{"id":735369,"date":"2026-05-15T22:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/735369\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T22:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:06:16","slug":"bucks-notes-giannis-accountability-prospects-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/735369\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucks Notes: Giannis, Accountability, Prospects, Offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> played a career-low 36 games due to a variety of injuries in 2025\/26. However, the Bucks superstar says he\u2019s feeling healthy and spry in his first extended offseason in several years, per Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel<\/a> (subscriber link).<\/p>\n

Antetokounmpo, 31, says he\u2019s particularly excited about being able to work on developing his skills over the next few months until training camps begin in the fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen the difference, which I\u2019m very excited for,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause this is going to be the first year in my career that I\u2019m going to go from January, pretty much, until October, fully healthy. I can work on whatever I want. All the skills that I want. I can make mistakes. It\u2019s May. Nobody\u2019s in the gym with me. There\u2019s no crowds. There\u2019s no media. I can fail many times and I can just get up and pat myself on the back and come back the next day and try to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Antetokounmpo is hoping to recapture his MVP-level form next season, he admitted he wasn\u2019t sure which team he\u2019d be on, simply saying, \u201cWe\u2019ll see.\u201d But the nine-time All-NBA forward did say he\u2019s using external doubts about his health and\/or game as motivational fuel, Owczarski writes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel good. I feel really good,\u201d Antetokounmpo said, his voice rising a pitch. \u201cAnd I love when people doubt me. I love it. I want more doubt. Everybody on your social media; follow me on that stuff and talk [expletive] to me all year long. All summer, all offseason. That\u2019s all I want to see. I want to see doubt. No compliments.<\/p>\n

\u201cTell me how much I suck and I didn\u2019t make the playoffs and I\u2019m not good at that or I\u2019m not good at this. Just keep on putting gasoline in the fire and just keep on adding to that. That\u2019s what I love. I love when people don\u2019t believe in me. And when I come [back] I\u2019ll do what I\u2019m supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more from Milwaukee:<\/p>\n

Center Myles Turner<\/a> raised some eyebrows recently when he claimed<\/a> ex-head coach Doc Rivers didn\u2019t fine any Bucks players for being late to team activities. Turner also singled out Antetokounmpo as his teammate most likely to be tardy for those activities. According to Eric Nehm of The Athletic<\/a>, \u201caccountability\u201d was a talking point during the press conference to introduce new head coach Taylor Jenkins, and that theme continued this week during combine interviews with prospects. Milwaukee controls the 10th pick in June\u2019s draft. \u201cI had a really good conversation with them and Coach Jenkins,\u201d projected lottery pick Mikel Brown<\/a> said. \u201cHe\u2019s just talking about the stuff that I can work on, right? They know what I\u2019m capable of, and they know the strengths that I have. It\u2019s really just about trying to key in on the stuff that I could be better on. And I can appreciate that, because I love to be coached hard. I appreciate being held accountable, right? I love that type of coaching, and that\u2019s how I\u2019ve been raised all my life, and every single coach that I\u2019ve played for has done that and got me to this point. So I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.\u201d
\nDarius Acuff<\/a>, Nate Ament<\/a>, Brayden Burries<\/a>, Cameron Carr<\/a>, Chris Cenac<\/a>, Aday Mara<\/a>, Labaron Philon<\/a> and Keaton Wagler<\/a> are among the other prospects who confirmed to The Athletic that they\u2019d spoken to the Bucks, Nehm adds.
\nKeith Smith of Spotrac<\/a> previews the Bucks\u2019 offseason, writing that determining whether to trade or keep Antetokounmpo is the clear top priority in Milwaukee, but there are other roster moves to consider as well. Smith expects Kevin Porter Jr.<\/a> to opt out of his $5.4MM player option in search of a more lucrative contract in free agency, predicting that the 26-year-old will return to the Bucks on a new multiyear deal in the range of $12-16MM annually. Smith also thinks restricted free agent Ousmane Dieng<\/a> is a good bet to return, and suggests signing the French forward to a multiyear deal worth around $10MM per year would be a reasonable contract for both sides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giannis Antetokounmpo played a career-low 36 games due to a variety of injuries in 2025\/26. However, the Bucks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3775],"tags":[8763,7,52247,103,57846,90768,27226,123,42824,2744,2879,102,121,3871,18339,6,6609,4194],"class_list":{"0":"post-735369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-bucks","8":"tag-aday-mara","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-brayden-burries","11":"tag-bucks","12":"tag-cameron-carr","13":"tag-chris-cenac","14":"tag-darius-acuff","15":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","16":"tag-keaton-wagler","17":"tag-kevin-porter","18":"tag-labaron-philon","19":"tag-milwaukee","20":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","21":"tag-milwaukeebucks","22":"tag-nate-ament","23":"tag-nba","24":"tag-ousmane-dieng","25":"tag-taylor-jenkins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116580868666543413","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735369","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=735369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}