With Damian Lillard, it's time for the Bucks to exchange Giannis antetokounmpo

THE Milwaukee Bucksdragging the Indiana Pacers, 3-1, risks losing an eliminatory series in the first round for the third consecutive season. They are out of the shadow of a doubt stuck in the dreaded environment of the NBA.

Or worse.

Damian Lillard, their second best player, torn the left Achilles tendonAn injury that could cost him all next season, when the Bucks do not have their choice of draft in the first round.

This means that Giannis Antetokounmpo, his best player, is also stuck in the dreaded world of the NBA, or worse, and it is not a place for a bonus legend. No superstar wants to engage in the time it will take to get out of this. Losing is wreaking havoc on an inheritance that Entertetokounmpo is as of the deadline.

There were always excuses. When the Bucks lost against the Boston Celtics in the semi-finals of the Eastern Conference in 2022, Khris Middleton was injured. Antetokounmpo missed matches during their first round outings of 2023 and 2024. And this time? Lillard has returned from a blood coagulation problem for match 2 against the Pacers, only to undergo an injury from Achilles in match 4. Their absences have masked what has become obvious in the meantime: the Bucks, even in good health, are no longer a serious competitor.

If anything, Lillard's injury was bare: all hope is lost. No strengthening has come. No internal development, no adjustment around the fringes of the list can cure what leads Milwaukee. The championship window is closed. Bucks can neither feel a project nor a choice in a predictable future.

Antetokounmpo was 30 years old in December. He will finish the top five in MVP voting for a seventh consecutive season and will do his seventh first consecutive team All-NBA. His peers both greetings are only chronometers.

And this year will mark four since the Bucks have increased their championship banner. Antetokounmpo then had all his peak in front of him. He can now, depending on a series of knee problemsConsider the end of it, even if it is in the years. He always finds ways to improve, adding a mid -range jump shot to his arsenal.

There is not much other than a 3-point pointer that he can add to his game, and even that would not fill the gap on the Powerhouses of the League. His healthy dollars could barely compete with Indiana – a conference finalist – not to mention the Celtics, Cleveland horsemen or the competitor emerges from the West. The Bucks did not score or defended at an elite level. They required the greatness of Antetokounmpo just to stay competitive.

And there is no trade to swing the fortune of Milwaukee. No one is lining up to exchange better players for Kyle Kuzma or a 35 -year -old man injured. Due to their acquisitions of Jrue Holiday in 2020, then Lillard in 2023, the Bucks did not control a single choice of first round between 2025 and 30. They cannot soften any profession.

Assuming that Bobby Portis and Pat Connaughton take options from players who will pay them $ 22.9 million combined next season, Bucks will have $ 153.5 million to a handful of players, including Antetokounmpo ($ 54.1 million), Lillard ($ 54.1 million) and Kuzma ($ 22.44). The planned salary ceiling is $ 154.6 million. And it is before Milwaukee decides what to do with Brook Lopez, an imminent free agent of 37 years.

Name someone on the bucks, in addition to antetokounmpo, whose two -way performance is increasing. Milwaukee identified two useful players in the draft since the selection of Antetokounmpo 15th in the general classification in 2013 – Malcolm Brogdon and Donte Divincenzo – and the organization left both to save money.

Without the attraction to recruit more attractive free agents, the choices to upgrade the project or the commercial market, and the players to face as currently formed, what should the bucks do?

They are stuck, and when you are stuck, you consider the unimaginable: to exchange a MVP twice. It could be the worst nightmare of any managing director, but Milwaukee brass has just designed Jon Horst an extension.

Why exchange antetokounmpo? This series of successes in Milwaukee took its course. His support cast has become too old. To found their heads on several occasions against a ceiling of the eliminatory series in the first round is a bad service for all those who consider the championships as the only objective, including Antetokounmpo, who said so much. Repeatedly.

“”I try to win a second ring“, He recently said about his brother's podcast.” Everyone plays to win, but I have no second championship? I think back to my career, and everyone can say: “He had an incredible career, the temple of renown of the first whirlwind”, whatever, but I, my personal goal, if I am not able to help my team win a second ring, I really want to win a second ring. I hope I will do it. “

The contract extension of $ 175 million over three years that Entertetokounmpo signed in 2023 begins in July, which means that the dollars could Run it once or twice more – before Entertetokounmpo can withdraw in 2027. What end? During another year, Antetokounmpo will have only one guaranteed season on its agreement, and no team wants to exchange its future for a rental of one year. Delaying an agreement only empties its commercial market. Remember: Toronto Raptors only dealt with one first round choice for Kawhi Leonard in 2018.

Milwaukee will want to maximize his return. It was not the Dallas Mavericks who treated Luka Dončić for cents on the dollar. Give the dollars every choice of first round that you have, as well as all your young talents, otherwise you do not get one of the three best players in the whole NBA – one of the rare real play manufacturers.

To maximize his return, Milwaukee must exchange antetokounmpo now, before asking for a job.

And it would not be out of the question for Antetokounmpo to ask for a job this summer. Nor is it exaggerated to interpret these recent comments from him (joking) after the agreement of Dončić – “I want all Europeans to go on all major markets To see something incredible “- as more serious than it left.

Open the auctions to the whole league. Even if Antetokounmpo had to ask for a job now, any team could convince themselves that, with two years to do so, he can sell Antetokounmpo in his city. Brooklyn would call. He has the choices, not the players, to offer, as well as the market. Miami has already prepared for this scenario. He has Tyler Herro or Bam Adebayo or, Devil, both to trade, as well as many project capital.

Also think more. What if the Oklahoma City Thunder had to fall from its championship goal this season? Or if Houston's Rockets lose in the first round? No team is better equipped with recovery choice and young talents. Milwaukee could simply press a more hopeful future for a ferocious auction war.

With this antetokounmpo would receive a chance of rebirth of the championship. He could climb the scale of all timeCloser to the top 10. The possibilities, at least for the following two seasons, as long as it is healthy, are endless. Who would not want this for Antetokounmpo, who gave everything to Milwaukee, where his trip to the United States to the world superstard – And the smoothies that come with – began.

The bucks would be sad to see him leave. He raised them to heights that they had not seen for 50 years, from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It could be still 50 years before seeing them again. The return for Antetokounmpo should speed up the process. But this process should start now. It's time to take off.

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