Shea Serrano Makes Bold Prediction for Giannis Antetokounmpo's Bucks Title Window

It's perhaps no secret that the Milwaukee Bucks have slid into mediocrity after a hot start to their 2025-26 season. Surgeries to Kevin Porter Jr. and Taurean Prince will also hurt the club's depth as the year progresses, but the health of nine-time All-NBA superstar power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo may ultimately dictate just how high this team climbs.

At 8-8, the Bucks may not look particularly lethal right now. Antetokounmpo will be on the shelf for another week or two recuperating from a groin strain.

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But he's looked as unstoppable as ever in the open floor and at the rim, while continuing to grow as a playmaker and ball handler even at age 30. Through his 13 healthy games has been averaging an intimidating 31.2 points on 62.9 percent field goal shooting and 63.6 percent free throw shooting, 10.8 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 1.2 blocks and 0.9 steals a night.

Basketball and pop culture pundit Shea Serrano devotes an entire chapter of his brand-new bestseller Expensive Basketball (which, never fear, is quite affordable if you're looking for a good holiday purchase for that hoops head in your life) to what remains Antetokounmpo's greatest moment, his 50-point Game 6 performance to take down the Phoenix Suns in the 2021 NBA Finals, 105-98, and claim his first (and thus far, only) league championship.

Devin Booker, Chris Paul and co. had led Milwaukee 2-0 in the series, but a four-game win streak put their kibosh on Phoenix's title aspirations. In that closeout game, Antetokounmpo shot 16-of-25 from the field and a very uncharacteristic 17-of-19 from the foul line, pulled down 14 rebounds, blocks five shots and dished out two dimes, while logging a +10 plus-minus.

Understandably, Antetokounmpo earns a rave review in the pages of Expensive Basketball devoted to his signature postseason achievement to this point. He's a whirlwind of size, strength and speed, with a wicked-long first step that's nearly impossible to stop on a drive.

But Antetokounmpo's subsequent playoff runs have been frustratingly brief. He's only made it out of the second round once since the Bucks' triumphant 2021 run, and the team now is more dependent on him than ever before.

Although he's on a team armed with defense and/or 3-point shooting around him, Antetokounmpo also deserves better than what he’s been saddled with on the Bucks' current 2025-26 roster — one that will be paying Damian Lillard $22.5 million to play elsewhere for the next five seasons.

So can Antetokounmpo bring the Bucks back to the promised land? Or will he demand a trade out of town to return to true contention?

"I think he is still very much a guy to be feared in the playoffs," Serrano suggested to Bucks On SI. "I think if he is going to win, it's got to be this year. Because, especially at the beginning of this season, it felt like he sort of looked around and went, 'Oh s---. Who's going to beat me? Who do I got to be afraid of right now? Because the Celtics are out of here and the Pacers are out of here. I'm supposed to be afraid of Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers? I'm supposed to be afraid of Jalen Brunson and the Knicks? I'm not afraid of those guys."

Boston and Indiana are each without their two best players — All-NBA power forward Jayson Tatum and All-NBA point guard Tyrese Haliburton — for most or all of the season as they each recuperate from Achilles tendon ruptures. Lillard, too, tore his Achilles, although the Bucks opted to stretch and waive his money this summer to create cap room for more present-day Antetokounmpo help, signing rim-rolling, floor-stretching from Pacers center Myles Turner to a four-season $108.9 million deal.

So can this Milwaukee squad, once Antetokounmpo and Porter are back in the fold (Prince could be out for much of the year himself as he recovers from his neck procedure), really make some noise in a relatively wide-open Eastern Conference? Any team emerging from the East this season may be hard-pressed to take down their West opposition in the NBA Finals. But for the Bucks, making the NBA Finals at all would be out-kicking their coverage.

There's another reason Serrano was convinced Milwaukee needs to make a concerted playoff push sooner rather than later.

'I Don't Want Him to Leave Milwaukee'

"If they're going to make a real run, it's got to be this season because I feel like next year he's probably going to be out of there," Serrano said. "I feel like he would have been out of there this season if the Knicks don't make that Mikal Bridges trade last year. I feel like that's where he would have ended up. I'm just speculating. But I don't want him to leave Milwaukee. It feels like, you got your one, I know you are missing the late stages of the playoffs, I get it. But just stay. Just be Dirk."

Antetokounmpo has a $62.8 million player option on his contract for the 2027-28 season with Milwaukee, meaning he could potentailly reach unrestricted free agent on the cusp of that year. But as a massive NBA star, he could also force the Bucks to trade him away before he even reaches that free agent moment.

"It would be weird to see him in another jersey," Serrano conceded.

So what is "expensive basketball" as an idea, and what compelled Serrano to tackle the topic for his second basketball book after the excellent Basketball (And Other Things). Illustrator Ian Klarer decks out Expensive Basketball with some throwback NBA player drawings.

"I always talk to other people who care about this thing. So I would just hit up a buddy, or go to lunch with somebody, and we'd just be sitting there chatting. And I kept asking everybody the same question, which was, 'Tell me about your favorite basketball memory, or one of your favorite basketball memories. It could be a game that you went to, or maybe you watched it on TV, or you were with your friends, or by yourself, or with your parents, whatever, the context doesn't matter, but what's a basketball thing that you love?' And every single person answered the question the exact same sort of way. It was the same pattern every single time."

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The pinnacle of Antetokounmpo's NBA career to date certainly qualifies as a top basketball memory for likely legions of the Milwaukee faithful. It's one of Serrano's, and he's a San Antonio Spurs fan (although a wide swath of non-Spurs make up many of the chapters of the book). To hear Serrano tell it, he aspired to capture the feeling of basketball fandom, through recollections and ruminations on specific players and moments.

"When somebody's telling you about a thing that they love, it's always this feeling, this emotion first. 'I was in the arena, the ball dropped in, everybody went crazy.' It's always something like that," Serrano observed. "And that to me was just super interesting, and I thought, 'Oh, okay, I'm going to do a basketball book, and I want it to be that. Let's figure out a way to write about the basketball stuff that made you feel something.'"

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