Giannis Wants a Stronger Milwaukee Bucks – Two-time National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo has stated that he will re-sign with the Milwaukee Bucks if he sees the team making appropriate moves to keep them as a title contender in the 2023-24 season. Antetokounmpo is eligible to sign an extension next month but in an interview, he said that he wants to see the team form a more competitive roster before agreeing to an extension. Bringing him back in the future is imperative to the team and the Bucks need to please Antetokounmpo and form a formidable team for the 2023-24 season to secure another title. Once again, Milwaukee is among the sports oddsmakers’ top favorites to win the title in the 2023-24 season thanks to an almost intact core with the “Greek Freak” at the helm of the plays.
Giannis Wants a Stronger Milwaukee Bucks: Getting Enough Support
The 28-year-old Greek center-forward led the Bucks to their first title in 50 years in 2021. Milwaukee made the playoffs in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 season, after registering a combined 109-55 record. However, the team lost to Miami in the first round in the 2022-23 season and fell to Boston in the second round of the 2021-22 playoffs. With other teams boosting their squads for the new season, the Bucks kept their core intact as they re-signed Brook Lopez and Khris Middleton to new contracts to keep them from exiting via free agency.
And after a disappointing 2022-23 season, the team fired champion coach Mike Budenholzer and replaced him with Toronto assistant coach Adrian Griffin. Antetokounmpo wants to be loyal with the Bucks but he looks to win more championships while staying in Milwaukee for a longer period of time. Assembling the strongest team possible will make the Greek Freak decide on playing again with his mother club.
2023 FIBA World Cup Begins, US Remain as Top Favorites; Canada in the Hunt
The 2023 FIBA World Cup began on Friday with three countries hosting the group and classification stages – the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia. Manila will host the final stages that will conclude on September 10. Teams have completed their first two games and betting experts are seeing a two-team battle for the championship – the United States and Canada while other teams like France, Australia, Spain and Slovenia close behind. Team USA, with multi-titled coach Steve Kerr at the helm, are the pre-tournament favorites with most betting sites giving them an average -115 odds of winning the two-week cagefest.
The team consists of the best American up and coming talent that featured No1 overall picks Paolo Banchero of the Orlando Magic and Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves plus Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr. Other players in the squad includes Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Brandon Ingram, Austin Reeves, Tyrese Haliburton, Cameron Johnson, Josh Hart, Bobby Portis and Walker Kessler. The team is on a mission to improve on their seventh-place finish in the FIBA World Cup and they are the overwhelming favorites to win the tournament.
FIBA World Cup Championship Odds and Contenders
The Canadian five will have the second-best odds to win the championship. The team is led by Oklahoma City Thunder top scorer Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and New York Knicks guard RJ Barrett. Veteran NBA cagers Dillon Brooks, Kelly Olynyk, Dwight Powell, Lu Dort and Nickeil Alexander-Walker. France, Australia, Spain and the Luka Doncic-led Slovenia are the other four squads who are tabbed to pick up the World Cup trophy. France has Rudy Gobert. Nicolas Batum, Nando de Colo and Evan Fournier in the lineup while Australia has Josh Giddey, Patty Mills. Joe Ingles and Matisse Thybulle in the lineup. Spain has the Hernangomez brothers – Juancho and Willy – and Rudy Fernandez leading the squad.
Surprisingly, traditional powers Serbia, Greece, Germany, Lithuania and Italy are longshots to win the title. The odds of the Serbians and the Greeks are affected by the withdrawals of top stars Nikola Jokic (Serbia) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece). However, experts who focus on the FIBA World Cup betting picks are wary of upsets that happen in the knockout rounds of the tournament. In this short tournament, it is a matter of which team will get hot in time for the championship. Teams have to be consistent day in and day out to gain a chance at the title.
