They call this the silly season for a reason. I followed up on rumors I had reason to believe this week, and was told “I don’t know where you guys come up with this stuff” twice.

I think there are reasons for it — games of telephone, exaggeration or misinterpretation, agendas — but the end is the same. A lot of what you’ll hear will never come to pass or have any real legs to it.

I’m always more interested in the whys and hows of team decision-making and the directions they take than any specific messaging. I think you learn a lot more by looking at the whole picture than trying to suss out anything that could be true this week and false in 24 hours.

With that in mind, some things I think I think are true(?) with a reminder that I’m not trying to cosplay as Stein, Fischer, Haynes, Amick, etc.

BUCKS FANS ARE RIGHT TO HATE US (GIANNIS IS PROBABLY STAYING)

There hasn’t been a definitive and certain statement from Giannis Antetokounmpo or the Bucks leaked to the media about his intention to stay, but the tea leaves all read that way, and that’s the assumption being made by several teams.

So once again, everyone buried the Giannis Bucks era, and once again, the Greatest Buck Ever looks set to stay the course with the team that drafted him. You can’t blame Bucks fans for laughing at everyone and taking the victory lap once again.

That isn’t to say he can’t have a change of heart, or that circumstances can’t change. This is the NBA after all.

Even I got suckered into “surely this is the end” with Giannis. It’s mostly small market fatalism from me. Who stays through all this? Who sticks it out? The small markets always suffer in these situations. But Giannis, as he has always been, is not like other people.

What’s interesting is that several people I spoke to are under the impression there were two meetings. One with Giannis and the front office, with no report of the outcome from it1 and another with ownership and the front office that was focused on finances, specifically trying to reduce or eliminate their tax bill this summer.

I’m skeptical of the idea that ownership issued a directive to get out of the tax completely. If you can find a way to compete next season with Dame on the shelf and with Giannis, you take it. But there’s a reason great reporters like Eric Nehm in Milwaukee have written about the “gap year.”

That said, I’m not expecting the roster to look the way it does now. The team is likely to retain Kevin Porter Jr.2 and most everyone I’ve spoken to assume Brook Lopez is gone.

Lopez might be one of the bigger names on the market. He’s certainly at the end of his career, but like Al Horford, he's a complete pro and a winner who’s easy to fit into a team culture and find a role for, and still makes a difference defensively night to night.

The one player several personnel people expressed interest in was Gary Trent Jr., who’s an expiring minimum.

One more thing: the reports that Doc Rivers played a significant part in Giannis sticking around are not just lip service. God help Giannis. 3

THE DRAFT AND THE GIGANTIC GAP AT NO.3.