Giannis Antetokounmpo and Milwaukee Bucks can be radical in staying together

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In the last four years of Dirk Nowitzki’s career, the Dallas Mavericks won 42, 33, 24 and 33 games. I covered the league those years and I don’t recall any consternation about the “wasting” of Nowitzki’s career denouement.

Like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nowitzki helped the only franchise he ever played for win a single championship. As with Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks, you can nitpick the way the Mavericks built around Nowitzki — they weren’t aggressive enough in supporting him after the championship, whereas Milwaukee was perhaps too aggressive — but that should only show us how difficult it is to strike a balance between “going for it” and keeping the long term in mind.

Nowitzki never agitated for a trade, and the Mavericks never dangled him to “kickstart” their rebuild. In 2013, then-Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said he was not interested in trading Nowitzki, two years removed from the Dallas title.

Instead, Nowitzki’s last year was Luka Dončić’s first, a baton passing that felt very appropriate until, suddenly in January 2025, it retroactively lost some of its emotional resonance. Forget that. Nowitzki retired as a Maverick, and it felt right.

We didn’t even have to wait for the Bucks to be knocked out of the playoffs in the first round for the third straight year, in an epic collapse, to fire up the trade machine. When Damian Lillard suffered a torn Achilles in Game 4, a significant section of NBA fans and media — full disclosure: I am a member of the NBA media — started wondering about Antetokounmpo’s next destination. I found it kind of cold and spiritually unsatisfying. With the elimination behind us, I still feel that way.

I get it, though: As The Athletic’s John Hollinger wrote, trading Lillard represented the Bucks’ one path to build a contender around Antetokounmpo. They don’t have the draft picks or pre-existing talent on the roster to adequately support him otherwise, and now Lillard’s trade value takes a huge hit, given the injury will keep him from playing for a long time, and it’s hard to say how good he will be if and when he returns.

Moreover, Antetokounmpo is not Nowitzki in 2015. Antetokounmpo turns 31 in December, still one of the three or four best players on the planet. Nowitzki was set to turn 35 after the 2012-13 season and played past 40. Antetokounmpo could get a haul for the Bucks, who are essentially out of moves otherwise, while Nowitzki’s trade value was comparatively minute.

That cuts both ways, though. Antetokounmpo, on his own, would make the Bucks relevant for at least a few more years. Barring an injury to him, they will be competitive. It won’t be at the level the franchise experienced from 2019-23, when they were in the inner circle of championship contenders. But they should be decent, as the front office will have to find creative ways to find talent for the team.

“Decent” is reason enough for many to push for a breakup, of course. The dreaded middle and all that. To invert the famous line from “Moneyball,” how can you be romantic about professional basketball in an age where teams are selling for $6 billion, players are signing contracts that will soon push $400 million over five seasons and both sides are nakedly using one another for leverage?

It is tough, especially when the number of titles a player or team wins plays a big part in determining the gravity of legacies. This is where I think we need to get back to valuing time spent together a little more.

It sounds hopelessly naive. When I picture Antetokounmpo’s career, though, the way in which he would help navigate an asset-poor Bucks team while deepening his ties with the Bucks and Milwaukee is as interesting as assessing his fit in Houston, Brooklyn, San Antonio, Toronto or some other team.

(A column in miniature, since I spent much of my time covering the Raptors: If Antetokounmpo becomes available, they should kick the tires!)

Lillard’s own ending in Portland is at once support for a breakup and a push for a renewal of vows. It was hard to watch Lillard’s final season or two play out in Portland, as the world picked apart his words of loyalty to the Trail Blazers. All things being equal, Lillard wanted to stay in Portland his entire career. However, when it became apparent that the front office wasn’t going to mortgage the team’s future to maximize the chances of winning with Lillard, he eventually requested a trade.

Lillard also had some great moments in those final Portland seasons, including a scoring binge that featured a 60-point game in his final Trail Blazers year. He made the All-NBA Third Team that year. Portland won just 33 games, but some indelible memories were made. Had he stayed in Portland, there would have been more.

Again, Antetokounmpo is better now than Lillard was then. He can do some cool things over the next few seasons in Milwaukee. It is incumbent that he and general manager Jon Horst, who recently signed a contract extension, have an honest conversation about their current situation. Barring a miracle move, the Bucks’ ceiling with Antetokounmpo over the next season is probably fighting to stay out of the Play-In Tournament. It is hard to see that changing as Antetokounmpo approaches his mid-30s.

If both the player and team are OK with that, though, why are we in such a rush to send him elsewhere? If the bar for a player to spend his whole career with the same team is now Stephen Curry — win multiple championships, MVPs and excel into your late 30s — we are in a dark place.

The new CBA, with its multiple aprons, is going to continue to push teams to evolve quicker than ever before. Are we three or four years away from discussing Jayson Tatum’s future in Boston? If Denver doesn’t get to the conference final in the next two seasons, should the Nuggets move on from Nikola Jokić?

The Bucks made several missteps before and after winning a title, putting themselves at this crossroads. There is no disputing that, nor that they are in a beyond-rough spot for turning this around. Other teams should be salivating at the chance to acquire Antetokounmpo. The Bucks and their superstar, though, have the opportunity to aspire to a different goal. At this point, that would be a radical act.

(Photo: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)

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