One of the most surprising decisions in the entire NBA this offseason was the Milwaukee Bucks deciding to waive and stretch nine-time All-Star point guard Damian Lillard . Unfortunately, two seasons of seeing Lillard paired with Giannis Antetokounmpo Did not produce the final results that the team had hoped for, though it was through no fault of either superstar.
Indeed, Giannis and Lillard were the highest-scoring duo in terms of points per game in NBA history. However, due to injuries, they only played 29 minutes together in the postseason.
With Lillard expected to be out for most, if not all, of the 2025-26 season, and due to other circumstances, the Bucks decided it was best for the organization to move on, waiving him and spreading out his salary cap hit over the next five seasons.
The Milwaukee Bucks Used the Salary Cap Savings to Build Around Giannis Antetokounmpo
Waiving and then stretching Lillard allowed the Bucks' salary cap space to be used to sign players better suited to play alongside Giannis. And while most of their moves were to re-sign their own players, such as Bobby Portis, Gary Trent Jr., and Taurean Prince, they also made a huge splash in free agency.
That, of course, was luring center Myles Turner away from the hated Indiana Pacers to replace Brook Lopez (who signed a two-year deal with the Los Angeles Clippers). The stunning signing of Turner is still one of the bigger topics in the NBA, as Turner is a defensive wizard who will complement Giannis on that end of the floor quite well.
And while Milwaukee also re-signed point guards Kevin Porter Jr. and Ryan Rollins, as well as acquiring Gary Harris in free agency, they did not make as big of a splash in the point guard market as many had expected.
Milwaukee Bucks General Manager Jon Horst Indicates Giannis Antetokounmpo Could Play Point Guard
Recent comments that Bucks general manager Jon Horst made to Eric Nehm of The Athletic may indicate why Milwaukee did not feel the need to replace a nine-time All-Star at the point guard position, Lillard, because they plan on having Giannis run point himself.
He truly is becoming a real point guard — or a real point forward, like Doc calls it — so I think that allows us to dive even deeper into it than we have in the past, but I think those have always been some of our most successful lineups and groups. Putting him out there with a bunch of shooters and ball movers and let him just dominate. You stop him, he passes it. You don’t, he dunks it. And I feel like we’ve got a number of those guys.
This past season, Giannis tied his career-high in assists per game with 6.5. He also averaged 3.1 turnovers per game, which was his lowest mark in that category since the 2017-18 season.
Obviously, having the Greek Freak play point guard may be what the Bucks choose to do on the court for large portions of the game, but he will still play defense as a front court player. His rebounding is far too valuable.
In this case, the Bucks will likely still start another guard like Rollins, Porter, or even AJ Green so that Giannis can kick the ball to them for wide open threes.
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