The Milwaukee Bucks finished off an uneven offseason with the coup of the year on Tuesday afternoon when Giannis Antetokounmpo signed his supermax extension.
The Milwaukee Bucks had a failing offseason grade coming into Tuesday, but the swipe of a pen rewrote all the clumsy wrongs of their free agency misadventures. Giannis Antetokounmpo finally signed his supermax extension, putting to bed literal years of speculation about which coastal super-team he would join.
With the extension signed, he now is on the richest contract in NBA history, due $256 million over the next six seasons.
Bucks fans can breathe easy after all the rampant speculation, and we’re going to take a look at the three major takeaways from Giannis’s extension.
1. The deal for Jrue Holiday probably made it happen
Early in the offseason transaction window, the Milwaukee Bucks swung a deal with the New Orleans Pelicans for Jrue Holiday. As an expiring free agent, it was imperative for the Pelicans to get some value for him, and they got value indeed.
The deal got converted into a four-team deal as time went on, and the Bucks sent out George Hill, Eric Bledsoe, two first-round picks and swap rights to two future first-round picks. It was a massive haul, and one that may have curtailed future big trades as it set a gigantic price for actual superstars who could have been otherwise on the move.
It may have been an overpay, but the Bucks had one thing in mind: Throw everything into the task of persuading Giannis to stay. The Bucks may not control their own draft fortunes for the next half-decade, but they achieved their goal.