No team in the league is under more pressure this season than the Milwaukee Bucks. They have peak Giannis Antetokounmpo, the former MVP and a top-three player on the planet, but he is surrounded by an aging and injury-prone core, and they play in a conference with younger, deeper teams (starting with Boston).
If things don’t shake out well in Milwaukee this season, changes could be coming — and Antetokounmpo thinks he could be one of them. Sam Amick of the Athletic asked Antetokounmpo about that pressure and his response was fascinating.
As a Bucks staffer walks by, Antetokounmpo grabs the man by the shoulder and asks a remarkably pointed question.
“If we don’t win this year, would you get fired?” Antetokounmpo asks with a wry smile to his co-worker. “Do you have it in the back of your mind, like, ‘(What) if this year doesn’t go well?’ Yeah, if we don’t win a championship, I might get traded. Yeah, this is the job we live. This is the world we’re living in. It’s everybody…
“On a serious note, this is the job. It’s the profession that we’re in. At any given moment, if you don’t succeed, that might be it for us. It was the same way with the previous coaching staff, and the year before, the players before. … If you don’t do a good enough job, you’re out.”
Milwaukee would not trade Antetokounmpo unless he demands it. The question is, would he?
In the wake of the Bucks trading for Damian Lillard a year ago, Antetokounmpo signed a three-year, $175.4 million contract extension that kicks in next season (he will make $48.8 million this season under his previous deal). Milwaukee has Antetokounmpo under contract for three seasons before a player option kicks in for 2027-28 — the Bucks are under no pressure to trade him.
It’s no secret that other front offices have their eyes on Antetokounmpo as the most likely superstar to ask out (we’ve reported that here at NBC Sports, hearing it from league sources, and others around the league have reported it as well, including Amick). The hope for these teams is that the ultra-competitive Antetokounmpo grows frustrated with the Bucks not looking like a contender in the East and asks for a trade. That’s no sure thing, and even if it happens the Bucks would have leverage, thanks to his contract extension, and could slow play any efforts to find a trade, while they try to retool around him.
However, changes are coming to an older Bucks roster in the coming years. One way or another, they need to get younger and more athletic. Milwaukee wants that to happen around Antetokounmpo and keep him in Wisconsin until he retires — and the loyal Antetokounmpo would be good with that. But he also wants to contend.
Which is why there is so much pressure on Doc Rivers and Milwaukee this season.
