Giannis Antetokounmpo reportedly is “ready for a new home ahead of the Feb. 5 trade deadline” and the Milwaukee Bucks are now listening to offers, according to a report from Shams Charania of ESPN.
While there is clearly enough chatter that Charania reports the needle is starting to move, actually trading Antetokounmpo is much tougher to do on the ground in Milwaukee. The Bucks are asking for a massive haul in any trade — a high-level young player and a lot of draft picks to start — while, at the same time, Antetokounmpo has preferred destinations for his next team (most notably New York, which could not make that offer before next week’s deadline).
The most likely outcome for any potential Antetokounmpo trade remains that it happens in the offseason if it’s going to happen. Here is the key part of Charania’s report.
Multiple teams have received a sense that the Bucks are more open than ever on Antetokounmpo offers between now and the deadline, league sources said. However, Milwaukee has indicated to interested teams that the organization is not in a rush to complete a move and is willing to navigate Antetokounmpo’s future in the offseason if its believed price point of a blue-chip young talent and/or a surplus of draft picks isn’t met, sources said. By waiting until the summer, the Bucks could also see which teams are able to offer more appealing draft picks in June.
Sources said Antetokounmpo has informed the Bucks for months that he believes the moment has come to part ways after 12-plus years together, making a trade increasingly possible.
Antetokounmpo has emphatically denied requesting a trade, saying he would “never” do that and it’s “not in his nature.” That said, Antetokounmpo has been frustrated with the play of the 18-27 Bucks this season — a team that is 3-12 in the games he has missed — and has called out teammates for being selfish.
The expectation in league circles has been more that Antetokounmpo would tell the Bucks this summer he would not sign the four-year, $275 million supermax extension the team can offer (which he could not sign until Oct. 1), which would force the Bucks to trade him then or risk losing him for nothing in free agency in 2027.
Trading him at the deadline is difficult for a couple of key reasons. One is the tax aprons, which put hard caps and trade restrictions on potential trades. For example, the Knicks are hard-capped at the second apron and are currently less than $150,000 below that number, so they need to take back less money in a trade than they send out, and Antetokounmpo is making $54.1 million this season. That becomes a difficult math problem, and the Knicks don’t have draft picks to send to Milwaukee in a deal anyway. Other teams known to be interested would face the same issues: The Warriors are hard-capped at the second apron (and the Bucks would not want just the injured Jimmy Butler in a deal), the Heat are hard-capped at the first apron, and the list goes on and on. Other teams linked in the past might rethink their interest: Do teams like the Spurs and Pistons want to blow things up to chase an aging star, or stick with their young cores that are winning big now?
The other factor is Antetokounmpo’s injury — he is currently sidelined with a calf strain, and while the Bucks would not put a timeline on his return, Antetokounmpo himself said 4-6 weeks. Any team that trades for him is doing so in part to chase a ring this season, and Antetokounmpo has missed considerable time this season and in recent playoff runs because of similar leg injuries. Why would a team go all-in now if they can make a better offer this summer?
There are a lot of moving parts with an Antetokounmpo trade, and most likely it remains an offseason thing, but the Bucks are now listening to offers.
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