Milwaukee Bucks 2025-26 Season Prediction | Is this the last dance for Giannis in Milwaukee?

Milwaukee Bucks 2025-26 Season Prediction | Is this the last dance for Giannis in Milwaukee?

We’ve got our eye on the Milwaukee Bucks. So much chatter around them this off seasonason. Four years ago, Giannis delivered a championship to Milwaukee. And now Giannis’ name has been in the trade rumor cycle on a regular basis. The Bucks also, of course, went out and signed Miles Turner. So, take a look at this. The Bucks have seen some early exits in the last few years in the playoffs after winning it all in 2021. And that of course surfaces some questions for this roster and Giannis. So for more answers on Giannis and the Bucks, we’re gonna welcome back in our NBA experts that is John Gonzalez and Sam Quinn. John, we will start with you. What’s the future and the fate of Giannis with the Bucks? A lot of people are asking, is this the last dance? What do you think, Bleak? I I mean, look, this is just we’re just kicking the can down the road here, right? I mean, like I understand from a Bucks perspect I don’t understand. I mean, this is just sort of desperation where the Bucks decided, okay, we’re going to wave and stretch Dame Lillard and put $22 million roughly a year on our books over the next 5 years. Sam and I were talking about this in a desperate attempt to sign Miles Turner and keep Giannis onto Tacomao around eventually. The end result is going to be the same. At some point, Giannis is going to look around and go, “Oh man, this team is not good enough. Even in a weekend Eastern Conference, I got to get out of here. I keep saying that I want to win another championship.” Well, it’s not going to be in Milwaukee for all of their uh hopes for it was great while it lasted, but it’s not going to be uh lasting very much longer. I mean, they have Miles Turner. Okay, fine. They’ve got Beyond that, who’s their third best player? Is it Bobby Portoris? I mean, I like Bobby Poris just fine, but you’re in desperate straits there. It never worked out with Dame even when he had a functioning Achilles. And now that he’s that he’s gone, you don’t have anybody really to dribble the ball. Who’s your Who’s your point guard? Who’s dribbling the ball? Is it Kevin Porter Jr.? They signed Cole Anthony. Is that your guy? I mean, do you go out and get like Russell Westbrook off the scrap heap? They were they were hoping that one of Brad Beal or CP3 would end up there. Instead, both of them went to the Los Angeles Clippers. I just think that this team I I have them at best fighting for a playing spot. And at some point, Giannis is going to wise up and say, “Get me out of here.” Yeah. Giannis and the Bucks have kind of they they found a trend that they go on over every few years. They the Bucks make a big trade because Giannis has, you know, made some noise behind the scenes about not being happy about the state of the team. He signs an extension and then they move forward, right? They did that for Drew Holiday in 2020. They did that for Damen Lillard in 2023. The difference is Giannis isn’t eligible to sign an extension this year, right? So bringing in Miles Turner doesn’t actually buy you any security. If they go through this season as a playin team, as I think John and I both expect, Giannis is going to look around next summer when he’s eligible for that extension and he’s going to say, “Why am I staying here again?” Look, if he wants to just act on sentiment, if he wants to spend his entire career with one team, there’s nothing wrong with that, right? Durk did it. Durk only won one championship. A lot of great players have done it. But Giannis has said consistently on the record that he wants to win more than one championship. That’s a career priority for him. And I think what he’s going to find this year is that the Bucks aren’t good enough to do that for him. They don’t have enough trade assets to improve the roster. They don’t have enough youth to develop it internally. I just don’t see a path to realistic championship contention for the Bucks. So, I’ve been operating under the assumption that after a disappointing season, Giannis is going to tell the Bucks, “I’m not interested in extending.” And that’s when the trade sweep stakes begin. Wow. Some strong opinions, but we love it and you can understand it because Giannis is currently in his prime. So, the Bucks stole Miles Turner from the Pacers. Damen Lillard left to go back to the Trailblazers. Miles Turner said on social media his decision was just about staying competitive after being a part of the finals changed his whole perspective on the league. So, which of these moves I think I already know the answer based on your strong opinions from the last question. Which of these moves by the Bucks helps or hurts? Giannis John, we’ll start with you. I mean, bringing in Miles Turner, I guess, helps a little bit. But if you’re Miles Turner to say that you’re doing it, you’re moving from Indiana to Milwaukee to remain competitive in what universe? Even even without Miles Turner, I think the Indiana Pacers and despite the fact that the Bucks have the best player on either team in Janosa Tako, I’ll still take the Pacers roster over the Bucks roster all day long. You know, we’re talking about what kind of moves help Giannis Anantto Takmpo and the Bucks. Like they they brought in Cole Anthony. Great. What does that get you? Not much, right? I mean, again, if Kevin Porter Jr. or Cole Anthony is your your main guard, you’ve got serious problems. They went and swapped out Chris Middleton for Kyle Koosma last year. I understand why they did that because Chris Middleton was at the end of his rope and who knows how many uh years he has left in the NBA, but Kyle Koosma had a dreadful season with the Milwaukee Bucks last year and is still on their books for several more years, sucking up a lot of money. I