Reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo had a private meeting today with Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry to talk about where the franchise is headed, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
Speculation has been rampant about Antetokounmpo’s plans for the future, especially after Milwaukee was knocked out of the playoffs in the second round. Earlier today, Antetokounmpo unfollowed hundreds of people on Twitter and Instragram, including teammates and the Bucks’ team account, Haynes adds.
This offseason, Antetokounmpo will be eligible to sign a super-max extension that could pay him as much as $254MM over five years. Only the Bucks can offer him that much, but Antetokounmpo hasn’t decided if he wants to make a long-term commitment to Milwaukee. His contract expires after the 2020/21 season, and several teams are already maximizing cap space in case he becomes available.
Another option is to ask for a trade while he still has a year left on his current deal, but Antetokounmpo said last week he doesn’t plan to do that.
“Some see a wall and go in (another direction). I plow through it,” he said after the Bucks were eliminated. “We just have to get better as a team, individually and get right back at it next season.”
Giannis is probably un-following anyone who might post about a trade.
Speaking of, Giannis for Adebayo, Herro, Olynyk & Dunn. Money Matches. Who says no?
Still a good group left at Miami and no pressure to land a big FA in 2021, so there’s room for current players. Dragic, Butler, Crowder, Leonard, Iguodala, Jones, Robinson, Silva, Okpala.
Any of the last three could replace Nunn in the trade, or add to it.
I would do it.
Add those four to Bledsoe, Middleton, Lopez, Donte.
Could add Iguodala expiring and Bledsoe to it.
Reminds me of the Jabbar trade, MIL to LAL. Junior Bridgeman & others. But these are better.
Pat Riley wants Giannis, but I doubt that much.
No way.
That’s better than almost any other trade I’ve seen.
Don’t think Herro, Nunn and Adebayo would quite be enough. Olynyk doesn’t move the needle. Miami would have to throw in a pick or 2.
NO
K’Al says no! lol
One problem, and maybe Riley would like to avoid it, is only Herro is locked up. MIL GM Horst would be trading an easy max offer to Giannis— if not a guaranteed acceptance— for three signing headaches. Of course that’s his job, and he would be avoiding the risk of a 2021 turndown, but…
It’s not clear if Adebayo is max-worthy. At some point one has to stop saying, He’s good, and offer it or not. To me he can effectively do most of the best of what Giannis does, without disrupting the offense. Giannis can start at the 3pt line, move athletically, slam over anyone, and maybe draw a foul because the defender did not surrender fast enough. It’s amazing, and teammates can and do stand around and watch it happen.
But that’s the offense for the Bucks now, and he (and they) do get stopped. It did not used to be that way— They played great team ball and Giannis was the icing and Horst won exec.OY. Now it seems the pieces don’t fit and there are overpays.
BAM tends to be happy and lack ambition and he was a backup for several years, including college. But with a big paycheck comes bigger expectations which he is gifted enough to meet. He can twist around inside and beat the D. His other limitations prevents him from doing the jobs of teammates! He does not have the Derrick Coleman disease (so far).
HERRO has shown he can shoot quickly, elevated, on the move, from deep, from imperfect body positions, and he has stamina. He is from Wisconsin though they were mad he left for Kentucky lol.
OLYNYK is for salary matching and maybe replacing Illyasova (unguaranteed). Iguodala has a similar salary for matching but might reject the midwest. He could not show up.
AT least one more salary is needed, from Nunn, Robinson, Silva (a mobile 4 who always seems to be around the ball) or Okpala (still a prospect).
These talents are good enough to not have to ask the egotistical Riley for any firsts.
No way Riley gives up that much for Giannis
If you give up Bam, Herro, and Dunn you lose a lot of what would make the Heat attractive.
That’s a decent deal. I understand people saying it’s light, and they’re not entirely wrong based on talent. The problem is when you trade a superstar you don’t get back equal value. You just have to get the best deal you can.
Riley’s offer for GA can be bolstered easily but many issues remain, beyond whatever the odds are that GA gets restless.
Does Horst think Adebayo can replace GA? Does Riley want to offer him enough salary when he dreams of 2021 FAs? (Im not sure what Bam’s max$ is.)
Does he think he can wait for GA as a FA? Are the Heat going to be coming off a (____) title?
As someone that knows its NUNN not “dunn”….. what you just purposedis roughly 40-50ppg and 2 untouchable players for Giannis. The Bucks will get expiring contracts and picks for Giannis.. they cannot compete without him and will need future stock. It will most likely be AI, Olynyk or Meyers Leonard, and Kendrick Nunn (the prospect piece) for salary purposes… and 2-3 future 1st rounders from the Heat. The Heat will not give up Herro or Adebayo.. and they won’t need to.
Maybe he wants to stay.
Yeah, no kidding. The guy has said nothing else but that he wants to stay. Of course there will always be speculation on any star FA. But, this is clearly the media pushing something that isn’t happening. It’s a joke
Maybe he wants to win. That’s usually a greater influence in a man’s mind. Nobody works at IBM for 25 years anymore.
Heat: Bam, Nunn, Herro
Sixers: Ben Simmons
Blazers: Nurkic, Ariza, Collins, Simons
Knicks: Entire Roster
Honestly the Knicks would be a good salary relief option. 8 expiring or could-be expiring contracts. Knicks won’t want all of the Bucks parts, so there would be a 3rd team involved.
