Giannis Antetokounmpo Says What It Will Take To Sign Contract With Milwaukee Bucks

The Milwaukee Bucks were defeated by the Miami Heat in five games in 2020 conference semifinals, suffering a premature playoff exit for the second straight year. With Giannis Antetokounmpo headed for free agency in a year, the disappointing finish has left NBA fans asking the same question.

Will Antetokounmpo re-sign with the Bucks?

A question regarding the superstar’s future was posed to him Friday afternoon when he was named the back-to-back regular-season MVP. Milwaukee can offer Antetokounmpo a super-max contract extension worth approximately $220 million over five years this offseason.

“I had the great meeting with the owners. Talked about the team, talked about what went wrong, what can we improve,” Antetokounmpo said on TNT, referring to a meeting he had with Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry after the team was sent home from the NBA bubble.

“As long as everybody’s on the same page and as long as everybody’s fighting for the same thing I’m fighting every single day, which is to be a champion, I don’t see why not to be in Milwaukee for the next 15 years.”

Antetokounmpo and Lasry left their meeting in “good spirits,” sources told The Athletic. That, of course, guarantees little in terms of keeping Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee for years to come.

Recent history tells us that a small-market team like the Bucks will have trouble keeping Antetokounmpo if they can’t win a championship. Look no further than LeBron James choosing to leave Cleveland in 2010 or Kevin Durant bolting Oklahoma City for Golden State in 2016. Anthony Davis forced the New Orleans Pelicans to trade him last summer one year before he could hit free agency.

James and Durant both made NBA Finals appearances with the teams that drafted them. Antetokounmpo has never won the East, and he’s only made it out of the second round with Milwaukee once.

The Bucks were the No.1 seed in each of the last two seasons.

If Antetokounmpo doesn’t agree to a long-term extension this offseason, it’s extremely unlikely that the Bucks would look to trade him. The team would probably take one more shot at trying to win a title with the MVP, hoping they could convince him to stay.

Antetokounmpo averaged 29.5 points, 13.6 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game in the 2019-2020 season.