Are the Bucks holding Giannis back? 🤔 + Milwaukee’s future as a franchise 👀 | First Take

Are the Bucks holding Giannis back? 🤔 + Milwaukee’s future as a franchise 👀 | First Take

don’t miss it he That’s right you better be ready to talk giannis potentially being on the move can you flow with me please it appears that the man is happy in Milwaukee giannis participating in an event in Brazil was asked about the Pacers Thunder series and said he hopes to get back to the NBA finals soon with the Bucks all but confirming he’s staying put for now wendy with more context on Giannis yesterday giannis attend Kmpo has gone overseas to travel with his family he has made no trade request to the Bucks he has made no trade hint to the Bucks the Bucks are proceeding with their off season as if Giannis is going to be with them and there’s no significant trade talks right now the plan is for Jon and Koopo to be a buck now he can change all that with a simple request but that request has not happened and it’s not clear that it’s going to happen anytime soon okay Mad Dog let’s break this one down i love it good for him you know what i hate when the players go bounce around looking for you know Durant did it i can’t time out time out you’re like is that like that’s official well no but you’re asking me my opinion the question is oh I actually didn’t get to ask would you rather see Giannis stay or leave and my answer is they rather mistake you never asked the question that’s the question the question isn’t is he making a mistake the question is would you rather see him and I would rather see share the question with the audience okay go ahead you may share it no would you rather see Jiannis stay or leave i’d rather see him stay i I think it’s good for the league i think for that small market it’s perfect kareem left okay that was a long time ago he won his championship giannis could leave he’s won his championship too but I love it i think that’s perfect for the NBA we don’t have to listen to all the Giannis trade chatter in the month of uh in the summer months and throw something else in the the it’s not always greener on the other side you know Durant got out and how’s it worked out for him awful with the Nets awful with Phoenix so not always when a big star wants to leave does it work out so from that standpoint good for Giannis and he’s saying this when he knows little hurt i love it let him stay good for the NBA having a guy end his career start and end when the one city is something that sports has missed a lot in the last 10 15 years with guys bouncing around wearing 9,000 hats with their Hall of Fame ceremonies he’s a buck when he got in and I’d love to see him be a buck when he’s finished do you think that matters to him despite his entire career with Milwaukee i think legacy matters to him in a really big way i think he is a a fiercely loyal person um you know sometimes that could be to a fault to a degree yeah uh but I would like just to go against a little bit of Wendy’s thinking here for one second curious to get your opinions on this guys i mean historically free agents of this magnitude have not really moved anywhere until we get to July so there’s a lot of chatter about things happening right before the draft when historically data points have not proven that to be true look I’ll say this i I’ve known Giannis um I just don’t know him as an athlete i know him as the entrepreneur a visionary and a global thinker right i I would say the biggest thing for this moment is can Milwaukee keep up with the pace of who Giannis is becoming out of all those things or are they limiting towards that and I’m just not talking as an athlete i’m talking about as a business overall because Giannis does think about himself as a business very differently positioned than a KD or a LeBron James so to your answer to a degree I I want to see Giannis do what Giannis wants to do if that’s staying in Milwaukee that’s great i think that’s an incredible narrative if he’s leaving it’s going to take the right situation I think to trigger him leaving to go to a situation that he thinks he can build something differently than what he has in Milwaukee are you just are you referring to a bigger market because Shaq argued that that doesn’t matter anymore with social media but we we kind of debunked that the other day right here with Stephen A and I market does matter depending upon what you’re trying to accomplish depending upon what your business is that you’re trying to build some players may not want to build a business some players may just say me playing basketball is enough that’s all I want to do other players may have larger aspirations with what they want to attain not only for them but also for their family and I think that factors into this in a very big way here’s the deal when you’re talking about Giannis one of the things that’s inescapable he’s a good brother he really really is honest straightforward no nonsense he’s all about trying to to win in anything that he does and he ain’t about befriending the competition that’s my favorite quality about him he is not about you you are against me we are at war we can get we respectful to one another but I’m trying to beat you you understand what I’m saying i ain’t got to sing hug sing kumbay ya with you and hang out in the offseason nah you on the other side that’s how he that’s how he rolls doggy I bring that up because I’ll say this to you you talk about what’s not good for the league is it good for the league that since the Milwaukee Bucks won the championship in 2021 that they’ve won one playoff series they’ve been home the other years in the first round is that good for the league i don’t think that’s good for the league i think it’s good for the league when you have superstars that play deep into the playoffs that’s what I think is good for the league and when you don’t have that all bets are off especially if you’re in a smaller market because see they could deal with the smaller market if the superstars in the smaller market and they’re advancing deep in the playoffs but when the superstar is in a smaller market and you don’t get to see the superstar because the superstar is gone in the first round then that’s a whammy for you and so I look at it from that standpoint and I say okay if you’re Giannis you delivered the championship to the city of Milwaukee yes he’s loyal they had faith in him they believed in him very you know obviously at a very