Colin Cowherd: “If Khris Middleton does what he does last year in the playoffs and shrinks, Giannis is GONE. Winners wanna hang out with winners and stars wanna hang out with stars. If Milwaukee can’t win the East with KD, LeBron, and Kawhi out, it’s not getting any easier.” (Full Video Above)
Listen to Colin Cowherd discuss a recent rumor that suggested that the Golden State Warriors traded for former Minnesota Timberwolves player Andrew Wiggins last month to better align themselves for an impending trade offer to the Milwaukee Bucks for league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Giannis will become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2021, but is eligible for the league’s rare ‘Supermax’ extension after this season, and will obviously look to garner this stature as the reigning MVP and arguably the league’s best player.
Giannis is currently making the same $27.5 million salary that Wiggins is making this season, which would legally allow the two to be traded for one another because of NBA rules regarding the allotted finances of trades. A potential trade would also include Golden State sending their potential top 3 pick this year to the Bucks, as well as Minnesota's lottery pick from the Wiggins trade.
Colin thinks Giannis will demand a trade out of Milwaukee if the Bucks fail to reach the NBA Finals once again this season, saying that the 25-year-old Giannis will eventually get sick of playing on a regular season dominator who wilts in the playoffs.
Although his second-hand man Khris Middleton earned a spot in the NBA All-Star game the last two seasons, Cowherd says Middleton should be more of a third or fourth option, and mentioned how Middleton completely laid in an egg in the Eastern Conference Finals versus Toronto when he only averaged 13.7 points on .411 shooting.
Check out the video above as Colin details why the NBA is the one sport where you can literally control your own destiny when it comes to winning championships as a superstar player, and says Giannis will have no choice but to abandon the Bucks if they can’t assist him in reaching the Finals during a season in which the East is clear of any LeBrons, Durants, and Kawhis.