Prior to this year’s trade deadline, the Milwaukee Bucks made a roster change, and general manager Jon Horst has been actively working to strengthen the team over the past few weeks.

Horst informed reporters during the press briefings for both decisions that the accompanying actions were taken with the hope that they would increase the Bucks’ prospects of winning a championship this year.

The coaching change has diverted focus from possible roster changes ahead of Thursday, February 8 at 3 p.m. ET, the NBA trade deadline. Horst is known to be aggressive during this time of year for the Bucks, and he usually finds a way to make a move, be it adding a player via a buyout or trade.

With less than a week until the trade deadline, here’s everything you need to know in light of that.

As usual, we begin our overview of trade deadlines with a close examination of the Bucks’ salary cap sheet. Horst will have to play by the latest collective bargaining agreement’s standards, which are very stringent for teams like the Bucks, regardless of how inventive he wants to go.

The NBA told teams prior to this season that the luxury tax threshold would be $165,294,000 and the salary cap would be $136,021,000 for the 2023–24 season. The league further informed teams that the first luxury-tax average revenue would be $172,294,000, while the second luxury-tax average revenue would be $182,794,000.

In order to clarify that the Bucks would be viewed as a second-apron team by the league’s salary cap regulations, even though they didn’t initially appear to be, I enlisted the assistance of former NBA executive John Hollinger last summer. When the Bucks acquired Damian Lillard, all of the uncertainty surrounding that was cleared up. Now it is simple. As a team, the Bucks are second-apron.

The Bucks currently have a complete roster with 15 NBA players, and their combined salary is $183,584,668. The Bucks ownership group will have to pay an estimated $57.7 million in luxury taxes if their cap table at the end of the season looks like this, taking into account the repeater penalties associated with the luxury tax.

From a salary-cap standpoint, the Bucks’ roster is again very strong.Of the Bucks’ salary cap, Giannis Antetokounmpo ($45,640.084) and Damian Lillard ($45,640.084) account for 49.7%. The top four players on the Bucks roster make up $145.6 million of the $183,584,668 in pay, or around 79.3 percent of the team’s salary cap sheet. Add in Khris Middleton ($29,320,988) and Brook Lopez ($25,000,000).

The Bucks cross the luxury-tax level when the wages of their next two highest-paid players, Bobby Portis ($11,710,818) and Pat Connaughton ($9,423,869), are added. This is because the top six players on the roster will receive $166,735,843.