The Milwaukee Bucks have become way too familiar with the danger zone this season. They've won one of their last nine games, with their lone win during that span coming against the tanking (on purpose) Jazz. With 16 games left in the regular season, the team sits six games back from play-in tournament territory. Oh, and to make matters worse, Giannis could leave this summer!
Milwaukee didn't waive-and-stretch the remainder of Damian Lillard's contract over the offseason to create the space to sign Myles Turner for whatever this season has been. The front office didn't keep Antetokounmpo past the deadline, thinking the season would end on April 12. The superstar didn't return from his calf injury at the beginning of the month for fun.
Whatever is going on with the Bucks is the exact opposite of how they needed this season to go to convince Giannis to extend this summer. They wanted to avoid another first-round elimination, just not because they failed even to make it that far.
Bucks missing the playoffs and trading Giannis is getting more real
Antetokounmpo may have told The Athletic that it's not in his nature to request a trade (subscription required), but if he lets the front office know that he doesn't intend to sign an extension, that will be Milwaukee's sign to move on from him. He won't be eligible to sign a new deal until Oct. 1, but the Bucks should know long before then what he intends to do.
At this point, Giannis leaving isn't some alternate universe the Bucks desperately want to avoid — it's looking more like the reality we live in. He wants to win a second championship, and Milwaukee's all but run out of options to convince him to hang around. And no, a top pick in the draft probably wouldn't be enough, considering Antetokounmpo is 31 and knows that time is ticking.
There is still a sliver of hope that the Bucks are grasping onto, as they're not eliminated from postseason contention yet, but it's rapidly disappearing. They would be better off not playing Giannis in another game this season, not just to risk the injury we're all thinking about but don't want to say out loud, but to increase their lottery odds.
The fact that this is the kind of thing we're thinking about midway through March says it all. At least this nightmare of a season will be over soon, but it could culminate in an even worse nightmare.