Could Giannis STILL Sign An Extension?

On the show, I want to get into, uh, a few things.

I want to start with your Milwaukee Bucks as you wear the colors of, of the Bucks ending their season on Sunday.

Just saying.

Ending their season on Sunday, 32 and 50.

Doc Rivers, you've taken the position of being anti-Milwaukee Bucks.

I'm not anti-Milwaukee Bucks.

I am pro.

I am pro what did they ever do to you?

I am pro-Milwaukee Bucks, and I'm gonna explain why.

I'm just trying to, I, I just sometimes tell Milwaukee, sometimes, what do they say?

Darkness comes before the dawn.

The darkness needs to come though in Milwaukee , I think.

Um, they end the season 32 and 50.

Doc Rivers, who had been hinting for days that he was done in Milwaukee, he's officially out.

Uh, parting ways, or at least as the head coach with the Milwaukee Bucks, uh, Giannis did his exit interviews, um, right there from the locker room, didn't really break any new ground, I thought, um, continued to try to have his cake and eat it too.

Kudos to him for being available.

He's always available.

He's a, but there are players who, especially if they haven't been playing, he's a media d, would not have been in the locker room, but Giannis really wants his message to stick.

That's what Giannis wants.

He wants.

He's a media member who has had to deal with people ducking the media.

I agree.

I love it.

I love it.

Um, Doc's gone, first domino to fall.

Uh, I look, Giannis refused to say that he was definitely out.

Um, I think it was Tim Bon Temps that asked him, uh, if they're, if you're on the roster in October, will you sign the contract extension?

I mean, he said there's been no offer, but they can't technically offer it to him until October, and we all know they're going to offer it to him if it's, um, available.

Um, he didn't know.

Wouldn't, wouldn't wouldn't position himself anyway, which is kind of par for the course.

Kind of a perfect way for Giannis to punctuate this season by another rather confusing round of interviews.

What did you take away from Uh, what Giannis said, where the Bucks are, Doc being out the door.

What's your feeling on the Bucks right now as a longtime proponent of Giannis finishing his career in Milwaukee?

Look, I think it's nice when players have a relationship with the fan base the way Giannis does, the way Devin Booker has gotten to be in Phoenix, the way we know Dame was in Portland and is again.

Like these are rare things, Stephan, and Golden State.

Like I'm always a fan of those guys being able to finish with their team if they can.

So I thought trying to take it to its most logical conclusion was worth it.

Trying to see what you could do was worth it, even if it delayed a quote rebuild by a year.

So what?

Like, see what you can do with Giannis in Milwaukee.

And there's still a little bit of see what you can do.

And that's why I think on all sides of this equation, there isn't a certainty yet about what either side wants to do, because they don't know what's going to happen.

The draft.

Where are they going to fall in the draft lottery?

Who are they going to be able to get?

And I do think that will be a factor in all of this.

Then the question just becomes, has there been too much just sort of bad blood between this particular ownership group once Mark Lasry left, and sort of the indecision of Giannis, which I have said, I talked to him for a half hour recently, just one on one, the.

Indecision is real.

It's not an act.

It's not him trying to, you know, sort of obstate.

Uh, he doesn't know because he is conflicted.

He is conflicted about something that is very real and that us as people, I think should have like a little more empathy for.

Like, he, he also would like to be Kobe, Steph.

You know, Dirk, like, he wants to be that guy.

And so it is hard if you want to be that guy, and you also are in a franchise that likely cannot give you another title, and you know how good you are, and you are basically seeding ever winning again if you want to be that guy.

And that is a tough choice, especially for a guy who actually cares about the people he plays in front of.

I think that's a good thing.

I don't think That I, I just, I hate that he's getting so many shots for, for sort of being conflicted in real time and, and talking about it in real time.

It's good that he's available and talking about it.

We criticize stars who don't tell us what's going on.

And he's conflicted because he cares about the people there.

If he didn't care about the fans in Milwaukee, this would have been an easy choice.

If he didn't care about that relationship, he probably would have asked for a trade last summer.

So why are we criticizing those things that we say we want in players?

I do think this will be solved this summer.

