Acquiring Damian Lillard required pushing all the chips to the table and the Milwaukee Bucks saw luxury-tax aprons on one side, with Giannis Antetokounmpo’s possible eye wandering on the other. The longer the Miami Heat and Portland Trail Blazers went without consummating a deal, particularly with training camp looming and nobody wanting a PR disaster if Lillard showed up to camp, the more the odds increased for someone to step in and realize Lillard was worth the chance.
The Bucks, sitting idly by as the clock ticks on Antetokounmpo’s impending free agency, didn’t want to let their Miami tormentors increase the mental space between the two by watching Lillard fly south.