The Bucks Have Reportedly Pissed Off Giannis With Their Decision To Waive An Injured Damian Lillard In Order To Complete The Myles Turner Signing

Gary Dineen. Getty Images.

After a slow start to free agency, Day 2 is certainly off to a crazy start. Earlier today, we got the SGA new,s which was more of a formality than anything else, so where is the craziness coming from?

It was a bit shocking to see the Shams bomb that Myles Turner was heading over to the Bucks for $100M, which only happened because the Pacers were unwilling to dip into the tax with Haliburton out for the year with his achilles injury. Surprising, but understandable I guess. Why start the repeater tax clock for a season of non-contention if you don't have to? I get it from that angle.

But the real surprise came from how the Bucks were even able to pull this off in the first place

The Bucks had to show Giannis that they were committed to winning and that he didn't have to demand a trade, and this is how they did it. Brought back guys like Gary Trent Jr (and Prince/Porter Jr) on Day 1 of free agency, and replaced Brook Lopez with Myles Turner while offloading a player who wasn't going to be around this season due to his own achilles injury.

So, how do we think Giannis is taking this news? Surely this would be enough for him to be happy with the Bucks right?

Nope!

Advertisement

Did the Bucks not clear this plan with Giannis beforehand? In a summer when they needed to prove to him that they were going to build a contender around him and that he didn't need to demand a trade? How is that even possible?

Let's say they did tell him, and he pushed back and told them he didn't want that to happen. Did they still go through with it anyway? On what planet is it a good idea to give Giannis even the slightest reason to now demand out? Even if you didn't think the players they brought in/added were good enough to contend in the first place, at least those signings made sense, and in a down year in the Eas,t could be enough to be decent should Giannis stay healthy.

But now? Now you've pissed off your franchise player for what? Myles Turner?!??!?!?!?!

If Bucks fans were annoyed with all the Giannis trade bullshit before, well what do you think is about to happen now? Now we have Haynes putting out that Giannis is pissed. What incentive does he have to stay now that the #2 on this team is Kyle Kuzma? This could be the move that finally gets Giannis to demand a trade, and now that Dame's dead money is on the books for the foreseeable future, good luck building that roster out without Giannis. 

This all seems so bizarre that a team would make this type of gamble without having Giannis fully on board. At this point, you do whatever he wants because guess what? There's no replacing Giannis. So to think in a massive "prove it" summer the Bucks instead decided to do something that pisses their franchise player off is certainly a choice

We were promised chaos this summer, and after a slow start it feels like we're inching closer and closer to things really getting nuts. We saw the KD trade, and it wouldn't shock me if we're a few weeks away from seeing a Giannis one as well.

Good luck Milwaukee!