Why Giannis Antetokounmpo’s future in Milwaukee is far from settled

AS GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO grappled with his Milwaukee Bucks future this offseason, general manager Jon Horst made the 6,000-mile trek to Athens, Greece, in late July for a face-to-face meeting with his franchise’s cornerstone star — the 2021 NBA champion and Finals MVP.

Horst was coming off a transformative summer for the Bucks, having made the daring move to waive and stretch Damian Lillard to free up the cap space to sign center Myles Turner from the rival Indiana Pacers. It was a major long-term financial commitment, in terms of not only Turner’s four-year, $108 million contract but also the cap hit from the remaining $113 million on Lillard’s deal that would stay on Milwaukee’s books for the next five seasons. It was a full-fledged effort to keep Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee. However, the Bucks had not sought Antetokounmpo’s approval or consultation before making the move, just as they hadn’t required it when acquiring Lillard from the Portland Trail Blazers in 2023.

The 2019 NBA Executive of the Year, Horst has been with Milwaukee since 2008 and took over the GM role in 2017. This marked the third time he has creatively doubled down on the Antetokounmpo-led Bucks, after acquiring Jrue Holiday in 2020 and Lillard in 2023.

So in Athens, Horst sat with Antetokounmpo and one of his agents, Giorgos Panou, for the sides’ most seminal and candid meeting of the summer. It was meant to be an open forum to discuss any lingering hard feelings following Milwaukee’s third consecutive first-round exit and thoughts on anyone’s mind about the Bucks’ moves. The architect of the Bucks’ first title-winning team in 50 years laid out his vision for the 2025-26 season, saying he believed this version of the roster could compete for a championship in the Eastern Conference.

Antetokounmpo then responded. After Horst expressed his confidence in the Bucks’ roster and his moves, Antetokounmpo aired his concerns about whether this team could truly achieve championship contention, and he wanted to explore whether there would be an alternative path forward for both the team and the player, league sources said.

In the end, Antetokounmpo returned to Milwaukee for the start of the 2025-26 season. With Antetokounmpo participating at EuroBasket, the Bucks reached an agreement in late August to bring back his brother Thanasis Antetokounmpo on a guaranteed one-year, $2.9 million deal. At least for the moment, the sides had found a common ground to stay together.

However, one of the game’s greatest-ever players is a hot-button topic around the league entering the new season, and a final resolution could still await. In fact, the path to this point was far from straight, and it nearly led the two-time NBA MVP to finding a new home in New York.

SINCE CAPTURING THE title in 2021, then coming up one win shy of a return trip to the conference finals in 2022, the Bucks have been unable to win a playoff series. Milwaukee has lost in the first round in each of the past three seasons. Antetokounmpo became the second player in NBA history to average 30 points in the regular season before failing to win a playoff series in three straight seasons (Oscar Robertson from 1964-65 to 1966-67 was the first).

An injury-plagued string of postseasons hampered the Bucks, with Antetokounmpo and Lillard missing significant chunks of the playoffs and being unable to fulfill their championship quest over the past two seasons. Though it seemed Antetokounmpo and Lillard gave the Bucks hope as long as they were in Milwaukee uniforms, their partnership came to an unexpected end when Lillard suffered a torn Achilles tendon during the 2025 playoffs, knocking him out for the 2025-26 season.

Ever since the NBA draft combine in mid-May, Alex Saratsis, an Octagon managing director and Antetokounmpo’s U.S.-based representative, has fielded rampant interest in Antetokounmpo and conducted serious due diligence on best possible outside fits should the star and his reps push to be traded from the Bucks. Several teams were discussed internally, but one emerged as the only place Antetokounmpo wanted to play outside of Milwaukee: the New York Knicks, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the situation told ESPN.

The Bucks picked up the Knicks’ call on Antetokounmpo, and the sides engaged in conversations for a window of time in August, league sources said, but the teams never got traction on a deal.

The Bucks insisted to the Knicks that they preferred not to move Antetokounmpo, but those in Milwaukee believe New York did not make a strong enough offer to continue even discussing a trade, league sources said. It’s unclear how the Bucks would have responded to an all-out chase by the Knicks. The multiweek process was described by one source with direct knowledge of the talks as an exclusive negotiating window. New York, for its part, believes the Bucks never were serious about entertaining an Antetokounmpo trade, sources said.

The Knicks have had an eye on Antetokounmpo for the past couple of years under president Leon Rose, who heads a front office that built the franchise into a perennial playoff contender since taking over in 2020. People in league circles, including some in New York, have believed since 2024 that Antetokounmpo would eventually want to come to the Knicks if he ever explored a trade.

Even with that knowledge, the Knicks made a series of moves independent of Antetokounmpo’s potential desires to try to move the franchise closer to a title. New York traded its treasure chest of draft picks to acquire Mikal Bridges from the Brooklyn Nets in June 2024, then sent Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and a first-rounder to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Karl-Anthony Towns in early October 2024. The Knicks then signed Bridges to a four-year, $150 million extension this August, which makes him ineligible to be traded until February.

