Bucks Notes: Giannis, Turner, Green, Roster Competition
Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo wasn’t able to attend media day on Monday and will miss the start of training camp as he deals with a case of COVID-19. However, Antetokounmpo participated in media day from Greece via Zoom, according to Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who notes that the two-time MVP reiterated his desire to win another championship and confirmed reporting that he weighed his options outside of Milwaukee during the offseason.
“Guys, every summer there’s truth. To every report. The same thing I’ve been saying my whole career – I want to be on a team that allows me, gives me a chance to win a championship and wants to compete at a high level,” Antetokounmpo said. “I think it’s a disservice to basketball, it’s a disservice just to the game to not want to compete at a high level, to not want your season to end in April.
“So, it’s pretty much the same. It’s not the first time. I had the same thoughts last year, I had the same thoughts two years ago, I had the same thoughts five years ago – yeah, 2020 – so it’s never gonna change. I want to be among the best, I want to compete with the best, and I want to win another championship and that’s it.”
Bucks co-owner and governor Wes Edens had told reporters, including Owczarski, earlier in the day on Monday that he had a “great conversation” with Antetokounmpo in June and that the nine-time All-Star “made it clear that he was very committed to Milwaukee.”
For his part, Giannis said he didn’t recall that discussion, but he stressed that he has faith in his teammates and is hopeful the Bucks can do better this season after being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in three straight seasons.
“Hopefully, we can get on the same page and understand what’s at risk right now,” he said. “The last three years we’ve been eliminated in the first round, so there’s not much to talk about. We just gotta put our butts down, put our heads down and stay locked in the whole year long and try to win some games and hopefully get in the playoffs and then don’t get eliminated in the first round. That’s pretty much it. And then we go from there.”
Here’s more on Giannis and the Bucks:
- Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis both expressed excitement about the Bucks’ offseason addition of Myles Turner to the frontcourt. Antetokounmpo referred to it as an “incredible” move that he’s “very excited” about (Twitter link via Eric Nehm of The Athletic), while Portis said he likes that he, Giannis, and Turner are all around the same age. “We can grow together. We can get better together,” Portis said, per Ben Steele of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscription required). “Three big men that can do a lot of things with the basketball. A very versatile frontcourt. Those three bigs, you can’t really find three better bigs on another team.”
- Edens told reporters on Monday that getting “younger and more athletic” was a priority this offseason (Twitter link via Nehm), while general manager Jon Horst said he thinks Antetokounmpo is capable of making the club’s supporting cast better — and vice versa. “This team is built to maximize Giannis, but Giannis can actually maximize this team,” Horst said, according to ESPN’s Jamal Collier. “This is a team that is really hungry to earn whatever we get, and they want to deserve to win. And that’s going to be our style of play, that’s going to be playing together, and that’s going to feature the best player in the world, and Giannis and a bunch of guys that fit him really, really well.”
- Horst told reporters, including Steele and Owczarski, that the Bucks have had “a lot of conversations” with A.J. Green and his agent about a possible contract extension. Green is entering the final year of his current contract and would be an unrestricted free agent in 2026 if he doesn’t sign a new deal before then. “We’d love to have A.J. with us for a long time. We’re able to work on that, and we are working on that,” the Bucks’ GM said. “No one works harder than A.J. High, high character individual. Underrated as an offensive player. Underrated as a defensive player. Another player that I think will have another big jump for us this year.”
- Milwaukee is carrying 15 players on fully guaranteed contracts, but with Andre Jackson Jr. on a partially guaranteed deal and Amir Coffey in camp on a non-guaranteed contract, Horst doesn’t view the regular season roster as set. “Absolutely not,” he said, per Steele and Owczarski. “… I actually think we have 21 players that deserve a chance to be on an NBA roster, to be on our roster. … We were presented the opportunity as the offseason progressed to add some players that we thought were just too good to be true and really just great opportunities and we’re going to let the guys play it out. I think competition gives us a great opportunity to have a great start to our camp and a great start to our season and these guys are all fully aware of what they’re playing for and what the stakes are and they’re all capable. So truly, kind of best player, best man win mentality. We want to put the best 15, plus three two-ways, that we can on the roster.”
