Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Bucks are ‘a win now team that can’t win’ and $186 million star could be looking for a great pairing with Golden State

All is not well in Milwaukee.

In 2021, the Bucks won a world championship and it looked like Giannis Antetokounmpo would dominate the NBA for the next five years.

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Fast forward to 2024 and there are trade rumors swirling after the out-of-control Bucks slid to 1-4 to start the season.

The latest low point came Thursday after being blown out by the Memphis Grizzlies, 122-99, making it three straight losses in their first four games.

“Losing, it’s frustrating,” Giannis said afterwards. “My father always said: why complain if you’re not going to give up. I’m not going to give up.”

‘The Greek Freak’ may not have given up on his teammates yet, but his confidence in the organization seems to be waning.

This has not gone unnoticed by the Association. According to reports, teams are “circling – and hopeful” to land the seemingly disgruntled two-time MVP.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this happened before the trade deadline,” a team executive told CBS.

Giannis and the Bucks only agreed to a three-year, $186 million contract extension last year.

The extension takes effect with the 2025-26 season, meaning Antetokounmpo is under contract for at least four more years – and a fifth if he so chooses.

The 29-year-old has consistently expressed his loyalty to the team that drafted him in 2013, but only on one condition: they remain competitive.

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However, the Bucks no longer feel like true contenders in the resurgent Eastern Conference.

Milwaukee failed to defend their title at the end of the 2021–22 season after falling to the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

A year later, they were eliminated in five games against the Miami Heat in the first round of the postseason.

Last season, Giannis suffered a calf injury and missed the remainder of the regular season, as well as the entire 2024 NBA playoffs, as the Bucks crashed to the Indiana Pacers in Round 1.

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s Celtics have filled the power vacuum in the Eastern Conference amid the Bucks’ regression.

Elsewhere, the Knicks, Magic and Cavaliers have all improved, meaning the East is no longer the cakewalk it once was.

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Coaching changes haven’t helped the Bucks.

Adrian Griffin was sensationally let go due to locker room issues, despite the team sitting in second place in the Eastern Conference with a 30-13 record.

His replacement? Doc Rivers, a coach who hasn’t won since 2008 and is best known for being the first coach in NBA history to go 3-1 three times in his career.

Milwaukee is now 20-27 since Rivers took over for Griffin and their offense looks as stale and unimaginative as ever.

The decision to appoint Darvin Ham – a man largely ridiculed for his time with the Lakers, where he managed to alienate almost every player, including LeBron James – as their top assistant coach looks with every dismal defeat is astonishing.

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But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The Bucks’ big offseason splash in 2023, All-NBA guard Damian Lillard, has yet to be worked out.

On paper, ‘Dame Time’ has the championship caliber to match Giannis, but the Antetokounmpo-Lillard axis has yet to find its feet.

They still have time to make it work, of course, but that doesn’t fix the other glaring roster issues that are holding back the current version of this team.

Getting rid of Jrue Holiday was a big mistake.

The Bucks’ perimeter defense is non-existent and Holiday is one of the best perimeter defenders in the business. To make matters worse, the Bucks traded him to the Celtics, strengthening a rival and weakening themselves in one fell swoop.

That Holiday was an integral part of the Celtics’ championship-winning machine last season only compounded the error in judgment.

Age is the other elephant in the room. In a league full of rising stars, the Bucks are downright old.

Lillard is 34. Brook Lopez is 36.

Khris Middleton, a key member of their championship team, is 33 and has yet to play this year due to injury.

Pat Connaughton is 31 and Bobby Portis Jr. is 29.

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The Bucks are a win now team that is incapable of winning now.

The future also looks pretty bleak, largely due to the fact that there is a shortage of exciting young players and Bucks general manager Jon Horst has continually traded away their draft picks.

His success rate in the draft doesn’t make for great reading either.

Since taking over as GM in 2017, Horst has drafted six players in the top 40, with the 2018 pick being Donte DiVincenzo, who now plays for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

All of this means Giannis’ championship window is closing quickly.

All the problems, on and even off the field, seem to be perfectly in the hands of teams who have been waiting a long time to make a run at Giannis.

Per CBS: “An NBA executive from the Eastern Conference has already heard which places are believed to be Giannis’ favorite destinations: ‘The teams I’ve heard are Miami and New York — the Nets, not the Knicks.’

They are not the only ones.

According to NBA insiders Zach Lowe and Ramona Shelburne, the New Orleans Pelicans, Toronto Raptors, New York Knicks and Golden State Warriors will be “monitoring this situation closely.”

Along with the Nets and Knicks, “each of these teams possesses a combination of intriguing young players and valuable draft picks that could be packaged into the kind of trade that would theoretically be necessary to land Antetokounmpo.”

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For neutrals, the Warriors’ move is by far the most tempting. The prospect of Giannis teaming up with Golden State great Steph Curry is the stuff of fantasy hoops.

You would think that the way the Greek star drives the ball would compliment Curry’s playing style and off-the-ball moves to devastating effect.

The Finals MVPs have also fostered a bromance of sorts over the years, which would certainly help facilitate a future trade.

It also makes sense considering that at 36, Curry isn’t getting any younger, and the Warriors’ front office could decide to go all in on getting the Splash Brother one last superstar running mate – and ring – before taking the time to do his best. Hall of Fame career.

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There will certainly be no shortage of suitors if Giannis wants to leave Milwaukee.

An all-world talent, one of only three players in history with an MVP, a Finals MVP and a Defensive Player of the Year award, becoming available while he’s still in his prime isn’t common.

Giannis himself has kept his cards close to his chest. Before the season started, however, he gave the first real indication that a trade was on his mind, even if it was in jest.

“If we don’t win this year, would you be fired?” he said while speaking to The Athletic’s Sam Amick.

“Do you have it in the back of your mind, like, ‘(What) if this year doesn’t go well?’ Yeah, if we don’t win a championship, I might get traded. Yeah, this is the job we live in. This is the world we live in. That goes for everyone.’

What may have been a tongue-in-cheek comment is starting to look like a reality — one that seems to have the entire NBA on red alert.