2025-26 Milwaukee Bucks / NBA Thread

[adambr2]

Giannis will get a say, but not the ultimate choice or final say. Milwaukee definitely wasn’t Lillard’s choice.

[owbc]

That might have been the last time we see Giannis in a Bucks jersey. End of an era.

Just praying that injury isn’t what it looked like… 

[Brian]

Well I'm not looking at things the same as everyone else. 

When Giannis is on the court he monopolizes the ball and by beating Detroit (The second best team in all the NBA) with no Giannis should tell everyone a lot.

113 Bucks 109 Pistons Detroit the best team in the east.

[nate82]

2 minutes ago, Brian said:

113 Bucks 109 Pistons Detroit the best team in the east. 

That is coming off losing to the worst team in the NBA.

[Brian]

21 minutes ago, nate82 said:

That is coming off losing to the worst team in the NBA.

With Giannis in that game by the way in that game and we lost.

When Giannis got hurt tonight Bucks were down by 18.  Giannis left the floor and we came back and won. 🤔

[Brian]

35 minutes ago, Brian said:

With Giannis by the way was the loss. 

Giannis is the Aaron Rodgers of the NBA. 

[SeaBass]

If the Bucks brass can work things out they could maybe get 3 teams involved to try to maximize a return and still get Giannis to a team he wants to go to.

[Joseph Zarr]

The obvious target with this current absolutely electric Bucks backcourt is SF Jalen Johnson of the Hawks. Absolutely not Trae Young - those proposed trades at ESPN were predictably nauseating. You get a Johnson plus one additional young meaningful player and premium draft picks then you are trending toward exciting young basketball. This is Giannis we are talking about. This is not a fore sale for crying out loud. From there, develop the timeline to blow up the FO and coaching staff. New visions to grow a young nucleus. Can not have Horts and Doc in the fold at the draft. At all.

As I said previously, I am prepared for the Bucks to absolutely underwhelm.

[CheezWizHed]

I'm not a big conspiracy guy, but this doesn't feel quite right.  All the love and commitment in the offseason when it would've been easy to trade him... and now 20 games in and we are talking about the future?  Blah.

Giannis seems to be down in his FA attempts while the league is giving him their best 90's Detroit bad-boys treatment.  

No love for Milwaukee. 😞

[CheezWizHed]

OKC has a lot of draft capitol...

 

Oklahoma City Thunder Future Draft Picks - RealGM

OKC also is under the first apron of the salary cap, so it would take less finagling to make that work. 

The Knicks aren't even $150k under the second apron. 

 

 

[CheezWizHed]

15 minutes ago, CheezWizHed said:

I'm not a big conspiracy guy, but this doesn't feel quite right.  All the love and commitment in the offseason when it would've been easy to trade him... and now 20 games in and we are talking about the future?  Blah.

Giannis seems to be down in his FA attempts while the league is giving him their best 90's Detroit bad-boys treatment.  

No love for Milwaukee. 😞

The more I think about this... I'm going to guess the Knicks game was the breaking point.  Giannis was mugged all game while Brunson was getting every ticky-tack call.  Especially the 3pt attempt with Giannis defending him; Brunson kicked out his foot, flopped on the floor and got the call.  Bucks call for a review (where you clearly see Brunson kick his foot out into Giannis) and they "confirm" the call. 

There was your dagger. 😠

[Samurai Bucky]

23 hours ago, adambr2 said:

Unfortunately this is going to happen. The writing is on the wall too much at this point. The Bucks failed Giannis and my concern is that same people who failed him are in charge of trading him. So I expect a poor return.

This is going to be a sad day. I truly believe Giannis would have spent his entire career here if we could have continued to build around him well.

We knew this was going to happen when the Haslam family became part of the ownership group.  They destroyed the Browns, now the Bucks.

https://haslamsports.com/teams/milwaukee-bucks/#:~:text=In Februrary 2023%2C Dee%2C Jimmy,Lasry's stake in the Bucks.

[sveumrules]

5 minutes ago, Samurai Bucky said:

We knew this was going to happen when the Haslam family became part of the ownership group.  They destroyed the Browns, now the Bucks.

https://haslamsports.com/teams/milwaukee-bucks/#:~:text=In Februrary 2023%2C Dee%2C Jimmy,Lasry's stake in the Bucks.

From what I understand Haslam was primarily brought on board the ownership group for a cash infusion because Lasry didn't want to keep paying the tax.

Edens has the Governorship (& whatever that entails) until 2028, Haslam is slated for the five years after that.

The destruction of the Bucks is a lot more tied in to Middleton's, Lillard's, and now Giannis's bodies failing them to various extents since the Title Run.

