DETROIT, MICHIGAN – APRIL 11: Giannis Antetokounmpo #34 of the Milwaukee Bucks looks on during the fourth quarter of a game against the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena on April 11, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)
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One day after ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on the unsettled long-term future of Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Greek Freak tried to clear the air.
If anything, he just added to the uncertainty.
“I’ve said this many times: I want to be in a situation that I can win,” Antetokounmpo told reporters Wednesday. “I believe in this team. I believe in my teammates. I’m here to lead this team to wherever we can go. It’s definitely going to be hard. We’re going to take it day by day, but I’m here. So all the extra stuff does not matter.
“I’ve communicated with my teammates, communicated with the people I respect and love, that the moment I step on this court or in this facility, I wear this jersey, the rest does not matter. I’m locked into whatever I have in front of me. Now, if in six, seven months I change my mind, I think that’s human, too.”
Charania reported Tuesday that Antetokounmpo expressed his concerns to Bucks general manager Jon Horst in late July about whether the team “could truly achieve championship contention, and he wanted to explore whether there would be an alternative path forward for both the team and the player.” Antetokounmpo stopped short of issuing an official trade request, though, and the Bucks did not proactively try to move him.
In other words: Antetokounmpo and the Bucks are stuck in a game of chicken, and neither wants to blink first.
Can The Bucks Get Back To Title Contention?
According to Charania, the Bucks organization “believes in its ability to contend in the East with Antetokounmpo on its side and season-altering injuries to Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton and Boston’s Jayson Tatum opening up the top of the conference.” The Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks are the two clear favorites at the top of the East, but beyond that, a bunch of other teams could sneak into the mix.
The Orlando Magic, Atlanta Hawks and Detroit Pistons are young teams on the rise. The Philadelphia 76ers were on the short list of title favorites last year before injuries submarined them, but they could vault right back into that conversation if they stay healthy this year. As long as Antetokounmpo is in the fold, the Bucks feasibly could be toward the top of the East as well.
However, the Bucks are currently viewed as a major long shot to win this year’s championship. The defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder are leading the pack heading into the season at +220 odds, while the Cavaliers (+650), Denver Nuggets (+750), Knicks (+1100) and Los Angeles Lakers (+1500) round out the top five. The Bucks are all the way down at +7000, just behind Victor Wembanyama and the up-and-coming San Antonio Spurs (+6000).
Injuries and trades figure to drastically shake up the title picture between now and the beginning of the playoffs in April. However, the Bucks don’t have many chips left to play on the latter front. They’ve already traded control of their first-round picks through 2030, which means they only have a 2031 or 2032 first-rounder to dangle in a trade. They also don’t have a single second-round pick to offer from now through 2032, and they lack the type of young, high-upside prospects that could anchor a trade package for a major piece.
Even if Antetokounmpo drags the Bucks through the East, the West projects to be the far tougher conference this season. Unless the Bucks benefit from incredible injury luck in the playoffs, they’d likely be clear underdogs to any West team that they met in the NBA Finals.
Antetokounmpo seemingly knows that. But he doesn’t want to be portrayed as the bad guy by being the one to officially ask out of the Milwaukee.
“Rival executives believed the only way Antetokounmpo could have forced a move elsewhere was by making a spectacle and pushing himself out like several NBA stars who requested trades in recent years,” Charania wrote. “But those who know Antetokounmpo well say that is the antithesis of who he is, and ultimately, he applied no public pressure to Milwaukee this summer. He has built an image on loyalty.”
A Standoff With No Clear Ending
During an appearance on the ALL NBA Podcast earlier this year, longtime NBA insider Marc Stein said that Antetokounmpo is “so important to [the Bucks] financially” that they weren’t likely to trade him “unless he pushes it.”
“The whole league is on edge, waiting to see will Giannis’ representatives go to the Bucks and say, ‘It’s time, move us, hold the auction and start over,'” Stein added. “I don’t think the Bucks want to do that. You can make the case that they should want to do that, that they should see, ‘Let’s go out and get the largest haul that we can get back for Giannis.’ But I don’t think the Bucks are there.”
Although Antetokounmpo has stopped short of officially requesting a trade yet, he seems to be planting the seeds for it.
“I don’t want to stay in my comfort zone,” he told Lori Nickel of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this year. I want to be challenged. And if the challenge is here, which it is right now—we have a real challenge, people don’t respect us, we have good group, it’s good. But we might not have a challenge one day. We might be rebuilding as a team, or we might not be chasing nothing.
“So, will my individual athlete be more important than the championship? This is a thing that maybe some players make a mistake. They stay in the place maybe too long.”
Even if the Bucks aren’t championship contenders this season, the Bucks may find it difficult to trade Antetokounmpo before the Feb. 5 trade deadline. In-season trades involving massive contracts have become far more challenging due to tighter salary-matching rules and the number of teams that are hard-capped at either apron. That likely won’t stop other teams from calling if the Bucks get off to a slow start, though.
The Bucks hamstrung themselves by deciding to waive-and-stretch Damian Lillard, which left them with a dead-cap hit of roughly $22.5 million in each of the next five years. Doing so allowed them to create enough cap space to sign Myles Turner in free agency, but the opportunity cost could hamper their long-term ceiling. The Bucks did it as a desperate, last-gasp effort to convince Antetokounmpo to stay, but depending how the 2025-26 season unfolds, it might wind up being the final nail in their coffin.
Antetokounmpo holds all of the cards here. If he ever requests a trade, the Bucks will immediately lose leverage in negotiations. If he leaks that he’s only interested in re-signing with certain teams once he becomes a free agent in 2027, that could significantly narrow the market of teams willing to go all-in for him. The question is whether he’s willing to play those cards at some point.
The Bucks figure to bide their time until then. But the longer they wait to even consider trading him, the more they risk having to approach trade talks with minimal leverage.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.
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