The Milwaukee Bucks face a difficult decision this offseason regarding Giannis Antetokounmpo and his future with the franchise. Antetokounmpo could be seeking a trade to a team closer to competing for a championship as he enters his 30\u2019s and the Bucks\u2019 attempts at remaining competitive have fallen short, especially after a 50-loss campaign that saw Milwaukee miss the playoffs for the first time since the 2015-16 season.<\/p>\n
What the Bucks are saying about Giannis<\/p>\n
\u201cListen, Giannis has brought Milwaukee its second championship and the first in 50 years. He\u2019s a phenomenal player. He\u2019s a phenomenal person. He\u2019s arguably one of the best basketball players in the world, and we will do what\u2019s best for Giannis and what\u2019s best for the organization\u2026 We don\u2019t know whether Giannis will stay with us or not, but we\u2019ll work through that with Giannis in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bucks appear to be putting the ball in Giannis\u2019 court, at least publicly. If he wants to stay, the Bucks aren\u2019t going to rush trading him away. As Haslam mentioned, he is one of the greatest players in franchise history, and the Bucks would be silly to trade him for a number of reasons. The owner also told reporters that if the decision is to trade him, they want to have it settled by the draft:<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think before the draft is a natural time, right? Because if Giannis does play somewhere else, then we ought to get a lot of assets, and it\u2019s (general manager Jon Horst\u2018s) job to do it. If he\u2019s here, then you build the team differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why the Bucks should trade Giannis<\/p>\n
The Bucks could benefit from a trade as it will force them to start over with a clean slate to get the rebuild started. Antetokounmpo\u2019s value may not be higher than what it currently is, so the Bucks should cash in and acquire a pillar or two that will help them lay the foundation for what the future of the team will look like. It\u2019s not an easy decision to make and the Bucks have delayed this move for as long as possible, but they may be reaching the end of the road.<\/p>\n
Why the Bucks should keep Giannis<\/p>\n
Very few legends stay with one team their entire career, and it says something if the Bucks were capable of doing that with Giannis. It would help create a culture that could last way beyond the time Giannis plays his final game with the Bucks. This isn\u2019t to say that once Giannis stops playing in Milwaukee, he won\u2019t be remembered for his time with the franchise, but it will add an extra bit of legacy, satisfaction, and respect around the league if he were to stay with the Bucks for his entire career. The Bucks want to keep Giannis as long as possible, but their willingness to do right by their superstar is a sign of respect in itself, and the team has doubled down on that sentiment many times over the past several years.<\/p>\n
Has Giannis played his final game with the Bucks? Chime in in the comments section below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Milwaukee Bucks face a difficult decision this offseason regarding Giannis Antetokounmpo and his future with the franchise.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3775],"tags":[7,103,9803,9804,102,121,3871,6],"class_list":["post-729249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-milwaukee-bucks","tag-basketball","tag-bucks","tag-bucks-rumors","tag-bucks-trade-rumors","tag-milwaukee","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-milwaukeebucks","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116541185281721701","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729249","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=729249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}