New Calf Injury Complicates a Giannis Trade

All right, uh, we mentioned Giannis, and I do want to touch on him, uh, for a minute.

Uh, Giannis, now out for the Bucks 4 to 6 weeks.

He says he's diagnosing himself, um, after the, the most recent game, uh, with a calf strain.

This is the 2nd calf strain that Giannis has suffered this season.

This is his 4th calf strain in the last couple of years.

Uh, you and I both know calf strain are like the two words that send chills up the spine of NBA front offices, not just because of how Serious they can be, but what they can become, you know, the calf can pop, it could be an Achilles tear.

Lots of bad things can come from even the most mild calf strains.

That's why teams generally take a, uh, long view with the calf.

So Anthony Davis sitting out extra time with his recent calf injury to make sure that he was all the way back and healthy, uh, from it.

So now you've got Giannis out until after the NBA, uh, trade deadline.

Um, Let me start with you, as a player, like, when you see a guy with this many calf strains, now into his 30s, uh, what, what does that represent to you?

What does that mean to you?

How, how nervous would you be about Giannis's future seeing how many calf strains that he's been suffering from?

When I go worst case and I pull up Dame Lillard.

Last year he had numerous calf strains, you know what I mean?

And he was struggling in that sense.

Also in the 30s, they always try to tell you that's the first thing that goes, you know, is, uh, the Achilles.

I think one thing that we forget a lot because, you know, I think Bron staffing them made it so normal.

Giannis put in a lot of work through his twenties, like through like his body has had a lot of wear and tear.

Like we, we talk about his versatility, but the past 4 or 5 years he's just played like a dominant big man where it's not only taking like The skill set that he has has taken all his natural ability, power, and grit.

Like, you see him dunking through stuff, you see him posting, pushing and doing everything.

I, I, I always just wonder how much uh How much tread is left on those tires naturally, especially a guy when you look at his numbers, it's like, bro, it's it's a two-time MVP two-time Defensive Player of the Year.

You know, brought a whole franchise from nowhere.

It's just like there's a lot of wear and tear on his back and that, and that calf just keeps coming, coming back and it's not even so much if you can get him on the court, it's like what you're asking him to do, especially in this landscape of basketball.

If Giannis is on your team, like we said before, he's taking up 35% in salary cap.

So I saw him sitting there, not only is he taking up 35% of the salary cap, he's probably by far the best player and he has to play in a very, very unique way.

You can't put Giannis in a situation where it's a KD where it's like, yo, I'm gonna, I'm gonna beat you without dribbling.

Like he's a He needs every bit of that hemmy to make himself go, or else he's uh.

He's not the same Giannis, and when you're sitting there and God is still developing his jump shot in year 12, it's like that's going to change the game heavily, and you could go from looking at they're, they're two different players, but a Stoudemire type dominance before the knee injury to being like, hey, is this guy the best guy to have with the ball, ball in our hands after he lost his athleticism, you know what I mean?

And yeah, um, I'll make a different comparison because I was talking to a coach about this this morning.

Um, this coach said to me that you have to look at Giannis like a post-Lakers Shaq, where when he's on the floor, he's still going to be a dominant player, but you have to manage him.

Like you have to keep his minutes down, you have to sit him for a certain number of games.

Um, he's, he's physically going to be overwhelming when he's out there on the floor, but you, you can't count on him.

To be that guy for 65, 70 types of games in the regular season.

And, and that's so scary in that sense because no matter what, Giannis's personality and how he plays is such a big identity to that team.

So like, it's night and day if he's going to play or not.

So you got to like manage him, garner him and be like, hey, we got to govern how he comes along.

You got to have a, like I said, this is different than back in the day with Shaq and them when your best player is taking up 35% of the salary.

Like, when he's coming over, correct me if I'm wrong , Chris, you got to be full throttle Giannis from 2021, not this, hey bro, we put some dirt on it.

And now you could, you can easily end up in a situation like the Clippers where your third option breaks his hip, another person does this, some goofy stuff occurs, and now Giannis is out.

He can't play back to backs.

It's, it's, it's just, it's very risky.

He has to go to like the right type of team, but like he put a lot of work in this league, and I comprehend why he's going down or his body's hurting.

It's.

It's scary to trade for that.

Well, that's the thing, that's the thing too, like, um, you know, a trade, look, I'd be shocked if a trade happened before the February 5th deadline.

There's just too many moving parts and a team like Milwaukee, which operates very deliberately, which has aggressively been upgrading the roster around Giannis to the point where they won a championship and have repeatedly satisfied Giannis's desire for this team to be.

Competitive.

Uh, you know, they would want to take this into the offseason.

Look, I, I, I believe they can deal as many as 3 first-round draft picks on draft night.

Like that, their, their flexibility increases on draft night.

