Right now, Giannis Antetokounmpo has been reportedly more “open-minded” about leaving and then 100% committing to the team, as it flops back and forth each week.
Now, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the former NBA champ will be surveying the entire league to see what moves they make and how all the pieces fall during the offseason. He will be super vigilante on what Milwaukee will be doing and how they are making the team better around him.
“Giannis Antetokounmpo has been in Milwaukee for 12 years,” NBA insider Shams Charania said on Thursday’s episode of Get Up. “I reported during draft combine and lottery week that he was open-minded about seeing if there are better possible fits outside of Milwaukee. That is a due diligence process that he has undertaken—everyone around him has undertaken as well.”
Shams did stress that Antetokounmpo will not hold one week higher than the rest; that the veteran superstar will take the draft in a chunk, then free agency week-by-week in a chunk, and seeing if they’ll make any big moves.
“He’s going to remain open-minded,” Charania explained. “I don’t think his future is necessarily tied to this week—to free agency week. It’s going to be a process where you see how this team looks into July, well into July potentially, and then ultimately he will see how the Bucks look and how the chess pieces look across the league before reaching a resolution.”
“They don’t have the necessary tools because they have gone all-in multiple, multiple times, so you have to give that organization a lot of credit,” said Charania. “Will the loyalty factor—well, listen, if you’re staying this offseason for Giannis Antetokounmpo, you’re looking at yourself staying for the rest of your career. If you’re going to withstand this, you’re staying.”