Giannis Antetokounmpo Needs to Leave Milwaukee to Save the Bucks

The Bucks are headed down a scary road and the only way out is to trade star player Giannis Antetokounmpo (or he requests out).

Let’s paint the grim picture for the Bucks:

Damian Lillard is 34 years old, and after tearing his achilles probably won’t return until 2027.

In this year’s draft, Milwaukee don’t own their first picks – in fact they don’t own their first until 2031 and have the least favorable first round swaps in 2026, 2028 and 2030 PLUS don’t own ANY firsts in 2027 and 2029.

Not to mention, Brook Lopez, Bobby Portis, Taurean Prince, Gary Trent Jr. and Kevin Porter Jr. are all free agents over the summer.

Yahoo Sports’ Ben Rohrbach sums up the situation perfectly – and why the Bucks need to act fast.

“The three-year, $175 million contract extension Antetokounmpo signed in 2023 begins in July, which means the Bucks could run it back once or twice more — before Antetokounmpo can opt out in 2027,” Rohrbach said. To what end? In another year, Antetokounmpo will only have one guaranteed season left on his deal, and no team wants to trade its entire future for a one-year rental. Delaying a deal merely winnows his trade market. Remember: The Toronto Raptors dealt only one first-round draft pick for Kawhi Leonard in 2018.

“Milwaukee will want to maximize its return. This is not the Dallas Mavericks dealing Luka Dončić for cents on the dollar. Give the Bucks every first-round pick you have, plus all your young talent, or else you do not get one of the three best players in the entire NBA — one of the game’s few real difference-makers.

“To maximize its return Milwaukee must trade Antetokounmpo now, before he requests a trade.”

If the Bucks don’t bite the bullet soon, Giannis may just request a trade away from the team this summer anyway.

Whatever Giannis decides, the entire fate of the NBA will be at his mercy, insider Brian Windhorst says.

“The question for the whole NBA is ‘what does Giannis do about it?'” Windhorst said on NBA Today. “Does Giannis indicate to the team he wants to stay put and remain a Buck going forward. Or does Giannis indicate he may want to look around? If the answer is B, the entire NBA offseason will hinge on it.”