Um, you know, it certainly feels to me that he won't be there when on opening day in the fall, and we'll just have to see if there's a last minute reprieve.

He was asking me just sort of casually, again, I don't want anyone to read too much into this, no aggregation, just sort of like, oh, how long is this player's contract on this team?

How long is this player's contract on that team?

Maybe it's just a point of interest for him.

Maybe he wants to stay in Milwaukee and he just wants to know the landscape.

But he was asking me how long certain guys were going to be on certain teams.

And I think it was Zach Lowe.

Zach, I, I listened to the Simmons podcast, one of them.

So I don't want to credit the wrong guy.

But I think it was Zach Lowe who said he has heard that if Giannis does switch teams, he wants to be on the east side of the country because of the proximity to Greece.

And that if you went to one of these West Coast teams, just, there's much fewer.

Your direct flights.

Getting back and forth is a lot harder.

He has family that goes back and forth pretty regularly, um, and just feeling a little closer to the place that he is obviously also really tied to in Greece proximity to a championship being at least.

I don't disagree.

I would, if I'm a big, if I'm a huge star looking to change teams, I'm Eastern Conference all the way, baby.

Um, you want to be in a conference with Shay and Wendy for the next 10 years?

No, thank you.

No, I wouldn't.

Uh, I wouldn't want to do that, um.

I believe Giannis is conflicted.

I believe Giannis wishes he was in the situation that Shay is in, that Wemby is in, that Jokic is in, where you are playing on a team.

Denver.

You are playing on a team that can compete for championships.

I believe if this was where the Bucks were, he would have signed a contract extension already.

He would have been locked in, said, what do you?

What are these dumb questions for?

I'm a Milwaukee Buck.

I want to be here forever.

The reality is that's just never gonna happen.

Like, I know there is a fantasy in the mind of some people in Milwaukee that they can take these 3 first-round draft picks that they have to deal on draft night.

They can get another impact player, and that will be enough to convince Giannis to stay long term.

I just don't see it .

I don't think this team.

is one impact player away from competing for a championship.

They might not even be one impact player away from competing in the Eastern Conference.

As good as Giannis is.

Look, Miles Turner was a disaster.

I don't blame the Bucks for going and doing it.

I would have done this if, if I'm John Horst and I have the option to cut Damian Lillard, who wasn't going to play, and if my ownership was willing to eat that cost, I can go get a Miles Turner on the.

Market.

I'd do it every day of the week, twice on Sunday.

It didn't work.

It didn't work.

He had among the lowest scoring numbers, I think of his career.

His rebound numbers were terrible.

He wasn't blocking shots.

Like there was, he just wasn't the fit that the Bucks were hoping for.

So I don't think just having Miles Turner, Giannis, insert good guard X here is going to make the Bucks, uh, that much better.

That's why if I'm Milwaukee, Cut the cord, man.

You got to cut the cord.

There's too much opportunity this offseason.

Like there is going to be a bidding war for Giannis.

It's coming.

It's not just two teams.

It's not 3 teams.

It might be 5 teams.

Like we can name a few off the top of our heads.

Miami's in the mix.

Golden State's in the mix.

New York is going to be in the mix .

What if Houston gets bounced in the first round?

All of a sudden they're in the mix.

You might have 456 teams that are presenting offers to you for Giannis.

This is your chance to maximize your leverage.

This is your chance to reboot this team.

For the next 5 years.

You have to go through some tough times.

I think they still have to give a couple of draft picks away, right, to Portland, I believe, has their draft picks.

So that's not going to be all that fun, but this is how you do it.

You, you get as much capital back as you can in exchange for Giannis.

You get a good young player, maybe 2, and all of a sudden, maybe you're not super bad, so you don't have to like hand those picks off as like potential number 1s, but you You've got good draft picks, good young players, and you can just hope your scouting department can find the next big thing in the draft.

Like, to me, it's, it's a, it's, it's over.

It's just over.

Like it just, uh, it has to be, it has to be realized on both sides that it's over.

So first of all, thank you for making my point that they, that keeping him this season was worthwhile even though it didn't work out, giving it the college try and that they're still gonna.

