If the Milwaukee Bucks really do move Giannis Antetokounmpo this summer, Bobby Portis is going with him.
That is the latest from veteran NBA reporter Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press, who wrote Tuesday that there is “a growing belief in some corners” around the league that any Antetokounmpo deal will include the Bucks’ fan-favorite power forward.
This is not the report that says Giannis is being traded. It is the report that says when the trade happens, here is what it is going to look like. There is a distinction.
Including Portis serves three purposes for Milwaukee. The first is salary matching. Portis makes around $14 million per year and is on a manageable deal. Stapling him to a Giannis trade makes the salaries work without forcing the acquiring team to send back multiple unwanted contracts.
The second is increasing the return. Portis is not a star, but he is a useful rotation big who can play either frontcourt spot and shoot from 3. A team trading for Giannis is sending a haul of picks and young players. Tossing in Portis as a sweetener gives Milwaukee a marginal upgrade on whatever third or fourth piece comes back.
The third is the most important. If the Bucks are trading Giannis, they are blowing it up. There is no version of a Giannis trade that ends with Milwaukee competing for a playoff spot the following year. They are going to be in the lottery. In that scenario, Portis is more useful to a contender than to a rebuilding Bucks team paying him to play 25 minutes a night for a 30-win roster.
The two leading destinations remain the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics. The Heat have been the most consistent rumored landing spot for Giannis for months. Pat Riley does not chase players he is not serious about. The Celtics are an interesting wild card because they have the asset base to make a trade work without breaking up too much of their core.
Portis would fit on either roster. In Miami, he gives Erik Spoelstra a hard-playing, lineup-flexible big who can spell Bam Adebayo at the five and play next to him at the four. In Boston, he becomes the bench scorer the Celtics have not had since Marcus Smart left, with the added benefit of giving them a real backup for Kristaps Porzingis on nights when Porzingis is unavailable, which is many nights.
The Bucks have been clear that they are not actively shopping Giannis. They have also been clear that they will not stand in his way if he decides he wants out. Giannis himself has stayed publicly noncommittal, which is the same posture he has held for the last three offseasons.
What is different this time is the leverage. Giannis is two years from a player option. He will be 32 when next season ends. He has watched the Bucks struggle to build around him since the 2021 title. Doc Rivers’ tenure has been a mess. The roster is older and slower. The internal patience that kept him in Milwaukee for the last three offseasons may finally have run out.
If the Bucks pull the trigger, the Portis inclusion is the kind of detail that gets ignored at the time of the trade and then matters a lot two years later. He plays hard. He scores in bunches. He fits in any locker room.
The Bucks fan base is going to be heartbroken twice if this trade happens. Once for Giannis. Once for Bobby. The numbers say one is a lot more likely than the other right now.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
