{"id":765,"date":"2016-09-19T14:48:15","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T18:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/?p=765"},"modified":"2016-09-19T14:53:45","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T18:53:45","slug":"giannis-antetokounmpo-agrees-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2016\/09\/19\/giannis-antetokounmpo-agrees-extension\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Giannis Antetokounmpo Agrees to Contract Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to a report by <strong>Adrian Wojnarowski<\/strong> of <strong>The Vertical<\/strong>, the <strong>Milwaukee Bucks<\/strong> have come\u00a0to terms with\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/antetgi01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0on a contract extension worth $100 million over four years:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo has agreed on a four-year, $100M contract extension, league sources tell @TheVertical.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wojespn\/status\/777928526204964864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 19, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Report: Giannis Antetokounmpo Agrees to Contract Extension<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The <strong>NBA<\/strong>&#8216;s rising salary cap allowed superstars\u00a0such as <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hardeja01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">James Harden<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wojverticalnba\/status\/751859741614235649\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in July<\/a>) and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/westbru01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Russell Westbrook<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(<a href=\"http:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/news\/sources-russell-westbrook-agrees-to-contract-extension-with-okc-050837786.html?soc_src=mail&amp;soc_trk=ma\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in August<\/a>) to renegotiate their contracts with their respective teams earlier this summer. The booming cap numbers give stars incentive to stay\u00a0with their incumbent teams, where they can earn the most money.<\/p>\n<p>Antetokounmpo, at just 21 years old, is going into the fourth and final year of his rookie deal. His new contract, worth about $25 million annually, will take him through the 2020-21 season, when he&#8217;ll be 25 years of age &#8211; around the\u00a0time that most players enter their basketball prime years.<\/p>\n<p>The young stud had a breakout last season, in which he averaged 16.9 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game. More significantly,\u00a0Antetokounmpo averaged 18.8 PPG, 8.6 RPG, and 7.2 APG in his 28 games after the February All-Star break &#8211; terrific all-around numbers that would put him in a class with few others. He even racked up more than one steal and nearly two blocks per game over that time span, showing his unique versatility. Antetokounmpo essentially played point guard on offense and every position on defense towards the end of last season.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the hefty\u00a0price tag, this contract makes a lot of sense for the Bucks. Milwaukee knows it has a superstar in the &#8220;Greek Freak&#8221;, and it now\u00a0locks him in with the team for the foreseeable future. In fact, with the cap rising and players such as <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/conlemi01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mike Conley<\/a><\/strong> receiving <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/2016\/07\/01\/mike-conley-agrees-re-sign-grizzlies\/\" target=\"_self\">contracts worth upwards of $30 million per year<\/a>, the Bucks actually got a steal here.<\/p>\n<p>If Antetokounmpo and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/parkeja01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jabari Parker<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0have success together over the next few years in Milwaukee, it will incline both of them to stay for even longer. Between those two, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/middlkh01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Khris Middleton<\/a><\/strong>, and the recently drafted\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/makerth01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Thon Maker<\/a><\/strong>, the Bucks have one of the best young cores in the league.<\/p>\n<p>Antetokounmpo was selected\u00a015th overall by the Bucks in the <strong>2013 NBA Draft<\/strong>. He came straight from <strong>Greece<\/strong> at the age of 18. Antetokounmpo has\u00a0played his entire career in Milwaukee thus far, and it appears as though he&#8217;ll be there for years to come.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/469292776\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/469292776?et=xoxtIMnrSLFm7nuGhdZevg&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=coftcFySoFPlP_waFNruQhv-RLjvroCqt1A3QnSD0vM=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>21-year-old Greek stud Giannis Antetokounmpo agrees to a four-year, $100 million contract extension with the Milwaukee Bucks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":946,"featured_media":769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,15,62],"tags":[65,306,219,96,202],"class_list":["post-765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","category-bucks","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-nba","tag-nba-news"],"modified_by":"Harrison Marcus","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/946"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}