How does Giannis feel about the Middleton-Kuzma trade?

In the wake of this morning’s Khris Middleton (and AJ Johnson) trade to the Washington Wizards for forward Kyle Kuzma, it didn’t take too long for reaction from Giannis Antetokounmpo to appear. As you might guess, when one of the most important (maybe THE most important) teammates and the longest-tenured coworker you’ve ever had, no less one who was in your wedding party, bittersweet is going to be an overriding emotion. But that’s not the interesting thing here.

First off, we have this tweet Giannis made and quickly deleted just before noon today:

This could mean anything in theory, but given the timing plus the red, white, and… what’s a synonym for confused that rhymes with blue? We can read into it in multiple ways, but the fact that he quickly deleted it shows that he knows it would be construed in a certain manner, one he probably didn’t want people to think. Maybe. This is all my own speculation.

Around the same time, we got actual comments in words from Giannis himself, courtesy of Jim Owczarski at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. You can read his full comments here, but some highlights are below:

Obviously, I’ve played with Khris for 12 years. I spent incredible moments with him. At the end of the day, things like this, from what they’ve told us, you don’t know if it’s going to go through, so at the end of the day, until it’s official, Khris is like still our teammate. But if the trade goes through, obviously I’m going to miss Khris. Everybody on the team’s going to miss Khris. His leadership. For me, my brotherhood with Khris is the most important thing I’ve had within this team for a lot of years. We’re the oldest guys. Not the oldest guys, but been here together for 12 years. There’s been so many moments together. I’ve been around Khris more than I’ve been around my brothers and my family. I’ve had incredible moments on the court with him. We’re definitely; everybody’s gonna miss him.

For me, for a lot of people, it can be business because they’ve been around him. For me, it’s a little bit bigger than business, it’s family. With a guy that I’ve won a championship with – it’s not only that I’ve won, I’ve lost a lot of times with him. I’ve been in a dark place a lot of times with him. I’ve been in the bus going to a lot of pressure situations with him. It’s almost like I’ve been to war with him. That’s what I remember. Not only the good times we had, the one good time we had, I remember all the other times that everybody was depending on us. The organization was depending on us. The city was depending on us. Our teammates were depending on us. I remember all those moments.

I know it’s business, but for me, Khris is my brother. I’m going to have a relationship with him after basketball. It kind of hurts, but at the end of the day, I understand the business side of things and I’m still going to show up to work and do my job until it’s my time to dip.

With Khris it doesn’t matter how much you got better dealing with it. It’s Khris. It’s still gonna hurt you. Same as it hurt with Jrue (Holiday). Same as its’s gonna hurt with Brook (Lopez). Same as it’s gonna hurt with Pat (Connaughton). Same as it’s gonna hurt with Bobby (Portis Jr.). Those are my guys. Same as it’s gonna hurt, like, the guys we won a championship with that they’re not here. Most of them I’ve tried to have a relationship with. Like Bryn, Bryn Forbes was one of those guys. I saw him in San Antonio. But it doesn’t matter. As much as you’re able to deal with it, it still hurts. Especially the guys that you’ve won with. They’re like family to you.

When asked how this trade makes the team better, he replied: “I don’t know. I didn’t make the decision. You gotta ask the decision-maker. I don’t know. But at the end of the day, you cannot disrespect anybody that comes and joins your team. You gotta be open-minded and be a good teammate.”

None of these comments read like scathing dismay at the move; not a ringing endorsement, more like a sober acknowledgment of the realities of being an NBA player. While this all seems boilerplate, a few other nuggets that popped up today paint a slightly different picture. Let’s start by going back to early last month when Middleton was taken out of the starting lineup. Here is what Giannis and Damian Lillard said about his move to the bench at the time, respectively:

It gives [Middleton] a lot of freedom to be himself, to operate. Sometimes maybe, not on purpose, maybe when we are all three on the starting lineup we kind of clog, we kind of muck the game up, we hold the ball too much, the ball doesn’t move as much. I feel like he just gives us more depth on the bench when he comes off the bench. But at the end of the day it doesn’t matter who comes off the bench, who starts the game. One of my coaches always told me that what matters who finishes the game, who plays the last eight minutes of the game. So, no matter if he starts or doesn’t start, he’s definitely going to finish the game because he’s a player with a very high IQ who can make shots, get into good plays, can defend. It’s just good to have him out there competing with us.

