It’s Time For The Milwaukee Bucks To Show Giannis Antetokounmpo The Love That He Has Shown Them

Not signing Giannis Antetokounmpo to an extension this summer wouldn’t make it any less likely that he’ll see out his next contract with the Milwaukee Bucks, but making him the guy this summer could send out a much more valuable message.

There are good and bad situations to be in when it comes to NBA teams facing the prospect of extending their young players at the end of their rookie scale contracts. To be very clear, there’s nothing bad about where the Milwaukee Bucks currently find themselves with Giannis Antetokounmpo.

With Antetokounmpo eligible to sign an early extension between July 7 and October 31, a big decision lies ahead for the Bucks in the coming months.

Just because it’s an important decision, don’t let that lead you to believe that it should be any less straightforward though.

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The Milwaukee Bucks owe it to their painfully grim recent past, and their hopefully brighter future to offer Antetokounmpo his five year max contract at the earliest possible opportunity, and there are a whole host of reasons why.

First of all, the Bucks have spent the best part of the past 15 years waiting for star quality players to come their way. Of course there have been exceptions to that drought since the breakup of the last “Big Three” (most notably Michael Redd) but otherwise the picture has not been a pretty one.

Names like Desmond Mason, John Salmons, Corey Maggette, Stephen Jackson, Monta Ellis and Larry Sanders don’t exactly inspire confidence in a fanbase. Even when the Bucks have been lucky enough to find themselves with the first overall pick, they’ve selected wisely, yet failed to reap the ultimate rewards.

Both Andrew Bogut and Glenn Robinson proved to be good picks, but still as time can testify they weren’t the type of players who would transform the franchise to the point of being a dominant dynasty.

To compete on a yearly basis over a long period of time takes a special talent, and finally with Giannis, Milwaukee might have found theirs. From his triple-doubles, to his chameleon-like ability to assume different roles, Antetokounmpo’s third season justified the ever growing hype.

The Bucks have had plenty of special teams since the franchise’s one and only championship (consistent contenders of the late 70’s/early 80’s, ’01 Conference Finalists), but for a small market franchise it seems telling that the only time they actually got over the line came behind the talents of a unique player in the form of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Antetokounmpo is a long, long way from those heights still, but he’s arguably the closest Milwaukee has gotten to having a player with the potential to drive the team to similar successes. At the very least, if the Bucks are serious in ending the Eastern Conference’s current longest running streak without a playoff series win, securing Antetokounmpo’s future would seem like a good place to start.

Of course, there’s an argument for holding off on Giannis’ extension. It has nothing to do with his abilities and productions, instead centered around the intricacies of rookie NBA contracts.

The worst case scenario for the Bucks would be a failure to come to terms with Antetokounmpo or a reluctance to get a deal done now on either side’s part leading to him signing an offer sheet elsewhere next summer, and yet that would still mean nothing.

If the Bucks allow Antetokounmpo to see out his contract, he’ll be a restricted free agent and they’ll have the option to match any contract he’s offered from elsewhere. Even if failed negotiations with Milwaukee soured Antetokounmpo’s perception of the team to the point where he wanted to play elsewhere next summer, the Bucks would simply match any offer and watch him return.

The problem with taking that path is that the Bucks have nothing to gain by allowing things to reach that point.

If they’re waiting in case they can find a way to get him to take a discount, they’re going to be waiting a long time. Antetokounmpo has earned his money, and in the current market, there will likely be players of lesser ability who find themselves earning just as much as him.

Either way, they’re going to have to pay the Greek Freak in 2017, so they’d seem to be better served leaving him with no doubt of their commitment to him, and tying him down as quickly as they can, for as long as they can.

The reason why that’s so important is that Antetokounmpo doesn’t want to play anywhere else.

It’s something that he has stated on multiple occasions over the past 12 months, and he reiterated it in his latest blog post for EuroHoops.net this week:

"I see guys like Tim Duncan, Kobe, who’ve stayed in the same city and the same team for decades. I don’t like changes in my life. I believe that Milwaukee, as an organization but also as a city in general, can make you a better person as well as a better player.…I’m not interested in representing a bigger city, or a larger market, that for many people might be more important to the NBA. I want to achieve something similar to what – for example – Tim Duncan has done in San Antonio or Kobe in Los Angeles. To stay for many years, to succeed in Milwaukee and then for young guys that want to play with me to come here and all of us together to share the highest goals."

The reason that the signing of Greg Monroe was so widely celebrated last summer was that free agents have famously never wanted to come to Milwaukee.

Yet here we are, the Bucks have a 21-year-old who could become one of the league’s best players, and he has no intention of playing anywhere else.

Next: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Olympic Summer Still Uncertain

It really couldn’t get any simpler. The time has come for the Bucks to return the love that Giannis has been so vocal in showering upon them, and to move towards the next stage of what’s shaping up to be an exciting future. Milwaukee has its special talent, now it’s all about keeping him.