Um, so there's still a window where they can say, look, Giannis, um, if we shut you down right now, which is I think is possible, we can get a lottery pick.

They have the, Uh, the worst of the two picks between themselves and New Orleans, which really means they have their own pick in this year's draft because New Orleans is gonna be worse.

Uh, but if they shut Giannis down, we could say, hey, we've got a lottery pick in a really deep draft.

We've got multiple draft picks we can deal in the future.

We might be able to get you a guy that can help you win.

We still got Miles Turner under contract.

You're under contract.

Some, you know, Ryan Rollins, a year older, you know, whatever .

You got some pieces there.

Uh, in Milwaukee.

Or you can go to the flip side and say, all right, let's just take our time and let's spend a month trying to find the best deal that's out there because this is the most important moment probably in the history of the Milwaukee Bucks franchise.

But I'll tell you, like, to bring it back to these calf injuries, like if I'm teams out there.

To, to your early point, I'm not deep digging that deep into my war chest to go get this guy because I don't know what the next 3 years look like.

I, I don't know if he's going to be an MVP caliber player for an entire season.

Like when he's out there, still one of the best two-way players in the game, but I don't know if he's gonna be able to be there.

That guy.

So, like, like use San Antonio, for example.

Like, why in the world would San Antonio deal one of their young players and top draft picks to, to go get him when you have, you know, a great core anywhere.

The teams that are gonna be looking at him are probably a team like New York, which is kind of in that weird Place right now where they're good but not great.

Golden State, we talked about, I think they're absolutely in play if they can get Milwaukee interested in a draft pick-centric offer.

Miami would probably be in play.

They're another team kind of in the middle.

You know, you could do Tyler Hero and Terry Rozier and some kind of package there.

Uh, so these are the types of teams, teams that are a little more desperate for, for someone like Giannis, not the, which, what I'm saying is not probably the young teams that Milwaukee would be hoping to deal with to get themselves young talent and multiple draft picks.

Absolutely.

I.

I know Giannis, it's just so, it's just so tough to trade for Giannis because now when like or go get him or whatever else because I always think about Giannis when he's talking about like, hey, sometimes basketball is not about the best skill.

It's not about this, it's not about, you know, that and, and he's always hung his head on his motor and how hard he worked and it's just like, man, if that, if that motor has to do something with your greatness.

And now like every, you got, he's getting a tune-up now more and more often.

He's going into the pit stops, damn near every, every other time around the track and it's just like, man, this is.

That calf, bro, is, is something serious, man.

It's not like he's going to go do like a three-mile jog or some goof.

He's going to go play in the NBA and it, and it's just.

I don't even wanna, I don't want to knock on wood for Buddy.

It, it's just a tough situation to be in.

I, I definitely understand like when they do get a trade, I would love to see, I think I saw like a, a fake trade or a proposed trade where They trade Giannis to, uh, was it Detroit?

Pistons aren't doing that.

Pistons aren't doing that.

I don't even know what you're even gonna say on the other end.

The Pistons are not doing that.

It was something Trail Blazers against McKale Bridges.

The Bucks get Ogianu Obi, Jaden Ivy, like 3 first-round picks or something, some, some type of crazy pick, and I forgot, and Giannis went to New York with Karl-Anthony Towns and, uh, Jalen Brunson still there, but, but the Knicks lose OG and they lose McKae Bridges.

I think Portland, I, I think Portland could be in play as a third team with Giannis if, if, if, again, I don't think there'll be a deal, but I think Portland could be in play as.

One of those types of teams facilitating a deal, making, you know, taking on a part of that package.

But again, I would be really surprised.

Like Milwaukee, whenever I talk to teams about conversation with the Bucks, the Bucks are still in by now mode.

I actually think it's, it's prop, given the, the severity of the Giannis injury, and if you're talking 4 to 6 weeks, you're into March at that point.

I would tell Giannis, take the rest of the year off, man.

Well, let's get your body right and let's, let's sink in the standings and call it.

Absolutely.

You're absolutely right.

He, he gotta help himself, but Uh, man, this is, that's a tough call, Chris.

And I'm just, and I love Giannis at that.

I just like.

Man, when your motor go and, you ain't got no real skill set, shit, you, you in a way like you start becoming an old Zach Randolph or Al Jefferson or some shit like that, like you just start being like, man, this shit don't work no more.

I don't.

But even those guys, guys you mentioned like Al Jefferson, people forget like he had some skills like he could post up and he could, he could put you in a blender and, and Debo kind of the same thing, like, yeah, absolutely, and they were always operating from 10 ft away from the rim.

Giannis is trying to make it happen 90 ft.

It's.

I, I pray for them.

I pray they figure it out because, uh, you know, Obviously, you don't want to lose a big star like they did back in the day day like Kareem, but, you know, this is a, this is a big thing for the city of Milwaukee, all the investments they put in, so, hopefully they figure it out.