I think our bench, when we’ve been our best, our bench is already been doing a great job, and then you add a guy like Khris to your bench I think it makes us an even stronger team, especially off the bench. It kind of has been that way all year with Khris coming off surgery and missing some time. We had to get settled a certain way with [Taurean Prince] and with Dre [Jackson Jr.] out there. And then when he came back he was coming off the bench. So now with that situation happening I think it just makes us better right now because he’s going to be able to handle the ball, he’s going to be in a position to do more in that second group. It also makes our depth that much better. You got second groups having to deal with Khris Middleton. And then you got that hooting we have coming off the bench, it’s just gives you an opportunity where yo don’t have to have me and Giannis on the court, one or the other, all the time. You’ve got another great player out there and it’s hell for the other team’s bench to deal with. I think it just makes us better. And it just creates a lot of balance for us.

Again, this all sounds pretty benign. But Owczarski categorized this in his piece today on the trade as Giannis and Dame being “publicly forceful in their backing of Middleton’s move to the bench” when it occurred. Perhaps by Giannis’ and Dame’s standards as tactful speakers in media sessions, they are supporting it with some added strength. Or maybe they’re just giving a positive, team-friendly answer. It’s not as if they were lobbying for this to the media.

A corroboration of Giannis’ feelings, however, came from Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (who also relays that Washington plans to keep Midleton through the deadline and explore a trade for him this summer) earlier today:

Giannis Antetokounmpo loves Khris Middleton. Middleton was one of Antetokounmpo’s co-stars on Milwaukee’s title team in 2021 and Giannis has often spoken of his affection for the three-team NBA All-Star. Yet league sources say that Antetokounmpo offered the needed support internally before the Bucks’ agreed to a Wednesday morning trade for Washington’s Kyle Kuzma that required them to surrender Middleton.

This echoes what Fischer said in the aftermath of the trade, that “a key element of the trade talks” to bring Kuzma to Milwaukee for Middleton was “a large vote of support for Kuzma from one Giannis Antetokounmpo.” So if we’re to be believed by Fischer’s reporting, Giannis really likes Kuz and wanted to play with him. And at the same time, he will really miss playing with Middleton.

These two things can be true. Another thing that can be true, which might be indicated by some of his comments and the deleted tweet from this morning, is that Giannis did not want Middleton to be traded. Unfortunately, as I detailed on Monday, that was the best way to acquire Middleton, given the Bucks’ second apron restrictions prior to the deal. Aggregating Bobby Portis and Pat Connaughton would have required another three players at a minimum to comply with a second apron hard cap. Brook Lopez would have required either Portis or Connaughton as well, though that would leave a serious hole in the middle.

Giannis likely doesn’t care too much about all the apron minutiae and just wants to play basketball with good players. He probably thinks Kuzma is one, but he’s probably not too happy about Middleton leaving at the same time. He hopefully recognizes that trading Middleton is the cost of getting Kuzma if that’s someone he was angling for or even suggested to the front office.

I also think it’s ridiculous to expect that this means Giannis will want to leave Milwaukee soon. For one, if he wanted Kuzma—who is under contract through 2027, the summer Giannis could opt out of his deal—then why would Giannis leave? Say what you will about Kuzma (and believe me, I will); he’s still a competent basketball player. Milwaukee may have traded the player Giannis is closest to (now that none of his brothers are on the team), but even if he didn’t want to see Middleton leave under any circumstances, I do think he understands it’s a business.

Telling Giannis this morning that Middleton was being traded is one of the most unenviable messages I can think of to deliver, given what Khash meant to The Greek Freak. That’s weightier than it would have been to inform him Jrue Holiday was leaving, even if you don’t consider that Lillard was coming back in return. But my gut tells me that it was not a moment where Giannis would have questioned his commitment to the franchise and city. Sorry, national media and fans of the Lakers/Warriors/Sixers/etc.

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