Well, that was disappointing.
The honeymoon period is officially over. You'd think that winning their first title since the Nixon administration would have bought a little more goodwill between Giannis and the Bucks, but it's been half a decade since and Milwaukee hasn't even sniffed the Larry O'Brien. Such is this new era of parity in pro basketball.
And it's not like Milwaukee's front office hasn't tried. They've taken big swings, for better or for worse. And what more can a superstar ask for? Dame might have been too expensive given his age, but on paper and on the heels of the Super Team Era (TM), he and Giannis made sense. And say what you want about Kyle Kuzma (gross), you can't say that Milwaukee waited or sat too long on an incumbent starter and secondary star. Supermax players would love to have a front office that tries as much as the Bucks' has. Giannis is the reason his own brother has a contract!
And yet.
What was supposed to be a new NBA dynasty feels dead. New superpowers are popping up everywhere, there's a new unicorn in town (where are the San Antonio conspiracy theories?), and Milwaukee already feels like a team of the past. And to keep their star, they might just be looking to look to the past as well.
In an appearance on the Pat McAfee show, Shams Charania made the claim that Doc Rivers and Bucks GM Jon Horst have both pitched Giannis on the idea of having the ball in his hands more for the upcoming season. No retooling, no gap year, just a change in scheme. Just one more push before Thanasis' contract stops buying them grace from his older brother. Giannis ... Baby Shaq ... the point forward.
Giannis Antetokounmpo has played this role before
Not that anyone's truly unaware, but I think that most of us are forgetting that pre-steroid Giannis (it's a joke, calm down) was a truer unicorn than he actually is today. He was drafted as a damn-near 7-foot-0 wing with guard skills, and for a few years in the mid-2010's, then coach Jason Kidd fully committed to the bit. From 2015-2017, Giannis logged almost every single minute as a 1 or 2 before slotting into the super-mobile-death-forward-center we know him as today.
And yes, the Bucks back then weren't great. At best, they made it to a couple of games above .500 in the Jason Kidd/Point Giannis Era. But that might not have necessarily been the fault of either. Giannis was young, and his body and skills were still very much in development, all while he was still learning to quarterback an NBA team. And the roster didn't help either -- Khris Middleton wouldn't become Khris Middleton until 2018, and at one point in that era, the Bucks' second-leading scorer was Jabari Parker.
Fast forward to now, and Giannis has basically devolved into Orlando-era Shaq with a bit of a jumper, and while he doesn't run point, you can still see him initiating plays on the perimeter from time to time (he barely trailed Dame to lead Milwaukee in APG). His supporting cast is also way better -- and fits better with the idea of Giannis as an offensive hub, rather than an endpoint scorer. Lillard, at this point in his career, simply can't sustain the high-end usage he ran in Portland. However, he's always been more of a score-first point guard anyway, and with another player to get him in his spots, Dame can still average well north of 20 points per game for a few seasons without straining too much of his engine. And say what you want about Kyle Kuzma, the guy can flat out score.
Now, whether or not Giannis the Point Center will get the Bucks back to dynasty status is anyone's guess. However, Milwaukee has the pieces to make the scheme work, and moreover, their secondary star(s) profile as huge beneficiaries of Giannis initiating more of the offense. Who knows if it will work? But it has more of a chance to than you'd think at first glance.
And regardless -- if Giannis is to stay in Milwaukee, it kind of has to.