The Milwaukee Bucks became the story of NBA free agency on Tuesday when they made a pair of shocking moves. News first broke that the team was signing Myles Turner to a four-year, $107 million deal, which was stunning on its own, but folks quickly wondered how Milwaukee — which did not have $27 million in cap space — was going to make that work.
The first thought was a sign-and-trade, but instead it was an even more surprising move as the Bucks are reportedly waiving and stretching Damian Lillard, who had two years and $113 million left on his contract. Lillard is expected to miss all of next season with an Achilles injury, and the Bucks decided that rather than wait out a year they were going to be aggressive this summer in trying to turn the roster over and create a longer runway to contend through Giannis Antetokounmpo’s prime. Lillard will enter free agency while getting the rest of his $113 million from the Bucks over the next five years.
It’s a gutsy decision from GM Jon Horst, because there’s a chance it all backfires tremendously, but it follows the pattern of doing what they can to build a contender around Giannis at all times, dating back to the Jrue Holiday trade that set up their championship win. The question on the minds of many was whether this was all done with Giannis’ blessing, but shortly before all the craziness went down, the Bucks’ superstar posted a cryptic tweet indicating he was in the dark on all of it.
After all of the moves were completed, Chris Haynes reported that Giannis was “not pleased” with the release of Lillard. Haynes is famously close with Lillard, so it stands to reason that was the word Antetokounmpo gave to Lillard in the immediate aftermath. The real question is whether Giannis understands the business side of the decision and recognizes what the Bucks are trying to do on the court, and whether he buys into the vision Horst will be selling him on moving Turner into the Brook Lopez role and trying to find another lead guard to pair him with.
From the Bucks’ side, everything they’re doing right now has to be with an eye on making Giannis happy and keeping him in town throughout his career. Antetokounmpo indicated all summer he plans on being back in Milwaukee despite many wondering (and hoping) he’d request a trade, and it would be truly shocking if they did all of this without at least looping him in. That said, Giannis doesn’t want to be viewed as the guy pulling the strings, particularly when it comes to getting a co-star released like Lillard, so his tweet felt like he was getting in front of that narrative once he found out what was coming.
All of this will be fascinating to follow the rest of this offseason and into next season, but the Bucks are going to look very different next year and we’ll find out if Giannis buys in, because if not, things could get even messier in Milwaukee.
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