I really hope New York really gives the Bucks a good trade scenario. They have the assets including draft picks to make a trade possible. What are the realistic chances the Knicks go all in on Giannis?
If you think the package is RJ, Mitchell, Knox, Portis and picks. They could free up another 27.35M cutting players or have 31.35M in partially guaranteed contracts to trade and another 30.75 in guaranteed contracts to trade. If they went all-in, what they are surrounding Giannis with this year is kind of hard to determine. All of their real assets will be spent on Giannis, the only moves they’d make are with teams looking to purely dump salary. Kevin Love, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin. And the FA market is weak.
Giannis seems like a good guy. He’s not walking out on Bucks. But as we’ve seen. This group ain’t getting it done. Personally I start with coach. To me the player they should target is Jrue Holiday. Hill, Brook, and a pick or picks. Brook solidifies C position let’s their young guy grow. Hill backs up Lonzo. Get two solid vets makes them deeper. Plus have a pick (Bucks pick 24) this yr.
Being a good guy has nothing to do with business tho. Perfectly legit, as a good guy, to say “you’re not fulfilling your end of the bargain, I’m not comfortable with a one-sided situation…I want out”
I could see them maybe trying to unload Bledsoe for Holiday. I have always wondered if Rose would be a good fit for Milwaukee.
Bucks would still need a PG, since Jrue is not at his best there. I’m not sure he makes others better either.
K Al, I don’t think the Bucks will get it done next year either, and the roster looks like it has several years left of overpays. Yes Giannis will give Milwaukee every chance but they’ve apparently been surpassed, and the Sixers will have a new coach. Maybe GA does the 1+1.
The loss of Brogdon has hurt them stylistically more than I expected and it probably wasn’t Bledsoe who made them look so good… he’s just a one-on-one guy, a solo shot creator.
Which is fine, but if they could trade him for Brogdon, great! After all Indiana is having problems with Oladipo.
Hill is fine as the starter at the point. He doesn’t need the ball a lot and is an excellent shooter.
Stupid question of the day, but any chance Giannis opts out and becomes a free agent or requests a trade? I hope so. I know the Knicks should try everything to get him, including gutting the roster and all draft picks.
That’s a ridiculous suggestion. Then you become worse than the Milwaukee Bucks. Then you triple team Giannis and some guy named Phil McCracken jack’s up three pointers.
I think that Giannis wants to go to a situation & a max deal with a team that has more players and better players than his current situation. Your suggestion to the Knicks would not fulfill that.
We still would have cap room to sign another free agent or do a possible trade for Chris Paul which would be perfect.
CP3, Giannis, and Melo ain’t enough to come out of the East. They’d honestly be hard pressed to put a better squad around him than Milk. Unless they landed Bradley Beal or some other younger pure scorer wingman. They need a 1A guy. Milk has a bunch of #2/3 options around him now.
Unfollowing several teammates and the team account tells me he is good as gone. If Milwaukee were smart they would trade him this off-season because as we all know very rarely does a sign and trade get you back market value returns.
That’s how I see it, too. When you make a move like that you do so knowing it’s only going to lead to a ton of speculation. If you have any intent on staying, why invite that?
Giannis seems to be a stand up guy, and I think he’s made up his mind that he’s leaving and isn’t going to string the Bucks along. The Miami series sorta showed he doesn’t have enough help there.
He’s not going to string them along would be requesting a trade. He did not in that meeting yesterday. You boys are off base here
Do we know he didn’t request a trade? We’re just coming off of the meeting, and I don’t believe GA is the type of player who would go nuclear and tank his trade value for the Bucks unless things got really ugly.
Except he did this last year…..he also unfollowed Nike, does that mean that relationships over? You’re reaching
Giannis is not walking out on Bucks. He’s already said he is staying. What you don’t believe his own words. This team has won more gms than any team in NBA last 2 yrs. The problem has been adjustments in the playoffs. Teams have keyed on Giannis. And Bucks haven’t answered. That’s coaching lols. Doc Rivers coaching Bucks, does not lose to Heat. If anything this team needs shooters to open it up for Giannis. IMO he handles ball too much. You can’t take it to team. That is just waiting for you to do that. The playoffs are possessions gms. Bucks are a running team. A gm manager like Chris would help for sure. But I don’t see how they get him without a third team . Jrue is a PG always has been. He’s played off the ball cause they asked him to. He played PG in college. He’s always been a scoring PG. He’s not Chris but he can manage a gm. And can score if needed. Better than Hill or Bledsoe. So he’s a big upgrade there. They still would need shooters. Jrue is a big upgrade at PG. IMO they need a new coach too.
Unless Giannis demands a sign and trade (IE signs the super max as part of a trade agreement he prefers) Giannis will be on the Bucks next season…. the Bucks have said they won’t trade him, even if he doesn’t sign the extension with them. For Giannis to change teams he must hurt his personal rep and demand a trade to a specific team. Most likely scenario is Giannis doesn’t sign the extension and plays out the season as a FA (something I personally think he will regret by mid season because of the distraction it will cause)
The elephant in the room is the Dubs…
An owner that believes going way over the cap is a title-bringing, money-making strategy.
Light Years, baby…….
Amen.