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The Milwaukee Bucks are off to a nightmarish 1-3 start, with their lone win at the expense of a Philadelphia 76ers team without Joel Embiid and Paul George.
With their schedule not getting any lighter, speculations about the Bucks’ franchise star Giannis Antetokounmpo come into focus.
CBS Sports national columnist Bill Reiter wrote on Thursday, October 31, that Antetokounmpo’s preferred landing spots if things continue to go south in Milwaukee are the Miami Heat and the Brooklyn Nets.
“Teams are circling — and hopeful,” one Western Conference team executive said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened by the trade deadline,” said a top executive of a team that could be in the mix.
An Eastern Conference NBA executive has already heard the places believed to be Giannis’ would-be preferred destinations: “The teams I’ve heard are Miami and New York — the Nets, not the Knicks.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo Fuels Trade Rumors
The 29-year-old Antetokounmpo signed a three-year, $186 million contract extension with the Bucks last year, which locked him up until the 2026-27 season with a player option for the 2027-28 season.
The signing was viewed then as Antetokounmpo recommitting to the Bucks after they went all-in on the Damian Lillard blockbuster trade. But the Lillard experiment is not panning out as they hoped it would.
Antetokounmpo planted seeds of doubts about his future in Milwaukee earlier this month in an interview with Sam Amick of The Athletic.
“If we don’t win this year, would you get fired?” Antetokounmpo asked a staffer during the interview, according to Amick. “Do you have it in the back of your mind, like, ‘(What) if this year doesn’t go well?’ Yeah, if we don’t win a championship, I might get traded. Yeah, this is the job we live in. This is the world we’re living in. It’s everybody.”
Doc Rivers Still Upbeat Despite Bucks’ 1-3 Start
The Bucks are on a three-game losing streak after opening the season with a 124-109 win over the depleted Sixers. The next two were ugly double-digit losses to the Chicago Bulls and the Nets, two teams who are not expected to be in the playoffs this season. Their last loss came at the hands of the defending champion Boston Celtics 119-108 on October 28.
Despite the concerning losing streak, Bucks coach Doc Rivers was still a picture of confidence when he faced the press following their October 30 practice.
“Our record is 1-3 and yet this team, you can feel it, we’re close to taking off,” Rivers said, per Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “And we know that. But we’re not there. But we’re close to it.”
It’s easier said than done.
Their next six games are against playoff contenders, except for the Utah Jazz.
They visit Memphis tonight, October 31, then meet the Cleveland Cavaliers in a home-and-away schedule next. After the Cavaliers, they will face the Jazz, then visit the New York Knicks and host the Celtics.
Rivers was encouraged by what he’d seen from this Bucks team, still without Khris Middleton, when they took a 73-70 lead before fading late in the second half.
“I don’t like moral victories, but I just thought that’s what we can be, at least for three quarters,” Rivers said. “I thought we ran out of gas a little bit.”
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