Pat Riley knows how to go big game hunting.
He and Miami put their best offer for two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo on the table early and dared anyone else to beat it. In the end, nobody could.
Milwaukee is trading Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat in a massive package that includes three key rotation players and three first-round picks, a story broken by Shams Charania of ESPN. Miami was one of the teams Antetokounmpo said he would sign an extension and stay with if traded there (he has only one more guaranteed season on his contract and is seeking a max extension).
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The trade shakes out like this:
Miami gets: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bobby Portis
Milwaukee gets: Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, the 2026 No. 13 pick, Miami’s unprotected first-rounders in 2031 and 2033, a 2030 pick swap in 2030, and Miami’s 2033 second-round pick.
Miami now jumps up the ladder in the East, pairing Antetokounmpo with Bam Adebayo and likely a re-signed Norman Powell. After sending a lot of talent out the door, Riley and the Heat front office have a lot of work to do to bring in enough talent to make this team a threat to teams at the top of the East, such as New York, Detroit, and Boston.
Miami’s offer beat out the Boston Celtics, who came hard for Antetokounmpo, offering All-NBA player Jaylen Brown coming off his best season, plus two first-round picks, Charania reports. In the end, Milwaukee used that as leverage to get a little more (likely Jakucionis and maybe another pick).
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Boston’s president, Brad Stevens, now has to sit down with Brown and make sure they are all good, and he wants to return after hearing his name in trade offers. Sources out of Boston had said that Brown was only available in a trade for Antetokounmpo — a move the Celtics considered an upgrade — but he is not being shopped. However, a year ago, the Celtics also dangled Brown in an effort to get Kevin Durant in a trade, and at some point, Brown is not wrong to say, “If you want me here, why do you keep putting me in trade offers?”
There have been a lot of rumors that Milwaukee plans to flip Herro to another team, possibly Detroit, to get more players for their rebuild. However, with the new NBA lottery system punishing the three teams with the worst records (they have worse lottery odds than the other teams that miss the postseason), the Bucks don’t want to totally bottom out.
