What Do Bucks’ Offseason Moves Mean for Giannis’ Future?

NBA news provided some startling free agency headlines this week when the Bucks cut Damian Lillard, who wouldn’t have been available this season due to an Achilles tear. Then, they added a big piece, as in a big Myles Turner.

Mood 💯 pic.twitter.com/Ar2nvAcfXE

— Giannis Antetokounmpo (@Giannis_An34) July 1, 2025

Giannis Antetokounmpo’s three-year, $175,369,698 contract makes moving him tricky. That has not prevented NBA rumors from buzzing. The issue becomes further clouded when one recognizes that Brook Lopez, who had been with Milwaukee for seven seasons, moved on to the Los Angeles Clippers. Khris Middleton has moved on to Washington, and Pat Connaughton is out of Milwaukee.

The picture is that of a rebuild on the fly. Will Giannis want to stay in Milwaukee, or is it time to move now that so many of his teammates are off the Bucks’ roster?

The Future Is Murky in Milwaukee

The two-time MVP boasts impressive numbers. He has averaged better than 30 points per game for the past two seasons and checked in at 29.9 ppg the campaign before that. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s stats have seen him average a double-double for eight straight seasons.

However, the Bucks have not repeated as champs since 2020-21, and there always is concern that his prime time in Milwaukee is over and Giannis needs to move to another team for a fresh start.

“My concern for [the Bucks’] forthcoming pitch to Giannis to wanna be there long term is they didn’t move the needle enough.”@WindhorstESPN thinks the Myles Turner trade might not be enough to keep Giannis in Milwaukee 👀 pic.twitter.com/nOMbgqdbg1

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) July 2, 2025

What would contradict Milwaukee’s moves are the decisions to keep Bobby Portis Jr., Gary Trent Jr., and Taurean Prince. They also landed Gary Harris and Vasilie Micic. Those pieces belie a team thinking about the future and not the present.

What Chances Does Milwaukee Have to Win It All

The early futures odds for the 2025-26 NBA season have Milwaukee as a long shot to capture its third championship in franchise history. BetUS has the Bucks sitting at +6000. There are numerous teams ahead of them on the futures chart. Understandably, Lillard-Giannis did not come close to providing the kind of chemistry many envisioned.

Milwaukee has lost in the Eastern Conference first round three consecutive seasons. The year before that, it was eliminated from the NBA playoffs in the conference semifinals. As one can see, the 2020-21 championship is getting smaller and smaller in the rear-view mirror of the team’s fans.

The Milwaukee Bucks have expressed interest in Chris Paul, per @ChrisBHaynes pic.twitter.com/poDoJrlf5P

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) July 2, 2025

When one has a player who is a generational superstar like Giannis, the franchise, player, and fandom have great expectations. The year Milwaukee won the championship, it won 46 games in a 72-game shortened season. Since then, the Bucks have gone from 51 wins to 58, then 49 and 48.

The Bucks win a lot of games in the regular season and tend to lose them in the playoffs. Doc Rivers has been the coach of a lot of teams and is often criticized for what he is unable to do as opposed to his accomplishments. Reality is landing hard for Milwaukee, which has seen this scheme before. When Don Nelson was the coach of the Bucks decades ago, they would win around 50 games a season and never win a championship.

Those teams didn’t have Giannis. That is why so much more is expected. Milwaukee faces a huge decision: Stick with Antetokounmpo and try and keep him happy and win another championship, or move him and somehow try and get equal value, next to impossible, and hope to find a different path to playoff success.

Whatever blueprint Milwaukee follows, it will definitely be the focus of more NBA news and NBA rumors until something gets resolved. And even then, that will be temporary.