Now that their season is over, the Bucks will shift their focus to free agency, as several of the team’s key contributors don’t have contracts for the 2019/20 season. Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is locked up through 2020/21, said today in his end-of-season session with reporters that he doesn’t want to get involved in front office decisions, but he hopes Milwaukee can re-sign all of its top free agents (Twitter link via Matt Velazquez of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).
“Obviously, I want everybody back,” Antetokounmpo said, per Malika Andrews of ESPN.com. “Great fricking team — unselfish players that play basketball the right way. They’re winners. We had a great atmosphere. We didn’t have no — I want to be polite. I want to say the A-word — we didn’t have no buttheads. Obviously, I want everybody back. I’m going to let my teammates know that.”
Khris Middleton, perhaps the Bucks’ most important free-agent-to-be, spoke today about having unfinished business with Giannis and the Bucks as a whole, tweets Velazquez. That doesn’t necessarily guarantee he’ll be back though. As Andrews tweets, Middleton said that his top two priorities will be what’s best for his family, followed by his fit.
Here’s more on the Bucks:
- Although Antetokoumpo was disappointed not to win the Eastern Conference Finals, he’s confident that the Bucks are in position to make more noise in the playoffs in future seasons. “I think it’s just the start of a long journey,” Antetokounmpo said after Saturday’s loss, according to Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “We’re going to get better. We’re going to come back next year and believe in who we are, believe in what we’ve built this year, and hopefully, we can be in the same situation and be the ones moving forward.”
- Prior to the end of the Eastern Finals, Gery Woelfel of Woelfel’s Press Box wrote that some NBA officials believe the Bucks are eager – or even “desperate” – to dump Tony Snell‘s contract. Snell is owed $11.59MM in 2019/20 and $12.38MM in 2020/21. “I think the only way they can move him is if they package him with a pick,” one NBA executive told Woelfel. “But [the Bucks have] already traded two [future] No. 1s, so that won’t be easy to do that, either.”
- It will be interesting to see how imperative it is for the Bucks to move off of Snell’s deal. If Milwaukee re-signs Middleton, Malcolm Brogdon, and Brook Lopez (or Nikola Mirotic) to lucrative contracts, getting rid of Snell’s money could help the team avoid the tax. But if even one of those players departs, keeping Snell on their books for another year may not hurt the Bucks.
That’s what’s wrong with the NBA salary structure. The stars make too much and the second level players think they should be paid like stars so it’s next to impossible to surround a star
with 2 other stars or even decent role players. It takes a billionaire owner sacrificing some of his own money (when pigs fly!) to get it done. That’s why I don’t watch NBA games.
Too many teams and too much diluted product.
Cool, why are you here again ??
It’s nothing to get emotional about.
It seems strange to have an account on a website almost exclusively about the NBA and then claim to not watch any games.
Why you replying to anything that you do t watch and are not a part of?
No, the stars deserve what they get. The problem is that because most stars choose to play on a handful of teams coupled with the need to spend to stay at or above the salary floor, bad teams end up overpaying for “ok” players because the money has to be spent on someone. See Timofy Mozgov and to a lesser extent, Mike Conley. Memphis almost HAD to spend that money on him. Who else were they going to attract to play their? Might as well overpay for your home grown players.
Encouraging sounds from the stars. But when they traded 4 seconds for Mirotich, it was like they were nervous about Middleton staying. I just don’t see why he would go to another team building around someone else, like Dallas.
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The offense they used all year and vs Toronto, the thing were everyone shoots 3s except a driving Giannis, should be set aside. Gianis has to get more comfortable on the perimeter or else he is too predictable as a driver. I thought he did get more diverse in finishing as the year went on but that 15ft wall did him in. Nobody saw that coming I guess.
Also… Bledsoe needs to get his mojo back driving. He’s guaranteed for a while so don’t leave him hanging. Brogdon showed quick finishing on layups, and Middleton probably does not want want to be restricted to the perimeter. Snell probably has to drive to get his confidence back and Conotn’s 3pt% went down.
Absolutely love Giannis, but he also said the same thing last year when asked about Jabari Parker. Getting rid of that cancer helped the Bucks a ton this year.
Middleton will want a max contract and even though there are a lot of players in the NBA who are way overpaid, he isn’t worth it. Bucks need Brodgon an Lopez more than Middleton.
I like Middleton but does a inconsistent player deserve a max contract? I think Brogdon has a higher upside than Middleton so we have to keep him. Love to see Lopez back as his his shooting spreads the defense plus he plays good team defense but his offense is inconsistent also. George Hill did a nice job in the playoffs so maybe we could get him to resign at a lower rate. We still could use another scoring threat that is able to shoot threes and drive to the hoop.
If KM leaves, sure, everyone wants that. But at present non-GAs are supposed to shoot, not drive.