The Giannis Antetokounmpo era in Milwaukee is officially a ticking time bomb.
After 12 seasons as the Bucks’ franchise player, Giannis is putting up a superhuman stat line of 34 points and 14 rebounds per game in a playoff series versus the Indiana Pacers that was doomed from the start. Milwaukee is down 3-1 and plays in Indiana tonight in the likely series-clinching matchup.
Giannis’ teammates are absolutely torpedoing the former MVP’s chances at staying competitive, chief among them being the former Wizard Kyle Kuzma.
Kuzma was dealt at the trade deadline in exchange for Khris Middleton. Even though Middleton has been chronically injured and on the decline in recent seasons, the move was controversial among fans considering he was a critical part of a championship team just a few seasons ago and will certainly have his jersey retired in Milwaukee.
The move looks even worse now considering how disastrous Kuzma’s 2025 playoffs have been so far. In his first playoff appearance since 2021, Kuzma is posting a putrid stat line of 6.0 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game. He’s made just 10 of his 30 shots in the series, and he’s committed 10 fouls to offset those made field goals.
In Game 1, Kuzma put up the ultra rare “trillion” stat line, going for a clean (filthy?) box score of zeroes across the board. He followed that up with point totals of 12, nine, and three, while grabbing six rebounds total across those three games.
Middleton might be approaching the end of the road, and he has not been a very good player in Washington, as our John Canady laid out. That being said, considering eating a $34 million salary next season is all the remains for the Wizards, I'm sure the front office is sleeping just fine at night.
The ramifications of the trade are far more grim for Milwaukee. Perhaps keeping the always-injured Middleton on the roster had been a mere time-buying measure for the Bucks, allowing them to delude themselves into believing a condensing roster lay somewhere deep inside, when really they just perpetually kicked the can down the road.
Maybe this Kuzma trade will be a wake-up call, the Bucks “taking their medicine,” so to speak. Kuzma has been, at best, a replacement-level NBA player in Milwaukee and has shrunk under the postseason lights. It would behoove the Bucks to finally open their eyes to realize there simply is no path to contention as things stand.
Damian Lillard is unfortunately likely out for the bulk of next season with a torn achilles, and the rest of the roster — guys like Kuzma, Gary Trent Jr., Bobby Portis, and Taurean Prince — have proven to be just okay at best. As I said — there is no path to contention. There is no 2018 LeBron run through a weak Eastern Conference with teams like the Celtics and Cavaliers both posting 60-plus win seasons.
So what if the Giannis Antetokounmpo era ends when the Bucks inevitably fall in five or six games? The Wizards would emerge as one of the winners of this slow burn of an era implosion by picking up rookie AJ Johnson as a throw-in with the distressed Middleton asset.
Middleton is an expiring contract anyway, and his $34 million salary is a relatively tradable number if he shows signs of life early next year.
Sure, the Wizards wouldn’t nearly be as big of winners as the Houston Rockets, Brooklyn Nets, Orlando Magic, or whatever team courts Giannis’ services should he request a trade from Milwaukee. But it’s simply smart business during this rebuilding period to capitalize on other teams’ panic trades, which is exactly what the Wizards did by earning a flier on Johnson by taking on Middleton.