The Giannis Antetokounmpo era may be inching toward a terminus for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Fans couldn’t help but notice the two-time MVP recently seemed to distance himself from the team on social media. During an appearance with 850 ESPN Cleveland, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst suggested that didn’t really catch the Bucks off guard because “he asked to be traded already.”
This is all resembling the end of Damian Lillard’s first run with the Portland Trail Blazers.
After making an unexpected run to the 2019 Western Conference Finals, it was all downhill for the Blazers. After a second successive first-round exit in 2021, they had clearly hit their ceiling with Lillard, yet they didn’t trade him until two years later.
The Bucks are in a similar position.
Milwaukee hasn’t won a playoff series since 2022. Firing head coaches Mike Budenholzer and Adrian Griffin didn’t work. Hiring Doc Rivers hasn’t worked. Acquiring Lillard from Portland didn’t work. And adding Myles Turner in a sign-and-trade this past offseason isn’t making a difference.
The Bucks are 9-13 and not even in a play-in position with a quarter of the season in the books. Antetokounmpo is the biggest reason they aren’t in a worse position. Milwaukee has a minus-11.0 net rating when he isn’t on the floor, per NBA.com.
It would be easier to buy into the idea that this is just a bad stretch and an outlier if we haven’t seen the same story play out over multiple years.
General manager Jon Horst pushed all in to win a title and the strategy succeeded in 2021. Since then, it’s a case of diminishing returns. The supporting cast behind Antetokounmpo has gotten steadily worse, and Horst was forced to leverage precious trade capital toward fixing that problem.
When Giannis can opt out of his current deal in 2027, the Bucks are running out of time to prove they can be a contender, and they have limited means to make upgrades. In order to get Turner, they had to waive Lillard via the stretch provision, which puts a $22.4 million salary cap hit on the books for five years.
Assuming his top priority is winning another championship, the question is increasingly becoming whether Antetokounmpo is traded before the Feb. 5 deadline or gets moved in the summer.