Have an embarrassment of riches of offers.

So thank you.

I appreciate that from the fight we were having last offseason where you would have traded him .

I'm immediately fan.

Like, I know you want to cut bait.

You're just like cut bait and start.

It's the Danny Ainge philosophy of that.

It's been ingrained into my mind.

Like if we're not gonna be, if we're not gonna be a champion, screw it.

Cut it.

Let, let's just trade everybody and reboot this thing on the fly.

I'm, I'm gonna make a list for you of teams that have rebooted that have never gone to a championships.

It takes a lot of luck, um, but also.

I'm, I've asked you this before.

I think, would think Giannis would have a pretty decent say in where he goes.

And I've heard a lot of people being like, oh, there's been too much static between him and ownership.

They're not going to pay attention to where he wants to go anymore.

I don't think it's them paying attention or not.

I think if you, if Golden State's giving up the 4 1st round picks, plus whatever they're going to sweeten the deal with, if whatever, whatever offer some of these teams are going to make, like, I, I don't think they're doing it on the Kawhi Leonard Toronto principle.

I think that they are doing it because they acquiring him unless he's unless he's agreeing to a longer contract.

And also, by the way, I've heard people say, oh, Giannis could re-sign in Milwaukee because he doesn't want to give up the money.

Who's going to give up that much money?

Let me inform you people that he will make a lot of money at wherever his next stop is, and especially if it is a market of any size, he will make endorsement money that will completely.

You know, eradicate any difference.

's not gonna lose a nickel, I was gonna say, so I would take that out of the equation as well.

I, I would think that he will have some say about where he goes, and that is interesting.

Who are the think though he's going to like, I don't think he's going to be like here or nowhere.

I just think that it's not an open bidding.

Right, if you were, I don't know, if you were Orlando and we're like, hey, we want Giannis, we're going to figure this out, which, by the way, I know they can't with the, you know, what they've given up, but I'm just picking teams out of there.

New Orleans, like you, you just, he's gonna say no.

But I think that within reason, I can see him saying these three teams are, are nothing.

I can see him.

He, he was willing to go to Minnesota, yeah.

Like, so it's not like he's eliminating markets.

He's playing in Milwaukee and was willing to go to Minnesota.

He's looking for teams that can give him a chance to win.

He has said many times that his career will be a disappointment if he only wins one championship.

He is championship-driven, so that does open the pool up a little bit.

He's not gonna go.

He's not thinking about Miami to go to South Beach.

He's thinking about Miami.

Can they win me a championship down there, Minnesota, which could soon be in the Eastern Conference.

Yes, well, maybe not for a few years, but yes, that's.

I mean, when Giannis is 34, 35, is he thinking about, all right, we're gonna finally, finally get over to the Eastern Conference.

I think it's It, it just feels done.

It feels like it's over.

It feels in the best interest of both sides.

Like, even if Giannis had 2 years left in his contract instead of 1, after this season where Giannis got hurt a couple of times with his calf injury, like you can't roll the dice if you're Milwaukee.

Giannis to me is, and, and I'm not saying it's a rapid depreciation, but he is a depreciating asset.

It's a very gradual, it's, it's a slow.

Appreciation.

He's probably got 3 years left of playing like an MVP, but you hold on to him another year, it's 2 years left of playing like an MVP.

He gets hurt again with the same type of injuries.

People are gonna think twice about giving up the hall.

I believe, and this is based on some of my reporting, that teams out there are still willing to give up the bag, that they're still being like, all right, whatever we gotta do, you know, the, the Paul George type of deal, the, it's so rare that someone who is still playing at that level comes on the market, will take the risk.

of the injury, if we can get 3 great years out of him, we will do it.

So if you're Houston, if you're Minnesota, if you're New York, if you're Miami, if you're Golden State, and I don't even know who else is gonna fault, the Lakers could wind up getting into the conversation at some point.

Like there are going to be many teams out there looking to get.

I've heard Lakers a lot because we live in LA and people talk, but again, I don't know if, if, I, I, again, I'm going secondhand off of someone I respect's reporting, um, you know , if he doesn't want to be in California or that far west, he doesn't, you know.