Having signed a one-year $2.9 million contract on August 31, Thanasis Antetokounmpo is once again a member of the Milwaukee Bucks. His addition to the roster causes some chaos, no doubt, but the familiar face of Giannis’s brother will be a welcome sight on the sidelines. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, for one, has no issue with the signing. The vast majority of Bucks fans fully endorse his line of reasoning.
Thanasis is back with Bucks for 1 clear reason
Before tearing his Achilles ahead of last season, Thanasis spent five years with the Bucks as an energy guy and Giannis sidekick at the end of the bench. He was arguably every bit as important to the 2021 title squad as a regular reserve like Pat Connaughton. Giannis likes having him around and, for whatever it’s worth, his big brother has been balling out for Greece in EuroBasket.
With Thanasis on the roster, the Bucks have 17 players under contract counting Amir Coffey, who signed a non-guaranteed training camp deal last month. Barring a trade, they’ll have to cut two players before opening night to trim down to a 15-man roster. Probably, those names will be some combination of Andre Jackson Jr., whose salary includes only $800K guaranteed, Coffey, Tyler Smith, or Chris Livingston.
Thanasis cannot match the on-court contributions of any of them, but that’s not why the team re-signed him. Windhorst gets it. The senior NBA insider has appeared on Thanasis’s podcast and the two hold what he calls a “personal relationship.”
“I have 0.000 [percent] issue with the Bucks giving Thanasis a contract if it makes Giannis one percent happier during the season,” Windhorst said on the Hoop Collective podcast. “It’s probably more than 1%, since we know how close he is. I have zero percent problem with it.”
If Giannis did have itchy feet this summer, a scenario suggested by nothing but Shams Charania’s unsubstantiated reporting, re-signing Thanasis should shut down the last whispers of gossip at least for next season. Will it? Probably not. Agenda pushers will find a way to, well, push the agenda.
Next offseason, when Giannis becomes eligible for an extension, is when things could really get sticky. For now, though, even given the clog it creates, bringing back Thanasis is as obvious a roster move as Bucks fans could imagine.
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