{"id":666031,"date":"2026-03-19T02:08:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T02:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/666031\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T02:08:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T02:08:22","slug":"giannis-disagrees-with-bucks-plan-to-bench-him-for-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/666031\/","title":{"rendered":"Giannis Disagrees With Bucks\u2019 Plan to Bench Him for Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo reportedly opposes his team’s desire to shut him down for the remainder of the season due to knee injuries. The 31-year-old has already missed a career-high 32 games this season as the Bucks struggle with playoff hopes fading.\n <\/p>\n

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Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo is reportedly clashing with team management over their desire to end his season early due to ongoing knee problems, according to Wednesday reports from multiple sources.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old forward is currently dealing with a hyperextended left knee and bone bruise, adding to what has been an injury-riddled campaign that has already forced him to miss a career-high 32 games.<\/p>\n

Milwaukee sits at 28-40, trailing the Charlotte Hornets by 6 1\/2 games for the Eastern Conference\u2019s final play-in tournament position. The Hornets currently hold a 35-34 record.<\/p>\n

With just 14 contests left on the schedule, the Bucks\u2019 postseason aspirations appear increasingly unlikely. A continued slide down the standings would improve Milwaukee\u2019s draft position for what many consider a talent-rich opening round of the 2026 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n

Despite rejecting trade proposals for their franchise player, team officials believe shutting down Antetokounmpo would benefit both his long-term health and the organization\u2019s future. However, sources indicate the two-time MVP wants to continue competing.<\/p>\n

Head coach Doc Rivers announced Tuesday that recent medical scans showed no structural damage to the knee, with Antetokounmpo scheduled for another evaluation in seven days.<\/p>\n

The Greek star previously missed 15 games with a calf injury before returning March 2nd, then sat out two additional contests during a stretch where Milwaukee went 2-6 overall and 0-2 without him. A left ankle sprain kept him out of the team\u2019s 122-99 defeat to Atlanta on March 14th.<\/p>\n

His current injury occurred during Sunday\u2019s home win against Indiana when he landed awkwardly following a dunk attempt, forcing him to leave in the third quarter. He was subsequently ruled out for Tuesday\u2019s 123-116 home loss to Cleveland.<\/p>\n

This season, Milwaukee has struggled to an 11-21 record without the 10-time All-Star while going 17-19 in games he has played.<\/p>\n

Through 36 appearances, Antetokounmpo is posting averages of 27.6 points, 9.8 rebounds and 5.4 assists. This marks the fewest games he will play across his 13 seasons in Milwaukee, falling short of his previous low of 61 games during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season.<\/p>\n

Over his career, Antetokounmpo has compiled averages of 24.1 points, 9.9 rebounds and 5.0 assists across 895 games with 830 starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo reportedly opposes his team’s desire to shut him down for the remainder of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3775],"tags":[80926,80927,7,103,80920,80928,80922,80923,80921,80924,102,121,3871,6,80925],"class_list":{"0":"post-666031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-bucks","8":"tag-102-3","9":"tag-102-3fm","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-bucks","12":"tag-fine-day","13":"tag-fine-day-102-3","14":"tag-fine-day-fm","15":"tag-fine-day-media","16":"tag-fine-day-radio","17":"tag-have-a-fine-day","18":"tag-milwaukee","19":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","20":"tag-milwaukeebucks","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-weller-radio"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116253407449353436","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}