The Milwaukee Bucks have endured a rough start to the season; instead of being off to the races now that Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard have played a year together, they have lost three consecutive games to fall down to 1-3 on the year — a stretch that includes inexcusable defeats to teams that are widely expected to finish in the lottery in the Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets.
It's important to note that the Bucks are still without Khris Middleton, and his absence has made even more apparent the team's lack of depth across multiple positions. But this start to the new campaign is far from what the Bucks had envisioned. And amid the team's struggles, there are now rumblings that this could lead to an eventual trade request from Antetokounmpo, according to the sources of CBS Sports' Bill Reiter.
Per Reiter, a top executive said they “wouldn't be surprised if [an Antetokounmpo trade] happened by the trade deadline”, while an executive from a Western Conference team said that “teams are circling — and hopeful” that the Bucks reach the point where they'll see no other recourse but to hit the reset button.
Given Antetokounmpo's status as a top-five player in the association, the Bucks won't trade him away unless he requests to be traded first. However, the Bucks have put all of their eggs in the Lillard basket — a maneuver that, thus far, hasn't yielded much in the way of results.
The Bucks are financially-handicapped for years to come, which means that they are wedded to their current core — unless they decide to put the team in a state of upheaval once again after enduring a rough transition year during the 2023-24 season.
Moving forward, the Bucks have no choice but to hang on to Antetokounmpo and hope it works out for the best. He is under contract for two more seasons following the 2024-25 season anyway, so it's not as if there's a sense of urgency to trade him away.
Where do Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks go from here?
The Bucks' roster is old; Giannis Antetokounmpo is the youngest of the team's core four of Damian Lillard (34 years old), Khris Middleton (33), and Brook Lopez (36). Even Bobby Portis, a major piece of their championship run in 2021, is going to turn 30 in February of next year.
It's one thing if the team's veteran core is supplemented with young pieces who can at least infuse the team with some energy. But their main role players are older than 30 years of age as well, (Taurean Prince is 30, Delon Wright and Pat Connaughton are 32) with the exception of Gary Trent Jr. (who is 26 years old).
It should not have come as a surprise to anyone that they lost to teams that are generally younger in the Brooklyn Nets and Chicago Bulls — with the Bucks running out of steam in the second half of both games.
The return of Middleton should help matters. It's very early in the season as well, and they'll be facing another team that lost to both the Nets and the Bulls in the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night in a bid to get back to winning ways.