With their new coach Taylor Jenkins in the house, are the Milwaukee Bucks going to be able to build out a roster that gets Giannis Antetokounmpo to sign an extension and stay in Milwaukee, or are they going to trade him this summer (as is widely expected around the league)?
Whatever is going to happen, Bucks co-owner Jimmy Haslam wants it to happen soon — before next month’s draft.
“I just think before the draft is a natural time,” Haslam said at Jenkins’ introductory press conference, via the Associated Press. “Because if Giannis does play somewhere else, we’ve got to have a lot of assets. That’s Jon’s [Horst, Bucks GM] job to do. And if he’s here, then you build the team differently.”
The expectation in league circles has always been exactly this, that any trade likely would be worked out before this draft. That allows a team trading for Antetokounmpo to include this year’s pick as part of the deal (even if the trade couldn’t be consummated until the end of the July moratorium). Horst gauged the market for Antetokounmpo at the trade deadline but did not make a deal, in part because he believed more teams would get in the mix and better offers would be available this offseason. That said, because Antetokounmpo now has just one year remaining on his contract (and a player option after that), he has a lot more leverage to get to a place he wants to be because he can just tell a team he will opt out and not extend with them.
For his part, Antetokounmpo is very happy about the Bucks’ hiring of Jenkins, as he told Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“I think he’s an incredible person. Obviously, he’s an incredible coach… He had incredible culture in Memphis…
“I don’t think Milwaukee is just getting just a good coach, I think they’re getting a good person. And that’s where it starts. Having a good person around that’s gonna be able to set the tone, that set the culture and what Milwaukee Bucks basketball is all about. He’s a really good coach.”
However, when asked about the possibility of being coached by Jenkins…
“We’ll see.”
Whatever is going to happen, expect the rumors about an Antetokounmpo future and the trade market to ramp up and up as we get closer to the June 23 draft.
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