Khris Middleton Downplays Giannis' Comments on Bucks Future: 'Business as Usual'

In late August, Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo told Tania Ganguli of the New York Times that he wouldn't re-sign with the team after the 2024-25 season if he didn't feel like "everybody's on the same page, everybody's going for a championship, everybody's going to sacrifice time away from their family like I do."

He noted that winning championships was his ultimate goal, and that he didn't want to be a part of a rebuild in Milwuakee or didn't want to end up in a situation where he went "20 years on the same team [without winning] another championship."

Those comments raised some eyebrows around the NBA, setting up the possibility that one of the NBA's best players might hit free agency two years. But his teammate, Khris Middleton, told ESPN's Tim Bontemps he wasn't sweating the remarks:

"I think it's kind of business as usual either way. It doesn't affect me personally. I don't think it affects us as a team. I think this is something he said almost every year he's come up in contract extension talks."

"We always want him back for sure. Let's be for sure and let everyone know that. We want this guy to come back because he's one of the best players in the world. He's one of the best players in franchise history. So when he says things like that, I think he just wants to challenge the team, the organization, to keep putting us in position to win championships."

"But I think it's just something that he just wants to keep putting pressure on everybody. And that's himself also. He's not just pointing a finger at everybody else saying, 'You guys have to do this for me.' I think he's putting that pressure on himself to be better, to come in and be great every year. So there's no pressure on, there's no added pressure when he says that to us as a team, or me as a person, that I have to be better."

Since winning a title in the 2020-21 season, these Bucks have won just one playoff series, losing in seven games to the Boston Celtics in the 2021-22 Eastern Conference Semifinals and shockingly in five games to the Miami Heat in last year's opening round.

That resulted in some serious changes this offseason, including the firing of head coach Mike Budenholzer, who was replaced by former Toronto Raptors assistant head coach Adrian Griffin.

But the roster will look largely the same, as Middleton and veteran center Brook Lopez were re-signed. A failure to advance further will not only call into question whether the aging core of Antetokounmpo (28), Middleton (32), Jrue Holiday (33) and Lopez (35) is capable of winning a title together, it will also call into question Antetokounmpo's future in Milwaukee altogether.

And even if the Bucks are able to keep him in such a scenario, it's hard to imagine the organization keeping the band together. Major roster changes would likely have to come.

So it's a pretty huge season for these Bucks. The NBA's 29 other teams look on in anticipation, wondering if they'll get the chance to convince Antetokounmpo in two summers that a change in scenery is just what he needs.