NBA Insider Shams Charania reported on Tuesday morning that discussions between Giannis Antetokounmpo's representation and the Milwaukee Bucks "will escalate" if the team continues losing. If true, what this means is that there's now a tremendous amount of pressure on the Bucks to win games and change the trajectory of this situation.
In his article, Charania writes: Should the Bucks' slide continue, sources said discussions between Antetokounmpo's representation and the franchise will escalate and lead to a resolution before the Feb. 5 trade deadline.
So with that in mind, this becomes simple: get back to contention and win enough games to elevate yourself to the top five or six in the Eastern Conference over the next several weeks, or it appears there will be a much higher likelihood Giannis finds himself on a new team by mid-February. Of course, that's easier said than done with Milwaukee's current situation.
This Bucks team doesn't have a ton of identity at the moment. Ever since Damian Lillard's unfortunate playoff injury and subsequent departure from the franchise, Milwaukee has been struggling to figure out what exactly it's supposed to look like. The Bucks hoped that bringing in Myles Turner and other role players would give them a steadier approach, but that hasn't materialized.
Milwaukee has to get back to winning to keep Giannis Antetokounmpo
What's even more concerning is how dependent Milwaukee remains on Giannis to cover up basically all of their flaws. When he's not on the floor, the process looks clunkier on both sides of the ball. Even when Antetokounmpo is playing, opponents have been crowding the lane and making the Bucks beat them with perimeter creation they can't always rely on.
The roster issues this team has become obvious when you see Giannis repeatedly being forced into isolation late in close games because Milwaukee just can't rely on generating clean looks through set plays often enough. And when Antetokounmpo has been sitting, it's just been one loss after another.
Back on November 14 was when the Bucks defeated the Hornets 147-134 in overtime and held an 8-5 record. Since then, they've lost 10 games out of 12, including a loss to the 3-19 Wizards. It's been a steady down spiral, and the ship has to be righted.
The pressure now rests firmly on Milwaukee's front office. To get back to winning regularly, the Bucks are going to have to either make a swing for a player that can bring more trustworthy shot creation to this team, or hope for some kind of rapid internal improvement. If they can't do either, they'll risk watching the greatest player in franchise history walk out the door.