Last week, Giannis Antetokounmpo did an interview in Sweden in which he was asked whether he intends to sign a long-term extension with the Milwaukee Bucks, who can offer him a five-year, $220 million supermax deal as his 2021 free agency looms over the franchise and the league as a whole.
"I do not know what the plan is," Antetokounmpo told Aftonbladet, a daily newspaper based in Stockholm. "It depends on what decisions they make."
Earlier this week, the Bucks appeared to make a pair of go-big-or-go-home decisions that they hope will signal to Giannis their dead seriousness about winning an NBA championship. First they traded for Jrue Holiday, sending Eric Bledsoe, George Hill and three first-round picks to the Pelicans, per Shams Charania of the Athletic, with ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski adding that future pick swaps will be part of the package heading to New Orleans as well.
Before there was time to process that move, the Bucks seemingly stopped the presses again by agreeing to a sign-and-trade with the Sacramento Kings that will land them Bogdan Bogdanovic, as first reported by Wojnarowski, who then added that the Bucks will be shipping Donte DiVincenzo, Ersan Ilyasova and DJ Wilson back to Sacramento.
But that last move is apparently no more.
Turns out, Bogdanovic, who's a restricted free agent this offseason and has the right to seek out any deal he can get and force the Kings to either match or let him go, never agreed to the sign and trade. Honestly, it doesn't sound like he knew much of anything about the deal at all, as wild as that sounds that a team would just go ahead with the signing and trading of a player without taking care of, you know, the signing part first.
But here we are, with Bogdanovic pulling the plug on the deal and entering free agency, where he'll try to get a better offer than whatever it is the Kings thought they had him signed and traded to the Bucks for. Where does that leave Milwaukee? Well, not in as good a position as it would've been in with Bogdanovic, who would've slotter perfectly alongside Giannis as a dangerous shooter with roughly zero fear in terms of when and where he lets it fly.
Milwaukee will surely continue to pursue Bogdanovic or however similar a player they can find, but for now it only has Holiday as an offseason upgrade to sell to Giannis as a reason to stay long term. That's still something. Bledsoe was a great defender, but so is Holiday, who has even better size and is a far superior offensive threat who slots perfectly as a secondary creator and credible shooter next to Giannis.
Holiday thrived with the Pelicans when he shifted from a traditional point guard role, becoming one of the more active off-ball movers in the league. That will work wonders with Khris Middleton doing the same as teams try to keep one eye on Giannis at all times. The dilemma of whether to double down on Giannis and leave shooters open, or stay attached to shooters and allow Giannis a lane to the rim, just got even tougher.
Between Holiday and Middleton, here are two guys who can take and make big shots next to an MVP, and who can create their own looks, too. There is a world in which the Bucks can have three All-Stars and two All-NBA players. That is championship-contention material.
Giannis remains a one-flaw player with his inability to shoot, and he can be a bit of a head-down driver who runs himself into trouble. These secondary creators and kick-out options are vital to his success, and by extension, Milwaukee's chances of competing late in the playoffs when one single flaw can derail your entire attack.
If these moves don't convince Giannis to stay, what will?
The last two weeks have been filled with chatter that Giannis Antetokounmpo indeed plans to sign his five-year supermax with the Bucks before the Dec. 21 deadline to do so ...
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) November 17, 2020
The Bucks just made a trade that suggests they must believe it
A lot of people thought the Bucks made a big mistake when they let Malcolm Brogdon walk to the Pacers last offseason, and indeed they missed him in the bubble playoffs when they were exposed by the Miami Heat for their lack of offensive options and refusal to adjust their conservative, drop-defense coverage.
Again, Holiday makes them better on both ends. The Bucks -- who, remember, were on pace to win something near 70 games before the COVID-19 shutdown -- just became a better team. If Giannis is true to his word that winning is the only thing that matters to him, Milwaukee just made it harder for him to look elsewhere.