mean, I just I look at this roster beyond Giannis and Miles Turner and I go, what’s here? Almost nothing. And again, I keep coming back to the Eastern Conference. Even in a weakened Eastern Conference, they’re at best at best the eighth best team in the East, which is gets you exactly nowhere. The most that they can hope for is a first round exit for the fourth straight year. Yeah. I mean, if you look at what helps Giannis as opposed to what helps the Bucks, Miles Turner does make sense, right? Miles Turner is one of the very few centers in all of basketball that make sense next to Giannis because you have to have a big man that can shoot next to him, right? They had Brook Lopez for all of these years. Brook Lopez aged out. They got a Brook Lopez replacement. Do I think it makes sense to have five years of dead money from Damen Lillard on your books to get Miles Turner? Probably not. But if you’re asking me what helps Giannis, Miles Turner does make sense. As far as a move that hurts him, I’m going off the board and I’m talking about a move they didn’t make. Right? If you are indeed going all in on winning right now, keeping Giannis, keeping him happy, they didn’t go far enough, right? They only added Miles Turner. They didn’t add a single other player who I think we would categorize as starting caliber. So, how could they have done that? They still do have one tradable first round pick either in 2031 or 2032. John mentioned the Kyle Koosma trade. Kyle Kosma was not good for them last year. If they were indeed all in on winning this year, they would be dangling Kyle Koosma’s salary along with that extra first round pick to try to get another starting level player in there. Really go all in on winning right now. They could do that at the deadline, sure. But we think their record is going to be so impacted by this thin roster early in the season that by then it might be too late. So if you are going all in, I don’t think they went all in enough. I think they needed more and they haven’t gotten it yet. Sam, I would have to agree with you. They did not go far enough. I also have to agree with John on what Miles Turner said, saying it’s about staying competitive. That sentence to me didn’t really make sense coming from Miles Turner, considering he was going to the Bucks. All right. So, considering all of the information you guys just spewed, we want you to grade the Bucks off season. Again, I think I already know the answer, but John, we’ll start with you, D. I mean, you got Miles Turner. Miles Turner was a like a good addition for all the reasons that Sam outlined. I mean, if you’re going to say, “How can we replace Brook Lopez and what Brook Lopez does as a rim protector and also a guy who can space the floor and shoot threes and get younger,” you’d pick Miles Turner. Miles Turner’s a really good player. I like that addition for them, but still it doesn’t do enough for them because we keep coming you lose Dame Lillard. It didn’t even work out when Dame Lillard was healthy. He had a good season last year, but it didn’t really uh equate to they had 48 wins, but again, they were a first round exit. It didn’t equate to them being real competitors in the Eastern Conference. So, you now you lose Dame Lo and you replace them with what exactly? I’m just shoulder shrug emoji over here. Uh I just I look at the Bucks and I think they were they were hamstrung in a way. They were handcuffed in a way, but still just getting Miles Turner isn’t enough. I guess you’re trying to keep Giannis uh happy. I don’t think that he’s ultimately going to be happy. And when he does eventually, and this is inevitable, put his hand up and say, “Get me out of here.” You’re going to look back on this whole thing and go, “What did we do? We really mortgaged our future at the expense of a guy who was probably out the door anyway.” D. Yeah, I’m going to give him a C minus. I agree with everything John said. I’m gonna play some 4D chess here to explain why I gave them a slightly better grade. I don’t think it makes sense to have that fi five years of dead money for Damen Lillard. What I will say is I do think the Bucks will be able to trade Miles Turner for value down the line, especially when you are talking about trading Giannis in a year potentially. You once you have Miles Turner, once you have a player that can fit so easily next to him, that widens the pool of available teams you can trade Giannis to, right? Because no team can look at that and say, “Oh, we’d love to have Giannis, but we don’t have the right big man for him.” Well, the Bucks can say, “Well, we have that big man with him.” And Miles Turner, you take Miles Turner and you give us even more back. That’s the only thing that really justifies this for me. I do think they’ll be able to move Turner for value eventually. But if you look at the big picture here, I just think they’re kicking the can down the road here. They’re not going to be a very good team this year. They’re going to hover around 500 and eventually they’re going to get to a Giannis trade that they probably already should have made and they’re going to get less back for him than they would have if they would have acted quicker. All right, you mentioned looking at the big picture. All of this kind of begs another question. Let’s talk about Bucks head coach Doc Rivers, what he brings to the table and if he is still the right guy for the job. Bucks GM John Horse publicly said that he thinks so recently calling him a big-time collaborator with culture building communication and professionalism. But John, what do you think about Doc Rivers? Lol. Uh, that’s the kiss of death, right? I mean, like the public vote of confidence. Remember when they fired their head coach to bring in Doc Rivers and Doc Rivers was supposed to be the guy leading uh the the coaching search and he was consulting with ownership and the front office