The Milwaukee Bucks are “open for business” and more seriously considering trade offers for Giannis Antetokounmpo than they have at any point in the past. The general league consensus is that the two-time MVP’s future plans will be decided by the June 23 NBA Draft, because a pick or picks in this year’s draft could be in play.
So where do things stand now? Here are some of the latest reports and news around Antetokounmpo and a possible trade.
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Wembanyama’s rise increases Antetokounmpo’s value
Anyone watching these NBA playoffs realizes we are officially at the start of the Victor Wembanyama era in the NBA, and for the next decade (at least) any team that wants to make a serious run at a title has to think in terms of how to counter what Wemby does. If that’s possible.
Enter Antetokounmpo, one of the few players with the physical and athletic profile to be a potential counter to Wemby on both ends of the floor. Playoff or contending teams that may have been hesitant to give up too much to get a 31-year-old with a lengthy injury history who expects a max extension after the trade, suddenly look at him as a potential option as they plan for Wembanyama. From Sam Amick of The Athletic:
“Yeah, Giannis is a matchup solution for Wemby, so I could definitely see teams factoring that in when they’re discussing trading for him,” one of the Western Conference executives said.
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Which ties neatly into our next topic…
Minnesota to be as “aggressive as possible” this summer
While the Timberwolves had some legitimate issues — Anthony Edwards playing through a knee injury, Donte DiVincenzo being out, Father Time catching up with Mike Conley, Julius Randle just not being good enough in the series — you can be sure their front office came out of the team’s six-game second-round loss to the Spurs thinking they need to make serious changes to compete in future years with San Antonio and Oklahoma City.
“We know our competition is not going to sit still, and nor will we,” Minnesota president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said at his end-of-season press conference, via the Associated Press. “If we mess up, we’ll mess up loudly. We’re going to try to be as aggressive as possible…
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“I think when we lost in the fashion we lost to San Antonio, they were clearly the better team, and we have to look at the collective, me included, the whole building. What can we all do better to ensure that we don’t see the same result next season?”
Minnesota was one of the teams in the mix for Antetokounmpo at the trade deadline and, based on what Connelly said, we should expect them to be again. Antetokounmpo has said he likes the idea of playing with Edwards.
The challenge is constructing the trade: Bucks will want Jaden McDaniels, to start, but also Minnesota is short on draft picks to deal, so it would need a third team involved. Still, it’s all something to watch.
Both the Los Angeles Lakers and, especially, the Golden State Warriors expressed interest in Antetokounmpo at the trade deadline. Expect them both to do so again, but they don’t have the best packages on the table, reports Shams Charania of ESPN, while appearing on The Rich Eisen Show this week.
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With the Lakers, they do not want to include Austin Reaves as part of the deal in a sign-and-trade, Charania said (something Reaves would have to agree to even if the Lakers flipped and wanted to include him, would Reaves want that?). The Lakers also have three first-round picks to trade: the No. 25 pick in this draft, plus 2026 and 2031. Charania put it this way:
“Right now, what they’ll be able to offer is three first-round picks and cap space. essentially absorb Giannis’ contract. Now, if you’re the Bucks, are you just going to trade Giannis to the Lakers for cap space, three first-round picks? My sense is they’re going to get better in the marketplace than that. I think there’s a bigger appetite than that.”
Also, just on the court, would ball-dominant Luka Doncic and ball-dominant Antetokounmpo mesh? At all?
The Warriors went harder for Antetokounmpo at the deadline, and they can construct a trade with four first-round picks (including No. 11 pick this year) plus either Jimmy Butler (not sure why Milwaukee would want him, he does not fit with a rebuild, they would just have to flip him in another trade) or a package built around some combination of Draymond Green, Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody. Anthony Slater of ESPN shot that down in an interview on 95.7 The Game in San Francisco.
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“I think they’re (the Warriors) not first in line, not second or third in line, really, at this point as far as packages that appeal most to Milwaukee. We know by deadline time Miami’s was the one that the Bucks seemed to be contemplating.”
Also, with the Lakers and Warriors, if Antetokounmpo wants to contend for a title, are either of these teams close to the Spurs or Thunder, even with him on the roster? That may have Antetokounmpo looking East.
