Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard are committed to Milwaukee and their partnership with the Bucks
Damian Lillard was confident, nearly defiant.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was subdued, but hopeful.
Where the mindsets of the Milwaukee Bucks stars intertwined in separate season-ending interviews, however, is that that they will indeed come together. Perhaps in a couple of weeks, when Antetokounmpo is really ready to get back to on-court work.
It is time they never had to begin with when Lillard arrived in Milwaukee on the eve of training camp. And it was time they never got back when the pair traded injuries and missed games over the final 2 ½ months of the 2023-24 season.
They cannot get back what could’ve been or make up for what wasn’t. Now, it’s about what can be.
“Think about it, Giannis worked out all summer not knowing he was going to have Dame, Dame worked out a little bit not knowing he was going to have Giannis,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said. “Khris (Middleton) the same way. Now all three of them get to work out this summer knowing some of the things we’re going to do. I told Giannis and Dame I’m going to send them things all summer we’re working on for them to work on. And they both were very excited about that. I’m assuming Khris will like the same thing. That gives us an advantage.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo looks forward to stable offseason
For Antetokounmpo, this offseason begins with a single word:
“Stability,” he said in his first public comments since his season ended on April 9 with a left soleus (calf) strain.
“We have that stability. We’re not questioning and trying to figure out how it’s going to look moving forward. You know and now that you know, you just gotta work, strategize to the best of your abilities. Dame’s going to be here. Khris is going to be here. Brook (Lopez is) going to be here. Bobby (Portis is) going to be here. I hope I’m here. And then we go and try to find out what we have.”
Antetokounmpo called his rehab from the calf strain the hardest he had ever worked in trying to return from an injury, superseding even that of a knee procedure last summer. He was crestfallen that his season ended without him suiting up for one playoff game.
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But he had to look forward.
He heads into an offseason knowing who his coach is and that Lillard is not only his point guard, but the second sun around which the rest of the team must orbit. Regardless of how the 2024-25 Bucks roster looks around them, Antetokounmpo and Lillard getting on the same page on the court and having a better understanding of each other off it is paramount to the team capitalizing on their dynamic, future Hall of Fame potential.
“After I’m done with my rehab in a few weeks, I’ll probably go down to Portland and spend time with Dame,” Antetokounmpo said of his early offseason plans. “That’s pretty much it. Go work out together, talk, sit down, just spend time. It doesn’t have to be basketball. Just spend time together. I’ve done it with Khris in 11 years. I’ve done it with Brook. It’s just what you gotta do. Spend time with Coach Doc talking about basketball, talking about strategy, things we can do better as a team.”
Rivers said earlier this season he didn’t understand why the two stars flew separately for off-court events in Portland, and Lillard hoped he would get to spend time with Antetokounmpo away from the team when they went to Indianapolis for all-star weekend.
Now, it appears they will get that important time that is separate from the rush of the season and all that entails.
“Just spending time together, getting to know one another, get accustomed together as we move forward,” Antetokounmpo said of the goal of that time. “That’s going to be the most important thing because we know when it comes back, we are going to spend six, seven, eight months together. But how can we do that, how can the team come together, how can me and Dame, me and Doc, me and Khris – ‘cause I see these guys, I’m tired of seeing these guys – with everybody come closer. Kind of start earlier.”
Damian Lillard excited for second season with Bucks
Lillard, too, was looking forward.
“I think it was a rollercoaster …” he couldn’t suppress a laugh after that word “... of a year. But I think for me personally it was a year of growth more than anything.”
Despite personal upheaval he asked for in being traded away from Portland, and the less-than-expected returns on the court in Milwaukee, he had a clear eye on his summer as well. He refrained from certain training regimens last summer to avoid injury while awaiting the trade, and admitted he was chasing his conditioning all season long.
More: Damian Lillard says he's happy in Milwaukee but still seeks comfort in Bucks offense
He spoke candidly about trying hard to fit in and admitted after Rivers was hired that his place on the team – and in the offense in particular – was being addressed specifically. And then, though he played in the Bucks’ final game of the season, he missed two of the six games in the first-round series vs. Indiana with tendinitis in his right Achilles tendon.
“It was a lot for me to fight through, but I take a lot of pride in standing tall when things don’t go as planned or go how I would like them to go,” he said. “I always want to look back and tell myself that as a man. When I didn’t play well, and things didn’t go how I might’ve expected it to go when I was going through some things, whether people knew about it or not, I stood tall in it. I never made an excuse or nothing like that. It was a long year of that for me. Just a lot of growth. A lot of getting used to new things.”
Rivers said he will be sending his players clips of plays to review over the offseason, and Antetokounmpo and Lillard have more than a handful to queue up and feel good about it. Specifically under Rivers, they became the first teammates to score 25 points and hand out 12 assists in the same game on March 8 against the Los Angeles Lakers. Then, two days later, they were the second duo since 1980 to score at least 30 points while handing out at least 10 assists each in beating the Los Angeles Clippers.
Antetokounmpo was screening more for Lillard than ever in the season – which was something league observers were curious about his effort in doing at the start of the partnership – and the two were learning how and when each other liked to work off their actions.
“I’m extremely excited,” Lillard said of next season.
He admitted he could have been better in certain areas of his game in 2023-24 but felt confident that having his own stability in location, coach and key teammates will matter more than anyone might have cared to acknowledge in his first year with the Bucks.
“I know that I’m going to have a full season of knowing the coach I’m going to be playing for, having a better idea of the guys that I’m going to be playing with, being in Milwaukee,” he said. “I kind of settled into things here.
“I think going into next season, people will be really surprised how much of an impact all these things actually did have when they see me come back.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Giannis, Damian Lillard committed to Milwaukee, partnership with Bucks