Central Notes: Pacers, Giannis, Giddey, Bulls, Pistons
The Pacers won’t have their star point guard and team leader Tyrese Haliburton available at all in 2025/26 while he recovers from an Achilles tear. However, that doesn’t mean the team views the coming season as a “gap year,” as Dustin Dopirak writes for The Indianapolis Star.
“I don’t think that’s ever been what we’ve been about,” general manager Chad Buchanan told reporters on Thursday. “With Mr. (Herb) Simon as our owner, it’s always been about trying to compete and trying to win. Some years are going to be more challenging than others. Obviously, we’re down Tyrese and that will make some challenges. But we’re not looking at this as a year to try and get through. We’d never wish away a season.”
The Pacers are widely expected to take a step backward without Haliburton after making the Eastern Conference Finals in 2024 and NBA Finals in 2025. Oddsmakers view them as more likely to miss the playoffs than to make it. While Buchanan acknowledged that playing without Haliburton will likely affect Indiana’s style, slowing down the pace of the offense, he pointed out that most of the rest of the roster (with the notable exception of center Myles Turner) is returning and that those players have exhibited a tendency to defy expectations.
“This team has shown that they come together when people kinda doubt them,” Buchanan said. “I think they feel and they sense and they hear the doubt about this season for us. We’re still going to have a lot of the same identity. We still have a lot of the same core pieces on this team. The traits that those guys bring, what our coaches bring, are still there. I wouldn’t put a limit on anything this year.”
Here’s more from around the Central:
- Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, in an interview with Sport24, said he could envision himself playing for a European club later in his career if the timing and conditions were right, as Eurohoops relays. Antetokounmpo also suggested he’s probably not the only European star who feels that way. “Of course it can happen,” he said. “If you told (Nikola) Jokic that he would earn roughly the same money and be back home in Serbia, he would do it. For me, I think a lot about my body. The money is very different, and not just the money – the whole organization is completely different. You’ve been to the NBA, you’ve seen how things work. But every year when I play for the national team, I always end up saying the same thing.”
- Josh Giddey‘s new four-year contract with the Bulls is worth exactly $100MM, is fully guaranteed (with no incentives or options), and features annual cap hits of $25MM, Hoops Rumors has confirmed. The flat structure of the deal means it will be worth a smaller percentage of the salary cap in future seasons, allowing Chicago to maximize its flexibility down the road.
- The Bulls announced a series of promotions and additions within their basketball opreations department, including naming Faizan Hasnany as their executive director of basketball strategy and analytics.
- Longtime Pistons scout Durand “Speedy” Walker has earned a promotion and will serve as the president of basketball operations of the Motor City Cruise, the team’s G League affiliate, according to a press release. Walker has more than 18 years of experience in the organization.
And-Ones: ESPN Survey, S. Cash, Bargain FAs, More
A panel of 20 coaches, executives, and scouts around the NBA polled by ESPN’s Tim Bontemps overwhelmingly picked Nuggets center Nikola Jokic as the current best player in the NBA, with Jokic receiving 19 votes while Lakers guard Luka Doncic earned the last one.
However, the predictions for 2025/26 MVP were more divided — Jokic leads the way with seven votes, but Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (five), Doncic (four), and Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama (two) each received multiple votes, while Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards each got one too.
The panel polled by Bontemps also predicted who will be the NBA’s best player in 2030 (Wembanyama received 16 votes), who will win Rookie of the Year in 2025/26 (Cooper Flagg earned 19 votes), and where LeBron James will be when the 2026/27 season begins — seven respondents expect him to still be a Laker, while five said he’ll be retired and eight believe he’ll be with a new team.
Those coaches, executives, and scouts also believe the Hawks (seven votes) had the best offseason of the NBA’s 30 teams, while the Pelicans (nine votes) had the worst summer. And they nearly unanimously picked the Thunder to repeat as champions. Just two respondents chose the Nuggets to win the 2026 title, while the other 18 stuck with Oklahoma City.
Here are more odds and ends from around the NBA:
- After being let go by the Pelicans in April, former WNBA star and veteran NBA executive Swin Cash is joining Amazon Prime Video for the 2025/26 season, according to Richard Deitsch of The Athletic. Cash will have the role of “front office insider” on Prime Video’s NBA studio show, then will become a studio analyst for Amazon’s WNBA coverage.
