Giannis Antetokounmpo had one of the quietly funniest moments during the All-Star Game. While not playing due to his ongoing calf strain, he was on the World Team bench for the opening game of the night, seated at the end of the court near “The Wall” of fans who stand and cheer all game (the group is called “The Swell”). Fans on the Wall started chanting “We want Giannis” midway through the 12-minute game. He heard them, waved, then jokingly ran halfway up the sideline toward the scorer’s table starting to unzip his jacket, before turning around with a laugh and going back to the bench.
Will he or won’t he has felt like the question of Antetokounmpo’s season.
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He put himself in the media spotlight in Los Angeles during All-Star Weekend and continued to walk the same line he has all season: Right now he is fully committed to the Bucks, he loves Milwaukee, but when summer arrives he will reassess his situation like he always does. It is summed up well in what he said to Malika Andrews of ESPN.
“As of today, I’m committed to the Milwaukee Bucks. I’m committed to the people that I work with, my teammates, the coaching staff, Coach Doc [Rivers] and [GM] Jon [Horst] in the front office. What I’ve said from the beginning of this year is that, out of my mouth and the way I’ve carried myself, you will never hear me say I don’t want to be a Milwaukee Buck.”
While the Bucks listened to trade offers from other teams at the deadline, the sense from those other front offices was that Horst and the Bucks front office were simply guaging the market, not seriously negotiating or planning to trade him.
Antetokounmpo’s future with the Bucks will play out one of three ways.
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1) Milwaukee will be able to use its three draft picks it can trade this summer plus expiring salaries to make a bold move — such as the Bucks previously trading for Jrue Holiday or Damian Lillard — that convinces Antetokounmpo to sign another extension (four years, $275 million is the max) and stay with the team. This is what has happened every other time Antetokounmpo has been up for an extenion, he used that as leverage to make the Bucks bring in more talent.
2) Milwaukee cannot make a move that appeases Antetokounmpo enough that he signs the extension on Oct. 1, but he does not demand a trade and the Bucks determine that he is good enough and important enough that it’s worth the risk to hold on to him and not trade him. The Bucks then run the risk he leaves for nothing in free agency, but that’s worth the risk for some players, as Oklahoma City did with Kevin Durant.
3) Milwaukee cannot make a move that appeases Antetokounmpo (or he just doesn’t see a path to contention with the Bucks) and he tells the team he will not sign an extension with them, and the Bucks decide to trade him this summer.