Hard to say Haslam really destroyed the Browns either. From 1999-2011 they had two winning seasons, one playoff loss, and averaged 5 wins a season. The Browns were a joke when Haslam bought the team in 2012 and remain a joke today, nothing was ruined along the way. 

[homer]

Horst kept drafting for ceiling when he should have been drafting for floor.

[Joseph Zarr]

RIP Elden Campbell. Man, what a tragic freakish medical event and terminal result. Ugh. I feel for His family and close Ones. I fondly remember watching him on the Lakers and those Hornets squads. Even won a ring with one of those Pistons teams. 

[jay87shot]

I dont really like anything the Knicks have to trade if Giannis truly want to go there. Bridges, OG, or Kat a couple eventually very late 1st and some low upside young guys who were 2nd round picks. No thanks

I think the Spurs, Thunder, Hawks, Rockets and maybe but unlikely the Lakers, Heat, Warriors, Pistons, Raptors, or 76ers really have enough capital to get Giannis and still be competitive.

[adambr2]

On 11/29/2025 at 9:34 AM, sveumrules said:

Last time Middleton was healthy in 2023-24 the Bucks main lineup of Dame | Beasley | Khris | Giannis | Brook was +15.6 points per 100 possessions. The trio of just Dame / Khris / Giannis was +17.0 points per 100 possessions.

The Celtics main lineup in 2023-24 of Holiday | White | Brown | Tatum | Porzingis when they won it all was +11.3 points per possessions.

When the Nuggets won it all in 2022-23 their main lineup of Murray | KCP | MPJ | Gordon | Jokic was +12.6 points per 100 possessions.

OKC's five man Championship lineup last year with SGA | Williams | Dort | Chet | Hartenstein was +14.4 points per 100 possessions.

When Khris, Giannis and Dame were all healthy the team was Championship calibre as intended.

The Bucks recent seven game skid has been a schedule loss with a B2B after an In Season Tourney game, Giannis got hurt game, Giannis misses four games, Giannis first game back (probably too early) on the road at NY. Before that they were right where they were supposed to be at 8 W - 5 L even with KPJ down and out after the first nine minutes of the season 

If Giannis can stay healthy enough to hit the 65 games needed to get his 8th consecutive 1st Team All NBA nod (can only miss ten games rest of the way) they shouldn't have a problem getting back up to the six seed. 

 

Difference with OKC is that they’ve managed to do all this without completely mortgaging their future along the way.

[sveumrules]

8 hours ago, adambr2 said:

Difference with OKC is that they’ve managed to do all this without completely mortgaging their future along the way.

Right, the Bucks, Celtics, and Nuggets teams were all assembled under the previous CBA that was less punitive to tax paying teams.

Celtics run was kicked off by trading Pierce/Garnett to Brooklyn for the picks that turned into Tatum/Brown. They’re the closest of that trio to doing it the way OKC has.

Bucks and Nuggets were essentially treadmill franchises that lucked into Superstars then were doubly lucky to actually get a Championship out of it.

[LouisEly]

7 hours ago, adambr2 said:

Difference with OKC is that they’ve managed to do all this without completely mortgaging their future along the way.

They did it with one move - trading Paul George, which netted them SG-A and Williams.  Neither were top-10 picks.

OKC only had two top-10 picks, one has been decent and the other they traded for Caruso and is now flourishing with the Bulls.

Have to figure out who the next SG-A is and get him in the deal, then do their own version of a Caruso trade to get another young player with upside who is still developing.  Much easier said than done.

[adambr2]

This team is destined for the play-in tournament this year.

IF they keep Giannis. If not, they’re destined for the lottery.

[nate82]

Apparently the rumor now is that the Knicks maybe out on the Giannis sweepstakes and the Lakers are now in.  

If a Giannis trade goes down people are going to be very disappointed on the return.  The Bucks won't be getting back a young player.  As I said previously it is going to be expiring contracts and picks.  Nothing else will be coming back to the Bucks for Giannis.

[wallus]

The latest rumors are the Bucks are going to trade him to the team with the best trade package. Zero reason to dump him for a poor return 

[CheezWizHed]

Is it required to trade all three Antetokounmpos at once?  🤔 It would be a shame to break up the set...

[adambr2]

This is actually not a terrible year to just tank. Amazingly, we should get our own 1st round pick. All we have to do is not be worse than New Orleans to keep our 1st (otherwise we get theirs), and they have 3  wins.

[adambr2]

OKC is so good it’s not even fair. They will win 70, they will probably set an NBA record, they will win multiple championships. And they will pick top 5 next year.