- Thomas Bryant, Precious Achiuwa, Alec Burks, and Delon Wright are among the unsigned players identified by Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report as bargain free agents who are capable of helping any NBA team.
- John Hollinger of The Athletic views the Thunder (62.5 wins), Clippers (48.5), Warriors (45.5), Bulls (32.5), and Jazz (18.5) as the five teams who are the best bets to exceed the over/under win projections set by oddsmakers for the 2025/26 season.
And-Ones: Sengun, Giannis, Future Rankings, G League Swap, Drell
Rockets center Alperen Sengun made an eye-opening statement regarding Giannis Antetokounmpo after Turkey defeated Greece for the EuroBasket semifinals.
“He’s not a great passer. He’s an amazing player, you know, but he’s not a great passer. So we just tried to help and jump to close the paint,” Sengun said, per Edvinas Jablonskis of BasketNews.com.
When asked about Sengun’s comments on Sunday, according to BasketNews, the Bucks superstar replied, “I’m not the guy that will talk back to coaches or players or people that say bad things about me. It doesn’t really matter because at the end of the day, you won’t remember what they say. You’ll remember how I respond. So, I keep everything to myself. You can go see my clips on YouTube. And then come back and ask me if I’m a good passer. There you go. That’s it.”
The disagreement continued on social media but both players later issued apologies for comments they made on Instagram, according to Eurohoops.net.
We have more from around the international basketball world:
- ESPN’s Insiders updated their three-year future rankings of every NBA franchise based on a variety of factors. Not surprisingly, the defending champion Thunder received the top ranking. The Rockets, Knicks, Cavaliers and Clippers rounded out the top five, with the Suns occupying the bottom of the totem pole.
- The Oklahoma City Blue, the Thunder‘s NBA G League team, has acquired a 2026 first-round pick and the returning player rights to Steven Richardson from the Wisconsin Herd in exchange for the returning player rights to Cormac Ryan, Thunder beat reporter Rylan Stiles tweets. Ryan joined the Bucks‘ camp roster on an Exhibit 10 deal last week, so this clears the way for him to receive a bonus up to $85,300 if he’s waived and then spends 60 days or more with the Herd.
- Spanish club Joventut Badalona and former Bulls forward Henri Drell have reached an agreement for the next two months with an option to extend until the end of the season, according to Penya.com. Drell played in the EuroBasket tournament with the Estonian national team. Last year, he played 15 games with La Laguna Tenerife. Drell appeared in four games with Chicago during the 2023/24 season.
Giannis Antetokounmpo Calls EuroBasket Medal His ‘Greatest Accomplishment’
Giannis Antetokounmpo has achieved almost every NBA accolade possible with the Bucks: an NBA championship, Finals MVP, regular season MVP (twice), Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, and All-Star MVP. However, he believes that leading the Greek national team to its first international medal since 2009 could be his greatest feat as an athlete, as FIBA.com relays.
Greece won the bronze medal by defeating Lauri Markkanen and the Finnish team 92-89. Antetokounmpo amassed 30 points, 17 rebounds, six assists, and two steals while shooting 9-11 from the field and 12-16 from the free throw line. Markannen, for his part, had 19 points and 10 rebounds.
“This is probably the greatest accomplishment I have ever accomplished as an athlete,” Antetokounmpo said after the game.
He went on to clarify the meaning of what might seem to some an unusual claim, and to ensure fans in Wisconsin don’t take his words the wrong way.
“This is not better than the championship I won with the Bucks. Winning a championship for an NBA club is a huge accomplishment and Milwaukee is a great city. But it is 500 or 600 thousand people,” he said. “But when you are able to make 12 million Greeks happy, and you are able to inspire the next generation – like (the 2005 EuroBasket winners) inspired us from the previous generation in 1987 that inspired them. This is the biggest thing ever.”
Antetokounmpo believes there’s something special about international competition, saying that every time he plays with the national team, he falls in love with the game more, a feeling likely aided by the fact that he was able to achieve this success while playing alongside two of his brothers, Kostas Antetokounmpo and Thanasis Antetokounmpo. He’s hoping that by seeing his and the team’s success, more young players will be inspired to chase that feeling.
“There’s a kid right now watching this on TV who is going to be very very happy that maybe one day that he can win a medal with the national team,” Antetokounmpo said.
