What to make of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s comments about playing in Los Angeles

Giannis Antetokounmpo had some comments about joining forces someday with his brothers. One of the NBA cities he mentioned was Los Angeles.

Recruitment for Milwaukee Bucks star and the NBA’s defending MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s services in the summer of 2021 is already in high gear. Teams around the league are already looking to keep cap space available for free agency in two years just in the hopes of being able to get a meeting to woo him.

The ultimate in star-hunting teams, the Los Angeles Lakers, are keeping an especially close eye on things. They even signed Giannis’s brother, Kostas Antetokounmpo, this past summer. Now, surely this was done on Kostas’s own merit, but Giannis’s pending free agency sure doesn’t hurt (the third brother, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, also plays with Giannis in Milwaukee).

The buzz around what happens next cranked into overdrive on Sunday during the NBA’s All-Star weekend in Chicago when Giannis sat down with USA Today’s Mackenzie Salmon for an interview and dropped a reference to Los Angeles as a possible destination to team up with his brothers.

That’s right, he mentioned joining his brothers in Milwaukee OR LA.

Obviously this drove Los Angeles Lakers fans absolutely wild, as will happen. It’s worth noting, however, that he’s on record saying that he would never leave Milwaukee for Los Angeles, as he told Colin Cowherd here in 2018:

Of course, that was then, and this is now, but neither of these are 2021 which is what matters. Antetokounmpo could stifle the rumors and buzz in an instant, simply by declaring he plans on signing an extension with the Milwaukee Bucks next summer when he’s eligible for the supermax.

He hasn’t done this, and it’s likely by design. The Bucks’ ownership group have already shown a hesitance to spend in support of their team, opting to allow Malcolm Brogdon to walk for nothing this past summer instead of simply paying what it would take to keep him and go into the luxury tax.

From Antetokounmpo’s perspective, declaring his plans to sign an extension any earlier than necessary would be tantamount to giving the Bucks a green light to take the cheap way out from a team-building perspective. If the Bucks fail to spend in order to help build a championship contender next summer, it’s unlikely he’ll extend.

If indications are to be trusted, he hasn’t done this because he doesn’t trust the Bucks to do this and he needs to see proof of a willingness to contend before he’ll sign what will be the richest contract in NBA history, potentially as much as five years and $247 million.

Until the Bucks prove their intentions to Giannis, the Los Angeles Lakers might as well be considered the Los Angeles Leverages.