Those maneuvers left New York’s pool of nonplayer assets limited to one first-round pick, three pick swaps and eight second-rounders, essentially decimating its ability to make an overwhelming offer to Milwaukee. As is, the Knicks, who are coming off an appearance in the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years, enter the season as the co-favorites in the East along with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

ANTETOKOUNMPO HAS EXPRESSED publicly and privately over the past few years that he wants to win a second championship and that any failure to put the Bucks in a position to do so could lead him to look elsewhere.

“I want to be on a team that allows me and gives me a chance to win a championship,” Antetokounmpo said Sept. 29 at media day, where he appeared remotely after missing the start of training camp due to COVID-19, according to the team. “I think it’s a disservice to basketball, just to the game, to not want it to compete in a high level, to want your season to end in April.”

In a telling exchange, Bucks managing governor Wes Edens said at media day that he had a conversation with Antetokounmpo in June when the Bucks star expressed his commitment to Milwaukee.

An hour later, Antetokounmpo said: “I cannot recall that meeting.”

“The last three years, we’ve been eliminated in the first round, so it’s not much to talk about,” he added. “We just got to put our heads down and stay locked in the whole year long and try to win some games and hopefully get in the playoffs and then don’t get eliminated in the first round. That’s pretty much it. And then we go from there.”

Then last Saturday, after traveling from Greece to join the Bucks in Miami, Antetokounmpo said: “I just want more. I want to win another championship. I want to win another medal for the national team. Legacy is very important for me. … You got to play to win. I don’t play to be around and get paid.”

Bucks sources had feared, in part because of Antetokounmpo’s expressed desire to win another championship, that he would make a formal trade request during the week of July 28 when Horst embarked on his one-day trip to Greece. League sources close to the situation were expecting the same thing. Antetokounmpo was continually asking himself, even after the Bucks’ stunning release of Lillard to sign Turner: Can this roster truly compete for a title? Antetokounmpo had serious questions and shared his feelings directly with Horst, league sources said.

This offseason marked the first time that Antetokounmpo truly initiated the pursuit of his best external options, and he had discussions with the Bucks that ultimately led to the conversations between the franchise and the Knicks. Fast-forward months now, and he’ll be paying close attention not only to how the Bucks perform to start the season but also to the landscape of the rest of the league.

Bucks owners Jimmy Haslem and Edens, along with Horst and coach Doc Rivers, were adamant all offseason that they wanted to keep Antetokounmpo, that it would be extremely difficult to pry him away. Rival executives believed the only way Antetokounmpo could have forced a move elsewhere was by making a spectacle and pushing himself out like several NBA stars who requested trades in recent years. But those who know Antetokounmpo well say that is the antithesis of who he is, and ultimately, he applied no public pressure to Milwaukee this summer. He has built an image on loyalty, and his actions, specifically contract extensions with the franchise in 2020 and 2023, have come without prior warning and through his own declaration.

Now he returns to the Bucks for his 13th season having stuck with Milwaukee through the highs and lows. He has this season and the 2026-27 campaign left on his current deal before the ability to opt out and become a free agent, but whether he stays in a Milwaukee uniform to that point remains in heavy question.

It is expected that Antetokounmpo will keep his options open depending on how the Bucks start the season, according to league sources. From the outset of the season, the pressure is apparent throughout the organization like never before. It’s seen as a make-or-break season in Milwaukee. Stakeholders within the organization understand that the first quarter of the campaign will hold significant weight for the future direction. Antetokounmpo will also have a grip on teams across the league this season because franchises will want to ensure they are positioned well in the seismic event of his trade.

For Antetokounmpo, the moment of peak leverage will come next summer when he has just one guaranteed season remaining on his contract. On Oct. 1, 2026, he will be eligible for a four-year, $275 million maximum extension through the 2030-31 season, and he’d be able to sign the same deal with another team six months after a trade if he is moved. That will increase his ability to position where he wants to be dealt if he chooses to seek a trade because any team willing to give the steep price necessary to acquire him would want to know whether he is committed for the long term.

For now, the Bucks’ organization believes in its ability to contend in the East with Antetokounmpo on its side and season-altering injuries to Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton and Boston’s Jayson Tatum opening up the top of the conference. Antetokounmpo is coming off his second consecutive season averaging 30 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 60% shooting; no other player has done that even once in NBA history. Now, with Lillard gone, the offensive burden on Antetokounmpo entering the season will only increase.

His ability to be superhuman every night gives the Bucks belief that this team can challenge anyone in the East. Milwaukee has not dipped into the luxury tax for this season, but waiving Lillard to bring in Turner puts an additional $22.5 million on its books for each of the next five seasons.

The team’s play will determine whether Antetokounmpo becomes a viable trade target in-season and whether he tests his best external options, once again, during the heat of competition. The whole league continues to watch because what looms is one simple question: Will the window for Antetokounmpo reopen before next summer?