Giannis Antetokounmpo Removes All Bucks Content from Social Media

Dec 1, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) dunks the ball as Washington Wizards forward Khris Middleton (22) looks on in the second quarter at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images | Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Is it trade time already for nine-time All-NBA Milwaukee Bucks power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo?

After the Bucks' best trade asset, nine-time All-Star point guard Damian Lillard, ruptured his Achilles tendon and transformed instantly into a negative asset during last year's playoffs, the team faced a bleak future.

Questions instantly started about how Milwaukee could reasonably be expected to compete for a championship without another All-Star alongside Antetokounmpo, with Lillard gathering dust on the roster.

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Given that, clearly, the Bucks were incapable of winning much of anything while saddled with an unavailable Lillard, a desperate Jon Horst opted to stretch and waive the future Hall of Famer in order to sign rim-rolling, floor-spacing, non-All-Star center Myles Turner to a four-year, $108.9 million deal.

Milwaukee will pay Lillard $22.5 million annually across the next four seasons to not play for the team — money that otherwise would have been available to the club at least after Lillard's contract previously was slated to expire in 2026-27.

The Bucks also brought in free agents Cole Anthony, Gary Harris and Amir Coffey. Of that trio, only Anthony has made any kind of impact.

Milwaukee has looked middling even when Antetokounmpo is healthy, but the club has been absolutely awful whenever the 6-foot-11 big man sits. The Bucks have gone 9-8 when Antetokounmpo has been available, and 1-5 when he hasn't played.

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The two-time league MVP seems to have noticed this issue.

In a wide-open Eastern Conference, the 9-13 Bucks are currently out of even the play-in tournament bracket as the No. 11 seed. The club's limited offense beyond Antetokounmpo, and inconsistent perimeter coverage, seem to have given it a bit of a firm ceiling.

Per Complex Sports, Antetokounmpo has now ditched all of his Bucks-related Instagram posts beyond a post celebrating his 2021 title and his NBA Cup victory with the team.

Giannis has deleted every Instagram post related to the Bucks, keeping only his championship win and the Cup pics up pic.twitter.com/WFt026EJEx

— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) December 2, 2025

Will Antetokounmpo now force a trade away from the only team he's ever known?

The 30-year-old is clearly itching to compete deep into the playoffs, something he hasn't really been able to do since winning it all in 2021. He's only advanced to the second round once since then, in 2022. Of the former championship core around him, only one player — backup big man Bobby Portis — remains.

Where Have All The Championship Bucks Gone?

Former three-time All-Star small forward Khris Middleton broke down, former All-Defensive Team center Brook Lopez aged out of a starting role, and the Bucks gave up (too soon) on former two-time All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday and former head coach Mike Budenholzer.

Among the rest of the Bucks' key cogs during that charmed 2020-21 run, forward P.J. Tucker is long gone from both the roster and the league, reserve guard Pat Connaughton has aged out, and guard Donte DiVincenzo — who at the time was hurt, and also not yet what he was going to become as a pro — is lighting it up for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Now, Antetokounmpo could totally disrupt the NBA by mandating a move elsewhere.

For more news and notes on the Milwaukee Bucks, visit Milwaukee Bucks on SI.