,976, which means the most he can make in the first year of an extension from the Bucks next season is $16,688,371. With (the maximum-allowed) eight percent raises, the maximum extension Milwaukee can offer Lopez is three years, $54.07 million.

If Lopez opts to not sign an extension with the Bucks before free agency opens, those restrictions are lifted and every other team could offer Lopez the full three-year maximum contract (based on his age and service time) as well. (That full maximum figure would start with 35 percent of the salary cap, which is $46.9 million next season.)

From there, as detailed in our previous offseason overview, the Bucks could only sign outside free agents to minimum contracts. They could, however, sign free agents already on their roster to larger contracts.

To answer your second question, Middleton does not come all the way off the Bucks’ books until he signs with another team or the Bucks renounce his cap hold. If he opts out and Milwaukee does not renounce his cap hold, the Bucks can still use his Bird rights to sign him and exceed the various salary cap rules. If Middleton and Lopez sign somewhere else, the Bucks would still have $114.78 million of guaranteed contracts for six players.

The salary cap for next season is $134 million, but the Bucks would not just have $20 million to sign a player in this situation because they would still have cap holds for everyone else that was on their roster last season. To create that cap space, they would need to renounce all of the rest of their cap holds and start over on their roster with just six players on their books.

It…