Germany Defeats Turkey For EuroBasket Gold; Schröder Named MVP
A back-and-forth battle between a pair of 8-0 teams went down to the wire in Sunday’s EuroBasket championship game, with Kings point guard Dennis Schröder helping to secure a gold medal for Germany by scoring the final six points and turning an 83-82 deficit into an 88-83 victory over Turkey.
Schöder (16 points, 12 assists), former NBA wing Isaac Bonga (20 points, 4-of-4 three-pointers), and Magic forward Franz Wagner (18 points, eight rebounds) were the standout performers for Germany, which has won two of the past three major international basketball competitions.
Although the Germans didn’t make the podium at the Paris Olympics last summer, the country is now the defending FIBA World Cup (2023) and EuroBasket (2025) champion and has posted a 21-2 record in those three tournaments, per HoopsHype (Twitter link).
Germany outlasted a Turkish national team that was led by Rockets center Alperen Sengun (28 points), former NBA forward Cedi Osman (23 points, 6-of-9 on three-pointers), former NBA guard Shane Larkin (13 points, nine assists, six rebounds), and Sixers big man Adem Bona (12 points, 5-of-5 shooting).
While they weren’t able to claim their first EuroBasket championship, Turkey matched their best-ever result by taking silver. The Turkish team lost to Yugoslavia in the 2001 final, which was the only other time the country made the championship game.
Schröder was named the EuroBasket Most Valuable Player after leading the Germans to their first title in the event since 1993. He scored at least 16 points in all nine games, averaging 20.3 points and 7.2 assists per contest.
The 2025 EuroBasket All-Star Five was made up entirely of NBA players, with Lakers guard Luka Doncic (Slovenia) and Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece) joining Schröder, Wagner, and Sengun (Twitter link).
Antetokounmpo and the Greek national team beat Finland in the third-place game earlier on Sunday.
Greece Defeats Finland For EuroBasket Bronze Medal
Greece survived a late rally by Finland in the third-place game of EuroBasket 2025, winning by a final score of 92-89 to claim the tournament’s bronze medal.
Greece led for nearly 38 minutes of the 40-minute contest and never trailed. While they were up by double-digits for the majority of the game, including a 17-point lead with four minutes left, Finland nearly pulled off a dramatic comeback, getting to within one possession in the closing seconds before coming up short.
The Greek national team was led by Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, who finished with 30 points, 17 rebounds, six assists (seven turnovers), one steal and two blocks in just under 31 minutes. He converted two free throws in the clutch to help seal the victory.
Ex-NBA guard Tyler Dorsey, a Greek nationalized citizen, also had a big game, going 5-of-9 from three-point range en route to 20 points. Guard Vasileios Toliopoulos, who went scoreless in Greece’s semifinal loss to Turkey, had 15 points.
It’s the first time Antetokounmpo has won a medal with Greece and the first time the country has finished in the top three at EuroBasket since 2009, when it also won bronze.
Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen had team highs of 19 points and 10 rebounds for Finland, which also received strong contributions from Elias Valtonen (18 points, five rebounds, three steals), Mikael Jantunen (13 points, six rebounds, seven assists) and Olivier Nkamhoua (15 points, five rebounds).
Despite the loss, the Finnish national team had an excellent run in the tournament, including knocking off medal favorite Serbia in the round of 16. Finland, which finished in fourth place, had already secured its best result in EuroBasket history by making the semifinals.
The final between Germany and Turkey will take place later on Sunday.
Turkey Ousts Greece, Will Vie For EuroBasket Gold
Turkey jumped out to a 12-point lead in the first quarter of Friday’s EuroBasket semifinal vs. Greece and never looked back, expanding that lead in each quarter en route to a 94-68 blowout win.
The victory secures Turkey’s spot in the EuroBasket championship game on Sunday. It will be the first time since the country hosted the tournament in 2001 that it has competed in the gold medal game — Turkey lost to Yugoslavia 24 years ago and has never won a EuroBasket title.
Rockets center Alperen Sengun had another big game on Friday, racking up 15 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists as Turkey outscored Greece by 24 points during his 33 minutes of action. However, the team’s leading scorers were forward/center Ercan Osmani, who had 28 points on 11-of-15 shooting, and Cedi Osman, who scored 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting and was a team-best +32.
