Giannis Antetokounmpo Could Still Request Trade From Milwaukee Bucks
Giannis Antetokounmpo could still request a trade from the Milwaukee Bucks, according to NBA insider Shams Charania of ESPN.
Antetokounmpo is still evaluating his future with the Bucks, who haven’t won a postseason series since 2022.
“As we sit here on August 4, sources tell me there is nothing set in stone about whether Giannis Antetokounmpo wants to stay in Milwaukee or whether he wants to leave elsewhere,” Charania said. “He’s been evaluating his future this entire offseason. I reported way back in mid-May that he’s open-minded about whether his best fit is in Milwaukee or is it a trade elsewhere.”
Bucks general manager Jon Horst has been very busy this offseason. He waived and stretched Damian Lillard, signed Myles Turner and Gary Harris and re-signed Bobby Portis, Kevin Porter Jr., Gary Trent Jr., Taurean Prince and Jericho Sims.
However, it appears Antetokounmpo is still open-minded about leaving Milwaukee.
A future Hall of Famer, Antetokounmpo will make $54.1 million next season. The Bucks signed The Greek Freak to a three-year, $175 million extension in October 2023. There is no no-trade clause in the contract.
Antetokounmpo is a two-time MVP, a one-time Finals MVP, a one-time Defensive Player of the Year and a nine-time All-Star. He has career averages of 23.9 points, 9.9 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.2 blocks with the Bucks, who don’t believe their best player is going anywhere.
“We have no indication that anything is really changing as far as our relationship with the player we think is the best in the world,” a Bucks front office executive told NBA reporter Keith Smith of Spotrac. “We rebuilt on the fly, in a really challenging situation, but we think we did it as well as it could be done.”
The 30-year-old Antetokounmpo has said many times that he wants to spend his entire career with Milwaukee.
NBA writer Dan Favale of Bleacher Report, though, thinks Antetokounmpo could request a trade one day.
“Their summer has unfolded like a team trying to buy one more full year with Giannis Antetokounmpo, before trying to parlay the three available first-round picks they’ll have to trade next June into someone who buys them yet another season or two,” Favale wrote. “If that plan proves unsuccessful, or if Milwaukee stumbles through the first part of the 2025-26 campaign, it could be the tipping point that nudges the two-time MVP to do what 29 other teams have been waiting on him to do for years.”
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