early age and that’s something that he holds near and dear to him but then you got to look at the flexibility that the Milwaukee Bucks have for example this year they don’t have a first round pick they got the number 47 overall pick okay they’re strapped okay you’re talking about the first apron the second apron and if they sign Brook Lopez and how that pushes them you know pushes their number exorbitantly high and and and and stymies their maneuverability all of these kind of things that you think about it’s not just about Giannis and the fact that you lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Indiana Pacers or that you’ve lost you know four the last five years okay it’s not just that what does the future look like what kind of position have you put him in to legitimately compete for a championship the brother just finished averaging 30.4 points 11.7 rebounds shot 58% from the field yeah him him and Dame were the highest scoring duo last season average stephen A let me ask you this had there not been injuries how far do you think this team could have gone i think that they could have made some noise if Damen Lillard is on his game along with Giannis oh yeah they could have made some noise in these they still have some very big very big defensive challenges though like for example last year Giannis was injured this year it was Dame this year when they played a couple of playoff games together was the first time they played together in the postseason and then you look at Chris Middleton they win a championship but then his health nose dives for a couple of years that was problematic every time you’re turning around they’re having these kind of problems and your flexibility has been stymied so if you’re Giannis you do have a right those numbers I just gave you over the last four years they ain’t last season that’s over the last four years this is who this brother is and what he brings to the table you do get to a point where you saying “Wait a minute my best years hold on what we got what we got?” Well again I understand that if Giannis wants to leave and demand a trade since he’s won his championship see that’s what got LeBron trouble lebron did not win a title in Cleveland when he went to Miami he came back to Cleveland to win the title if he had won the title before he went to Miami I think everybody would Mhm i think everybody would have that’s why he went back i think everybody would have been okay with going to Miami hey won a championship here i broke the drought first title since ‘ 64 he didn’t win one and then he left that and Giannis has won one so if Giannis wants to say you know what trade me to the Spurs i’ll play with Yyama trade me to whomever the Knicks the idea he’s going to the Knicks what are the Knicks going to give Milwaukee to make him happy at least San Antonio’s got draft picks they can trade Castle they can do some things that Milwaukee can help in terms of the bigger market i get who you’re playing but they can win a champion they can win a championship and win and win one of the faces the combination of the two when beyond is one of the faces plus they can win a championship plus they have a championship pedigree five championships under the great Pop Vic Tim Duncan and all of those guys so that does play a role in New York the only reason why New York is very confident they can have a chance is because there’s this belief that Giannis will tell the Bucks “If he wants to leave I want to go there.” That’s the reason because if the superstar says that’s where I want to go then it’s going to be very difficult for somebody else to come and grab i understand that but I think that maybe Giannis would be somewhat flexible hey Giannis listen san Antonio can offer us more plus you got Webeyama and the Arian Fox do you mind and I think Giannis would agree to it but back to the original take i want Giannis to stay put i think it’d be great for him uh you know what’s the matter with being a 20-year buck the greatest that’s fine i’m ask you do you have a pro do you not have a problem with him going home in the first round year after year after year again there are some reasons for that understand that I’m not a little I did not say there were not reasons people suspension this season did not say that what I said is do you have a problem with him going home in the first round but they can do a little better than that guys it’s a lot though it’s who they’ve had as head coaches it’s what their front office does Orlando’s coming Detroit’s coming Indy’s New York there’s a lot of other people who are in the arms race of the Eastern Conference so it’s a history of things that have happened in Milwaukee also something else that people need to ask themselves and I know people might think on paper no you keep honest but you know one of the people kill Michael Jordan all the time you know Michael Jordan ran one of the most profitable franchises in the NBA think about that for a second doggy one of the most profitable franchises in the NBA with the Charlotte Hornets now right there’s a reason why he had an exit where he made a lot of money so and still maintain when you reset an organization can we give can we max out value on trade assets and kind of reset the clock to here Milwaukee is also something that I’m sure of your ownership you’re thinking about in totality with Wes Edens and Jimmy Helen very tricky call for the Bucks very is you know you probably may not be ready to win another title with Giannis but if you trade him nobody’s going to pay attention to you including your own fans for a long period of time it’s a very tricky situation also you’re willing to pay into the luxury tax of second apron to keep competing That’s an arms race i also think you can do an interview in Brazil and say “I’d like to win another championship with the Bucks.” And that doesn’t mean you’re staying at all he could He could like I’d like a lot of things too [Music] [Applause] give me [Music] the city [Applause]

On First Take, Stephen A. Smith, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo and Jay Williams join Molly Qerim to discuss Giannis Antetokounmpo’s future as a Milwaukee Buck and look ahead to the future of the franchise.

0:00 Giannis hints at staying with the Bucks amid trade rumors
1:37 Would you rather see Giannis stay or leave?
8:47 Where would Giannis want to go?
9:30 The future of the franchise

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