The Milwaukee Bucks don't view James Harden "as a culture fit for their group" and have no plans to try to trade for him, sources tell Sam Amick of The Athletic.
After trading for Jrue Holiday this offseason, the Bucks also likely lack the requisite trade pieces to acquire Harden unless they found a third team who desperately wants Holiday or Khris Middleton.
Harden and Giannis Antetokounmpo have also appeared to have an icy relationship as they finished first and second in MVP voting in 2019.
Jon Horst believes the Milwaukee Bucks are still in the beginning of their championship window with Giannis Antetokounmpo just turning 26 and newly signed to a five-year supermax contract. Horst became general manager of the Bucks in 2017.
"This is a franchise, in my opinion, that is young in its evolution of championship contention," said Horst to The Athletic. "I think my first year, we won 44 games and went from not having advanced in the playoffs in something like 17 years to a team that wins 60 games, goes to an Eastern Conference Finals, is up, 2-0, to a team last year that had historic success in the regular season before a global pandemic hits. And then didn’t have a very good playoff run and bottomed out into this year. And now, we’ll see.
"There’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot of expectation, and I think we’re all accepting of that and ready for that. But I think we have to be careful too to not forget how this franchise has grown under his coaching, under Giannis’ growth in the last couple of years and we’ve made some significant steps and really grown in great ways. And I’m proud of that. And Bud should be proud of that. And he and his staff deserve a lot of credit. But we’ve got to get better; we talk about it every day. Every day, we’ve got to get better. And I’m telling you, he and his staff have worked every single day to figure out how to improve on what we did in our last playoff run. Our players have done the same thing. And obviously, with the roster, we’ve tried to do everything we can. And I think we’re all being evaluated. We’re all held accountable — players, front office and coaching staff — to constantly get better and put ourselves in a position to compete for a championship every season. And that’s what Giannis signed up for, right? At the end of the day, he signed up for what we’ve done, who we are, and that, now and going forward, we’re going to put ourselves in a position to compete every single year. And we’re all responsible to figure out how to do that."
Torrey Craig suffered a nasal fracture in Sunday night’s game at New York and will not play in Tuesday’s game at Miami.
Craig sustained contact to the head in the fourth period against the Knicks and left the game. He underwent a CT scan and further evaluation this morning in New York that revealed the injury.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is optimistic about the improves the Milwaukee Bucks made this offseason.
Milwaukee defeated the Golden State Warriors 138-99 in their home opener.
"The Milwaukee Bucks this year, we're good ... we're better," Antetokounmpo said after the win. "We have some great guys that we added to the team. They're playing the right way, and once everything fits in together, we're going to be good. It's going to be fun to watch."
Antetokounmpo committed his future to the Bucks by signing a supermax before the start of the season.
Adam Silver said it was a "huge deal" that the Milwaukee Bucks agreed to a supermax extension with Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Antetokounmpo has been the MVP in each of the past two seasons and could have become a free agent in 2021.
"In essence, it means the collective bargaining agreement is working as we designed it," Silver said.
The Milwaukee Bucks have lost their 2022 second round pick following the NBA's investigation into tampering charges against the franchise for an apparent agreement with Bogdan Bogdanovic.
The investigation found that there were early discussions and conduct detrimental to the league.
The penalty took into account hte cooperation from the Bucks with the investigation, the absence of evidence of any impermissible early agreement between the parties, as well as the fact Milwaukee did not ultimately sign Bogdanovic.
Bogdanovic signed with the Atlanta Hawks outright in free agency.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic have been voted the two players NBA general managers would choose to start a team with if they were starting a franchise today.
Antetokounmpo and Doncic each received 43 percent of the vote, followed by Anthony Davis with seven percent of the vote.
Last season, Antetokounmpo received 86 percent of the vote, followed by seven percent apiece for Davis and Doncic.
In 2018, Antetokounmpo also ranked first with 30 percent of the vote, followed by Davis with 23 percent, Kevin Durant with 20 percent and LeBron James with 17 percent.
Leading Vote Percentage By Year
2020: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic (tied, 43.0)
2019: Giannis Antetokounmpo (86.0)
2018: Giannis Antetokounmpo (30.0)
2017: Karl-Anthony Towns (29.0)
2016: Karl-Anthony Towns (48.3)
2015: Anthony Davis (86.2)
2014: LeBron James (50.0)
2013: LeBron James (89.7)
2012: LeBron James (80.0)
2011: LeBron James, Kevin Durant (tied 37.0)
2010: Kevin Durant (55.6)
2009: LeBron James (78.6)
Host Danny Leroux (@DannyLeroux) and Arturo Galletti (@AmericanNumbers) break down the over/unders for the Eastern Conference.
They discuss the win total, division, conference and title odds as well as any pertinent individual award lines for the Knicks (9:52), Cavs (19:48), Pistons (28:38), Hornets (40:52), Bulls (50:01), Magic (1:00:08), Wizards (1:09:56), Hawks (1:21:22), Pacers (1:29:31), Raptors (1:33:59), 76ers (1:41:21), Heat (1:53:40), Celtics (2:00:53), Nets (2:09:20) and Bucks (2:16:54).
The Milwaukee Bucks have no interest in trading for James Harden, according to both ESPN and The Athletic.
Shams Charania of The Athletic recently reported that Harden added both the Bucks and Miami Heat to his list of acceptable teams from his initial two of the Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers.
"I can say unequivocally with no doubt... I know there's been a report that the Bucks are on Harden's list," said Brian Windhorst on his podcast. "I don't even know how that trade would work to be honest."
Windhorst was referring to the Bucks and Houston Rockets finding matching salaries, as well as Milwaukee's depleted asset base following their trade for Jrue Holiday.
"It was news to the Rockets," said Tim MacMahon.
"The Bucks are not interested in James Harden," added Windhorst.
Giannis Antetokounmpo explained his decision to sign a five-year, $228 million supermax contract extension with the Milwaukee bucks in his media availability on Wednesday.
"Have kids and to have a championship. That's all I want," said Antetokounmpo.
"I just want to have kids, being able to raise my kids, and win a championship," he continued while speaking to reporters. "After that, my life's complete. I can retire in five years. Nah, I'm joking."
Antetokounmpo's max contract would have been for four years and $145 million if he had gone elsewhere.
"The way that this city has supported me and my family has been amazing since day one, since the day I walked in the Cousins Center gym and Bradley Center also. It's been amazing. I was 18. I'm 26 right now. All I know is Milwaukee," Antetokounmpo said. "When I came here, all I knew is that this is a city that loves basketball. It's a city that ... we have more things to do now, but when I came here, we had a lot of things to do, so I could just focus on basketball, and it's a place that I want to be. It's a place where I want to raise my kids, and I feel good here. I feel that my family feels good here, so I'm good."
Winning a title is ultimately Antetokounmpo's goal.
"I think we can get better. I believe we can be better. We've got better," Antetokounmpo said. "We have a great team. We have a great culture. I know that I'm working toward that goal. The front office is working toward that goal, so I'm good. I'm happy. I think everybody's on the same page.
"At the end of the day, you've got to look at the past. We've gotten better every single year. In my opinion, the last two years were realistically the two years where we fight for a championship. The years before that, there wasn't championship years, so it's not going to be easy."
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