{"id":654644,"date":"2026-05-07T03:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/654644\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T03:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:06:08","slug":"bucks-owner-wants-to-have-giannis-antetokounmpo-decision-made-by-nba-draft-he-may-or-may-not-be-with-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/654644\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucks owner wants to have Giannis Antetokounmpo decision made by NBA Draft: ‘He may or may not be with us’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>\u2019s future with the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a>, whatever it may be, should be decided in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Bucks owner Jimmy Haslam said Wednesday the franchise would make a decision on the star player\u2019s future with the organization before the NBA Draft in June. That gives them about six weeks to come to a decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the draft is a natural time, right? Because if Giannis does play somewhere else, then we ought to get a lot of assets,\u201d Haslam said, via TMJ4\u2019s Karley Marotta. \u201cThat\u2019s [general manager] Jon [Horst]\u2019s job to do it. If he\u2019s here, then you\u2019ll build the team differently \u2026 I just want to stress though that our relationship with him, despite what is reported by certain ESPN writers, is very positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The situation between Antetokounmpo and the Bucks got incredibly messy<\/a> this past season. The two sides were in a standoff over his health near the end of the campaign, when the team wanted to shut him down against Antetokounmpo\u2019s wishes.<\/p>\n

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Antetokounmpo appeared in only 36 games for the Bucks this season, his 13th in the league. He averaged 27.6 points and 9.8 rebounds per game, but hyperextended his left knee and suffered a bone bruise in March<\/a>. The team missed the playoffs for the first time in a decade.<\/p>\n

The NBA even launched an investigation into Antetokounmpo and the Bucks over his return to play. Antetokounmpo reportedly told the Bucks to trade him<\/a> multiple times during the season, too, though that never happened.<\/p>\n

A split in Milwaukee, while not necessary, would make sense this summer for a number of reasons. Antetokounmpo has just one guaranteed season left on his deal, which includes a $58.5 million salary for next season and a player option for the 2027-28 campaign. So free agency for him is near, but the Bucks, like Haslam said, can still presumably get a good return in a trade.<\/p>\n

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The franchise just hired Taylor Jenkins as its next head coach<\/a> to replace Doc Rivers. It\u2019s the start of a new era in Milwaukee, and rebuilding without Antetokounmpo could be a good move for an organization clearly ready for a reset.<\/p>\n

And, when interviewing Jenkins, Haslam didn\u2019t hide the uncertainty surrounding Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t hold back with Taylor,\u201d Haslam said. \u201cWe just said, \u2018Listen, [Antetokounmpo] may or may not be with us. So don\u2019t come because of that.\u2019 Because you want to be straight up with people.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s been a tumultuous stretch for Antetokounmpo\u2019s relationship with the Bucks, it seems an end is near.<\/p>\n

Haslam just has to make his decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big one, and you\u2019ve got to get it right,\u201d Haslam said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giannis Antetokounmpo\u2019s future with the Milwaukee Bucks, whatever it may be, should be decided in the coming weeks.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,7228,61657,316591,4620,590,85,61731],"class_list":["post-654644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-jimmy-haslam","tag-karley-marotta","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-the-bucks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}