The 2019-20 NBA season hasn’t tipped off yet but the free agency rumor mill already is churning pulp: for 2021, with Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo being the player du jour.
In the summer of 2021, Antetokounmpo will get a chance to reevaluate his commitment to the Bucks. Antetokounmpo and the Bucks organization seem mutually simpatico, so it seems a departure would come down to whether he thinks he could win a title in Milwaukee. If not, the other option would be for him to follow a veritable guarantee of a championship to a more golden horizon.
Sound familiar?
After nine years of under-performing in the postseason with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kevin Durant famously took his talents to Silicon Valley, where he won two straight NBA titles and Finals MVP awards with the Golden State Warriors. Could Antetokounmpo follow in Durant’s footsteps?
Sure, anything could happen. But the Bucks don’t see Golden State as a threat to lure away their superstar.
One Bucks front-office source told Heavy.com (via NBC Sports):
Keeping Giannis, it’s a focus obviously. But fighting the Warriors is not a focus. The Warriors are not the concern in the least. They’d have a long way to go to get him to Golden State, they’d have to give away a lot. He has never given any indication that he wants to leave Milwaukee. So a lot of that stuff, it is more chatter than anything.
By “a long way,” the Warriors have four players locked up for the 2021-22 season — Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, D’Angelo Russell and Klay Thompson — to the tune of $137.6 million.
Durant stated recently that the media circus surrounding the NBA often teeters overboard. During the 2018-19 season, he was outspoken about his distaste for the persistent questions surrounding his imminent free agency. With the frenzy around Antetokounmpo starting this early, it looks like the Greek Freak is in for an interesting season.
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