Getty Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks
Score one for the NBA small markets while, at the same time, witness a few dreams die in places from Miami to the Bay Area to Los Angeles.
Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, the two-time reigning MVP, has agreed to a supermax extension to stay with the team, a five-year contract worth a hefty $228.2 million payout—at least. At an average of $45.6 million per year, Antetokounmpo will be the highest paid player on a per-year basis in the NBA next season, moving ahead of Lakers star LeBron James ($44.5 million).
Giannis Antetokounmpo becomes the 6th player to sign a supermax contract.
The others:
Steph Curry
Damian Lillard
James Harden
Russell Westbrook
John Wall
The Bucks keeping Antetokounmpo marks one of the most significant contracts in the history of the NBA. He becomes just the sixth player in the NBA to sign a supermax deal, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, joining Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and John Wall. The supermax was put into place as an NBA rule to encourage star players to remain with the teams that drafted them.
While it is a huge moment for the Bucks as a franchise, Antetokounmpo’s deal is a blow to teams around the league that had been protecting cap space to make a run at him in free agency in the summer of 2021, when his current contract expires. The Warriors were long rumored to have targeted Antetokounmpo, either by trade or in free agency, but the Lakers had also planned to make a run at him, as well as the Miami Heat.
That’s not happening. It will be time for contingency plans in all those markets.
Miami Heat Had Giannis Plans
There is no doubt that the Heat, along with the Lakers, Warriors and the Raptors, had plans to pursue Antetokounmpo if he had decided to become a free agent next summer.
JImmy Butler and the newly extended Bam Adebayo are under contract next season but just about everyone else has a team option lurking, meaning the Heat have the right to rescind their contracts and save the cap space. When it came time to bring back key rotation player Jae Crowder this offseason, the Heat let him go to Phoenix ono a three-year deal because Miami did not want to commit to him past this season.
That is the commitment to flexibility the franchise has been sticking with. The Heat could potentially have more than $40 million in cap space next summer.
But now they won’t be able to spend it on Antetokounmpo. There still could be plenty of talent on the 2021 market–Kawhi Leonard and Paul George have options, Rudy Gobert, DeMar DeRozan, Steven Adams, Holiday–but the biggest fish will not be on the board.
Bucks Went All-In This Offseason
So Antetokounmpo will stay put in Milwaukee. There was speculation that he was not happy with the team in the wake of last year’s playoff flameout, the second straight year the Bucks entered the postseason as the favorite to reach the Finals but failed.
Milwaukee had a disaster of a second-round showing against the Heat, and their season ended in major disappointment there.
The Bucks set out to upgrade the roster significantly this offseason, and did so by adding guard Jrue Holiday as well as backups D.J. Augustin and Torrey Craig. The added forward Bobby Portis, too.
There was some concern about whether that would be enough to persuade Antetokounmpo to re-sign, especially after the Bucks botched a potential sign-and-trade with Sacramento for Bogdan Bogdanovic. Turns out, though, it was plenty to keep the MVP in green.
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