and oh by the way, isn’t it amazing that Doc Rivers thinks that Doc Rivers is the guy who can fix this thing? And I hate to do this to Bucks fans, but spoiler alert, he didn’t fix it. So no, Doc Rivers is not the guy. And in fairness to Doc Rivers, I mean, I’ve seen Doc Rivers uh coach up close and personal. I’ve interviewed him a million times. He’s great for the media. I mean, if you want to get a sound bite, Doc Rivers is like the best coach in the NBA. But if we’re talking about winning a championship, Doc Rivers has exactly one on his resume, and he hasn’t gotten out of the second round in forever. And that includes long stints with the Sixers and the Clippers. So, no, Doc Rivers is not the guy. But again, in fairness, I don’t know that anybody’s the guy here. I I think if you like plucked up Spo or Steve Kerr or Greg, you you know, you got Greg Papovich back to coach on the sideline. None of these guys are fixing what ails the Bucks. Yeah, John, I think we agree. Doc Rivers’s playoff track record lately is such a mess. That being said, neither of us think this Bucks roster is capable of winning much in the playoffs anyway. If they lo blow a 3-1 lead, as Doc Rivers team so often do, that’s kind of an accomplishment because it meant they built a 3-1 lead, right? I don’t think either of us think that they’re going to win three playoff games this year. Doc Rivers at the very least does have a pretty interesting regular season track record, right? You look back on that Clippers team post Chris Paul and Blake Griffin before Kawhi Leonard and Paul George when they won, I believe, 48 games with no stars on the roster. I think Doc Rivers is fine enough in the regular season. And that’s what this team is right now, right? They’re only a regular season team. They’re trying to stack up enough wins that you can go to Giannis and say like, see, we’re competitive. We’re not tanking. Like you you can stay here and we have something to build on. Doc Rivers seems to have Giannis’ support. If your whole idea is keeping Giannis happy, I don’t think having Doc Rivers is the worst thing. But if you’re actively trying to win a championship, I mean, how many 3-1 leads does a guy need to blow before you say no, he’s not a championship level head coach anymore? All wonderful points by you guys. So, after all of that information from Miles Turner to Giannis to Doc Rivers, whether he’s the right man at the helm, I want your prediction for the Milwaukee Bucks this season. John, go. All right. I get a lot of heat for not being specific enough on this program. Here’s my prediction for the Bucks this I’m going to I’m going to nail this down here. Ready? My prediction for the Milwaukee Bucks this year. Have you ever seen uh Have you ever seen Rocky 3 when Mr. T was asked for his prediction? Same prediction here. The prediction is doom. It is going to be a disastrous season for the Milwaukee Bucks. Yeah, I hate to say this and I feel bad for Bucks fans. They get they get a little uh sideways on social media where they want to believe that their team is actually good. It used to be good. It isn’t anymore. At best, look, if we go down the the roster, the standings in the Eastern Conference, you got the Cavs and the Knicks at in the first tier. Then you’ve got three ascended teams that I really like that are on the come with the Magic, the Pistons, and the Hawks. All of whom the Magic did some tidy business this offseason by adding Desmond Bane. Uh the Pistons were on the come. and they could have beaten the Knicks last year in the first round if some some things had broken the right way. The Hawks, I love how the the new front office has uh reconfigured that that team. And then you’ve got the Pacers. The Pacers, despite the fact that they lost Miles Turner and Tyresese Hallebertton, are still a very deep team. I hate to even mention this team because of the bane of my existence, but the Sixers exist. Now, we’ve gotten into the Bucks. That puts the Bucks at best as the eighth best team in the conference. And I’m not sure that they are because you still have the Raptors, the Heat, the Bulls, and you know, whatever the husk of the Celtics is. At best, at best the Bucks are the eighth best team, which means at best they’re a playin team trying to get into the playoffs proper and get bounced out of the first round again for the fourth straight year. Doom is my prediction, John. I have them exactly at number eight just like you do. I think they’ll sneak into the playoffs because if you give Jiannis Antennao two, one win in your end games, I think he’ll get one of them. But that leaves him as a number eight seed against the number one seed who I presume will be the Cleveland Cavaliers. I don’t think that roster is good enough to hang with a 64 win team. We saw what happened last year to a playin team trying to hang with Cleveland. Miami got rolled out of that series. I think we’re headed somewhere similar with the Bucks and that next off season all of these long-term Giannis questions are finally going to get some answers. All right, guys. I would have to agree with you. I think doom might be a little bit of a harsh word, but I still like it. John, we gave you a little bit of grief for not giving us specific predictions, but I think that was pretty specific, guys. Thank you so much for the time. All right, let’s take a look at the odds to win the East. Of course, we got the Cavs right there at the top with the Knicks. And then the Bucks plus 1700. Not so great as the guys predicted. They think that they are eighth in the East. But as we mentioned yesterday, these predictions not always accurate because uh last year the Pacers odds were not so great. But let them go.

John Gonzalez and Sam Quinn join CBS Sports HQ Spotlight to discuss the Milwaukee Bucks offseason and preview the 2025-26 season.

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