Are the Milwaukee Bucks worried about Giannis Antetokounmpo’s knee?

While the Milwaukee Bucks are enjoying a 10-1 start to the season, should there be some concern surrounding Giannis Antetokounmpo’s knee?

Antetokounmpo has been ruled out ahead of Friday night’s game against the San Antonio Spurs with a knee designation. That’s his third missed game in the last week and he’s listed as day-to-day.

It’s always difficult to get a sense of where the Bucks are with any injuries; nonetheless with one concerning their best player. The good news is there wasn’t one incident that the injury seemingly stemmed from, and he did play against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday. The bad news is he didn’t look like his usually spry self and struggled to get going (some of that could’ve been due to the Hawks’ defense as well).

Giannis Antetokounmpo has missed three of the last four games and counting. Are the Milwaukee Bucks worried about his knee?

Typically, head coach Mike Budenholzer doesn’t worry too much about wins or losses in the regular season. His main priorities are improving daily and ensuring his core players are healthy for the postseason. The latter appears to be in play with Antetokounmpo.

His minutes were a bit higher to start the season as he played 36 minutes against Philadelphia in the season-opener and 38 each against Brooklyn and New York. Until his last game, his minutes were higher than they’d ever been under Budenholzer.

Antetokounmpo also played basketball for most of the summer with Greece in Eurobasket. This took a lot of his time and forced him to play a lot of games and minutes for his country. He missed at least one game with knee soreness. Sitting him for a few days might be the Bucks’ way to offset his large workload in the summer and keep him fresh for the long haul of the regular season.

Antetokounmpo is with the Bucks on this road trip which is a good sign. He seemed to be in good spirits and was animated with his teammates against the Thunder on Wednesday night. The teams the Bucks have chosen to sit him against could also be a clue this is just part of their long-term plan. He’s sat against the Thunder on Saturday, played against the Hawks on Monday, sat against the Thunder again on Wednesday, and will sit on Friday against the Spurs. Ironically, the only game they lost in there was the one he played.

Chances are Milwaukee and Budenholzer are just being extremely cautious with their MVP. He’s the last person they can afford an injury to if they want to achieve their goal of winning another NBA Title.