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The Los Angeles Lakers have let a few players walk from last season’s championship team but they’ve decided to keep some guys around. Though he didn’t play much this past season, Kostas Antetokounmpo was possibly one of the team’s most important free agents. The Lakers announced that they were bringing him back on a two-way contract.
A two-way contract allows the Lakers to keep Antetokounmpo on the roster without other teams being able to poach. He’ll likely spend most of his time in the G-League but could get a chance to play at times during this season. Antetokounmpo came to the bubble with the Lakers last season and was able to play in five games. The 6’10 forward is young and is loaded with athletic potential but the reason Los Angeles needed to keep him is because of who his brother is.
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Giannis Antetokounmpo Reacts to News
Nobody really knows what Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s plans for his future are but that’s not going to stop teams from trying to woo him to make a change. One team that could be players for the 2-time NBA MVP is the Lakers. He had a strong reaction to the news that his brother is staying in Los Angeles.
Giannis has been Kostas’s biggest cheerleader since he won the championship. The Antetokounmpo brothers are all very close and it wouldn’t be a surprise if they tried to play on the same team together at some point.
Are the Lakers Aiming to Land Giannis?
Kostas is still young and has loads of athletism but it’s hard to imagine he’ll ever develop to anything close to his brother. There’s no doubt that the move for the Lakers to retain him at least has a little bit to do with Giannis. A report recently circulated that Anthony Davis is holding off on signing his contract because he wants to give the Lakers more flexibility in the event that Giannis becomes available.
However, that’s probably a pipe dream. The Milwaukee Bucks are working hard to try and keep their best player in decades. Also, Giannis is more loyal than other NBA starts, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.
“No, the Bucks have remained confident,” Windhorst said on ESPN. “I have to say this. Since the day the season ended, they weren’t feeling great about everything at that time, but talk to those people. They’re like, ‘Look, Giannis is not like Kevin Durant. Giannis is not like LeBron James. This is a different guy. We believe he is all in with us. We believe he is gonna stay.’ And they have consistently said that.”
Giannis clearly does want to build a winner in Milwaukee. He also isn’t going to wait around forever if they can’t build a better roster around him. It might seem like Giannis is leaning towards staying with the Bucks but a lot can still change. If they have another season that ends early in the playoffs, he could start to think about making a change. Moving to sunny Los Angeles and playing with his little brother would probably look appealing if that were to happen.
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