Milwaukee Bucks: Highlights from Bucks Town Hall Q&A session

Looking ahead to the future

Perhaps the question that all Bucks fans will be wondering about for the next two years, at minimum, the topic of Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo’s future naturally came up during the fan portion of the Q&A.

Horst touched on the current realities of the situation, the supermax extension that looms over his and the franchise’s future and the work they’re doing to retain him and keep him in Milwaukee for the long-term:

"“The answer for it right now is we can’t talk or negotiate anything. So Giannis, basically a year from now, will be eligible for the supermax extension at that time. Of course, he will be offered the supermax extension. Bud and I talk about this all of the time. It’s our responsibility to create an environment, a culture, a basketball organization where our players want to come to work every day with players they want to play with every day and want to win at the highest level. We’ve taken great steps towards that last year, we’re going to continue to build on that and I think we all fully believe that if we continue to put the right things in place and give Giannis the opportunities, he loves the city of Milwaukee, the state of Wisconsin, and I think he’ll be a Buck for a long time.”"

Paschke followed up with how Horst and the organization monitors Antetokounmpo’s happiness and feelings with the team’s current situation and his feelings on staying in Milwaukee long-term, to which Horst answered with this:

"“We just talked about this today, you don’t need to talk to Giannis about it all of the time. He loves his teammates, he loves his coaching staff, he loves the style of play, he loves the city of Milwaukee. And we’re winning at a high level and we’re going to continue to win at a high level. That’s recruiting from within. That’s taking care of our business and doing the best we can for Giannis.”"

Meanwhile, Bucks president Peter Feigin addressed the possibility of the Bucks and the city of Milwaukee hosting a future All-Star game at Fiserv Forum:

"“I think every time we see Adam Silver, I put my fingers in his back and say give us the game. You said you’ll give us the game. I think the All-Star Game is in the Midwest the next few years. I think from the commissioner’s mouth, he’s told us we’re in the pipeline and I don’t think there’s a question that we’ll have an All-Star Game. So our expectation is you build one of the world’s greatest destinations, you’ll have an All-Star Game.”"

Lastly, Feigin rounded out the night with his best hope for the 2019-20 season for the Bucks:

"“I think pretty simple. We’re going for an NBA championship, we’re going for constant improvements. You’re talking to people who are focused on really incubating talent and growing people on the business side, on the player side. We want to be best in class. We want to be the gold standard of sports entertainment organizations in the world. That’s kind of our goal, which keeps on moving and you never get there. But I think we’re pretty motivated as an organization to win championships on the court and win championships off the court.”"

With that, the start of training camp as well as the Bucks’ preseason slate will have to hold us over in the coming weeks and month. But the 2019-20 season will soon be here, Bucks fans.