Osmani was also the primary defender against Greek star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had his worst game of the tournament with just 12 points on 6-of-13 shooting. The Bucks forward, who had scored at least 25 points in each of his five previous EuroBasket games, had 12 rebounds and five assists, but committed five turnovers and was a -30 in 30 minutes.
Turkey and Germany will square off for EuroBasket gold on Sunday with their matching undefeated (8-0) records on the line. The Germans have three active NBA players and two former NBAers on their roster, including Franz Wagner of the Magic and Dennis Schröder of the Kings; Turkey’s roster features two current NBA players – Sengun and Sixers big man Adem Bona – and five ex-NBA players.
Greece, meanwhile, will go up against Lauri Markkanen and the Finnish national team in Sunday’s third-place game.
Greece Reaches EuroBasket Semis Behind Giannis’ 29 Points
Behind Giannis Antetokounmpo, Greece reached the EuroBasket semifinals for the first time in 16 years, downing Lithuania, 87-76, in Riga, Latvia on Tuesday.
The Bucks superstar poured in 29 points to carry his team into a semifinal matchup with Turkey. Greece stalled in the quarterfinals during four of the last five EuroBasket tourneys, but broke though with a strong second-half effort.
Greece led 44-38 at the halftime break. Lithuania scored the first three points of the second half before Greece increased the cushion back to 51-41. It was 58-43 midway through the third quarter. Lithuania never got closer than eight points the rest of the way.
Giannis converted 9-of-15 shots and 11-of-16 free throws while scoring 29 points. He also added six rebounds, two assists, four steals and a block. Vasileios Toliopoulos hit three 3-pointers while scoring 17 points and Kostas Sloukas added 11 points and four assists.
Greece moved to within just two wins of their third EuroBasket crown. They took gold in 1987 and 2005.
“My players did a great job playing with a big heart in front of so many thousands of people from Lithuania in a very nice atmosphere,” head coach Vasileios Spanoulis said, per FIBA.
Nuggets big man Jonas Valanciunas led Lithuania with 24 points and 15 rebounds.
“Tonight was a battle. Both teams battled until the end. They were stronger,” Valanciunas said. “They were better than us. I was just happy we fought until the end, no matter what. It was a good fight.”
EuroBasket Notes: Kleiza, Giannis, Muurinen, Thanasis, Georgia
Lithuania faces Greece in the quarterfinals of the EuroBasket tournament on Tuesday. Lithuanian general manager Linas Kleiza admits it will be difficult to keep Greece’s star player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, under control, Arik Barkas of Eurohoops.net writes.
“It’s a very tough matchup,” he said. “You guys (Greek media) have a very good team and a major superstar, one of the best, if not the best, players in the world. So this is a huge challenge for us, and we’re going to try to do our best, play hard, work hard, and see where it goes. But you guys definitely have a great team.”
So what is Lithuania’s plan?
“I don’t know. We’ll see tomorrow. Hope he has a bad game,” Kleiza said. “That’s all you can hope for. We’re going to try our best, but that’s why he’s the MVP. How do you stop that?”
We have more on the EuroBasket tournament:
- Finland will face Georgia in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Finnish teenager Miikka Muurinen has made a splash in the tournament, Rafael Barlowe of NBABigBoard.com writes. Though he has only averaged 5.8 points per game, Muurinen is shooting 10-of-11 inside the arc and bringing energy on both ends, according to Barlowe. The 18-year-old forward is being pursued by top colleges such as Arkansas, Duke, and Kentucky and is considered a potential first-rounder in the 2027 draft.
- Thanasis Antetokounmpo, who recently re-signed with the Bucks after missing last season due to an Achilles injury, is using Eurobasket as a stepping stone to his NBA return, HoopsHype tweets. “Having this tournament be a ramp-up period as I get back to the NBA is a blessing from God. It’s not often you get a jump start like this,” he said. “I’m blessed to be able to step on the court, find my rhythm, and build.”
- The government of Georgia is rewarding the national team with a bonus due to its success in the tournament, according to Semih Tuna of Eurohoops.net. That bonus amounts to approximately 948 thousand Euros, or about $1.114MM U.S. dollars.