The Athletic’s Sam Amick: How the Bucks Could Sell Giannis on Waiving Lillard | The Rich Eisen Show

The Athletic’s Sam Amick: How the Bucks Could Sell Giannis on Waiving Lillard | The Rich Eisen Show

Let’s start with what happened with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Indiana Pacers together. Two teams that plain don’t like each other. So, obviously Miles Turner no longer being with the Pacers and going to the Bucks and the way that they opened the uh purse strings for him. Um and also for Lillard to just be sent packing was really shocking. Sam, you want to tackle this however you wish? the genesis of it and the way it all played out. Yeah, I mean, you know, to me the genesis, Rich, is not to go too macro, but John Horst is a guy, the Bucks GM who came up uh through the Pistons organization initially moves over to the Bucks and rises through the ranks and becomes their GM eventually, but along the way when Giannis is 18 and coming to town, you know, from Greece and we all know that incredible story, John is one of the main people kind of bringing him into America, literally helping him to learn how to drive. And I I highlight all of that because it’s like you have this deep personal connection where John is very committed to not losing Giannis Ant Kmpo. And now for three, you know, consecutive times in very different ways. He has doubled down and tripled down on bold, daring, risky moves to convince Giannis not to leave. The first one was going out and getting Drew Holiday. Uh that that paid off. That was the 2021 championship. when that seemed a little bit stale, when Giannis was getting antsy and sending s signals that maybe he would think about going elsewhere, then blockbuster move with Damen Lillard. That didn’t work out like they’d hoped, but it did show Giannis that, you know, we are not messing around here. We’re going to try to do big things. This one though, we all thought they were completely stuck. you know, Dame’s Achilles tear combined with his contract um just was brutal because even going into the summer before his injury, we’ve reported this, you know, it they were going to talk to Dame about whether or not he still wanted to be in Milwaukee and one of their avenues out of their latest kind of morass was going to be trading Damen Lillard for the next guy. And Dame was likely going to be fine with that as long as he went somewhere that he was happy with because he at times was struggling in Milwaukee off the court. He was far from his kids, all these things. So they do it again. They go after Miles Turner. Um they owe Dame 113 million I think it is. Um that gets stretched over five years for the Bucks. That’s dead money around, you know, almost 25 a year um on on their books. But Miles Turner comes their way. they get to replace Brook Lopez with a guy who’s eight years younger and and who does a lot of the same stuff at a higher level. So, it’s it’s about as daring and drastic as it gets and and we’ll see how Giannis feels about it in the end.
Well, I mean, the fact that Giannis uh was, you know, it’s crazy, Matt. God bless you and what you do for a living in the NBA and all your colleagues who follow it. I mean, we’re we we we go to we go to social media, right? like for a window into somebody’s sure
soul and their thought process and his, you know, post of Brook Lopez in the uh championship locker room and him wondering what’s going on with his post and then we find out that he’s upset about Lillard no longer being there. And the question I have is it is it a roster concern or just he didn’t like the way as Chris Haynes our your colleague reported that maybe Lillard found out like how we all did when it became public and that’s what Giannis was upset with. What’s what’s your two cents on on the Giannis thoughts Sam?
So I mean your your social media point is on point. It is hilarious. You know that Brook Lopez picture that Giannis put out that came right after they lost Brooke and it’s a you know the subtitle you can see is I don’t know what’s going on right now man and it’s funny but telling and insightful but then obviously like we said they replace Brooke. We have not got another social media post to indicate how Giannis feels about uh Miles Turner. I have not confirmed that Giannis is unhappy. If I’m being honest with you, knowing Giannis fairly well, I I feel like that might be just political messaging because he loves Dame and wants to make sure that Dame feels supported. Um, I did report in depth yesterday that Dame is not upset. He is elated and and the funniest thing is to go back to your social media point, Rich. Even our jobs are strange. So, I write that Dame is elated, you know, very very uh, you know, very good source on that in terms of, uh, knowing where his head is at and highlighted the fact that he’s going to get paid the same amount of money the next two years. He can literally pick his spot if he wants to and can sign a a minimum deal with any contender. That is a hell of a place to be in when you’re in your mid30s and you’ve never won a championship. But then I look at Instagram this morning and uh Dame shared a video that had all of that reporting. So you do kind of go, “All right, clearly we’re good.” You know, he’s he’s endorsing uh these ideas. But as it relates to Giannis, I think, okay, the dame thing is now settled that he’s happy. He’s going to be on his way. Um I don’t know exactly where Giannis is at. Uh, I do think basketball-wise I see what the Bucks are thinking here and I see if you’re them why you feel like listen even before they got Miles Turner because of the Tyrese Hallebertton injury and the way that it devastated the Pacers because of the Jason Tatum injury and what it did to the Cel Celtics and all the trades since then. the Cavs coming up short, the Knicks firing Tom Tibido, all these East contenders that were seemingly in the Bucks way had taken a major step down. If you were the Bucks, even before you get Miles Turner, you’re looking at Giannis going, “All right, where exactly are you going, at least in the East where you think you’re in a better place to at least be in the mix?” because you alluded to it earlier, the Bucks and Pacers rivalry was such that that you already kind of knew that if Giannis is watching those finals, he’s sitting there thinking, “Man, you got to be kidding me. Like, we’re better than this team.” You know what I mean? Like, there’s just no way that he was scared of of of that Pacers team and now that Pacers team doesn’t exist. So, not only could you sell him on the deteriorated East, now you can sell them on, hey, guess what we did? We went and we actually stole from the Pacers and we got one of their main guys and we think that you should rock with him. But but again, we’re going to have to see how Giannis moves in the next couple weeks. Catch the Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from 12 to 3:00 p.m.

The Athletic’s Sam Amick and Rich Eisen discuss the Milwaukee Bucks’ big shake up this week that saw them jettison Damian Lillard while signing Myles Turner away from the Indiana Pacers. more.

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