Giannis Antetokounmpo will demand a shakeup (Hot Takes We Might Actually Believe)

The 2024-25 NBA season is here. At the end of an uneventful offseason, we take our annual trip too close to the sun, daring you to stand the swelter of these views. This is Hot Takes We Might Actually Believe.

The Milwaukee Bucks are teetering on dissolution.

For whatever reason we do not feel comfortable talking about it. We like to think that — with a full training camp under head coach Doc Rivers, a refocused Damian Lillard and a few tweaks to the roster — the Bucks will be just fine. And we really do want to think that. No one wants what is worst for Giannis Antetokounmpo, a fun-loving superstar whose ceiling knew no bounds as recently as a few years ago.

Rather than face reality, we prefer to consider his recent comments to The Athletic’s Sam Amick — “'[What] if this year doesn’t go well?’ Yeah, if we don’t win a championship, I might get traded” — a joke.

But who are we kidding: Four seasons removed from their championship campaign, the Bucks are spinning their tires, inching as close to the NBA’s middle as they are title contention, burning the rest of Antetokounmpo’s prime, and there will be a(nother) point when he can no longer stand the status quo.

And that point will come this season.

As Antetokounmpo told The New York Times last year, before he signed a three-year, $175 million contract extension, “I don’t want to be 20 years on the same team and don’t win another championship.”

Around this point last season Antetokounmpo was frustrated by Milwaukee’s regression. Since winning the title in 2021, the Bucks had already taken two steps back, losing a second-round playoff series to the Boston Celtics in 2022. But a five-game, first-round playoff loss to the eighth-seeded Miami Heat in 2023 was embarrassing, even if injuries prevented Antetokounmpo from playing two games in the series.

So the Bucks pulled the trigger on a blockbuster trade at dawn of last season’s training camp, dealing Jrue Holiday, Grayson Allen and the rights to three first-round draft picks to the Portland Trail Blazers for Lillard. The swap briefly made Milwaukee the betting favorite to win the championship, until it…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-10-23 14:09:00

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