There is apparently a storm cloud coming over Milwaukee that could potentially rock the NBA.
After the Bucks were eliminated in the first-round of the playoffs, and Milwaukee fired its head coach Mike Budenholzer on Thursday, all eyes are on Giannis Antetokounmpo.
During an appearance on Friday’s installment of “First Take,” ESPN senior NBA writer Brian Windhorst said the league is monitoring the Bucks’ situation this offseason due to “uncertainty” surrounding Antetokounmpo, who is up for a contract extension in September.
While discussing the Bucks’ future, Windhorst seemed to imply that the Knicks are keeping a quiet eye on Antetokounmpo’s situation in Milwaukee.
“The New York Knicks for example, they have got 97 percent of their attention on the Miami Heat [in the Eastern Conference semifinals playoff series], and three percent of their attention on Milwaukee,” Windhorst said, before he asked repeatedly: “What’s going on over there?
“Now, I was in Cleveland with LeBron James,” Windhorst, who was reported on James since his high school days, added. “LeBron James was a nonrenewable resource for Cleveland. He walks out the door, he’s not coming back. In Milwaukee, Giannis Antetokounmpo is a nonrenewable resource… When Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] left [Milwaukee], they didn’t go back to the [NBA] Finals for over 40 years.
“So I would say that the Bucks might do everything they possibly can and exhaust themselves to keep this together, but I don’t know what’s going to happen, and that uncertainty is one of the biggest storylines in the NBA.”
Windhorst suggested that Antetokounmpo could wait and see if the Bucks resign free agent veterans Brook Lopez and Khris Middleton — but questioned if Milwaukee will have the capital.
“There is no indication that [Antetokounmpo] has given that he wants to leave, but if he doesn’t extend, it’s a major red flag for what’s going on with the organization [Milwaukee],” Windhorst said. “And he’s going to sit there and watch whether they sign [Brook] Lopez and [Khris] Middleton and I’m not sure they’re going to be able to do it. Are they going to have the same team, are they going to lay out hundreds of millions in taxes for Middleton and Lopez? I don’t know.
“Is Giannis going to extend? I don’t know. And that uncertainty is what the league is watching right now.”
Windhorst was making his rounds in the morning show circuit and first touted a theory on “Get Up” that former Bucks owner Marc Larsy sold the team mid-season in February because “he knew there were problems coming for the franchise.”
“One of the big reasons he sold was because he saw a storm cloud on the horizon with this team and the first clap of thunder just happened,” Windhorst said. “… Budenholzer had to take the fall because they went out in the first round.”
Milwaukee fired its head coach Thursday, after his top-seeded team was eliminated in the first round by the No. 8 seed Heat.
It could be a rocky offseason for the Bucks front office as the team is in the luxury tax repeater for the first time with two star free agents.
Meanwhile, in the playoffs, the Knicks are currently focused on making it to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2000.
Game 3 of the Knicks-Heat series is set for Saturday in Miami.
