The Milwaukee Bucks finally admitted what everyone else already knew. Giannis Antetokounmpo was not going to win a second title there. On July 6, they traded him to the Miami Heat and started a rebuild that will take years.
The full deal: Giannis and Bobby Portis to Miami. Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, three first round picks including No. 13 in this year’s draft, one pick swap, and a second round pick going the other way.
The Heat now have Giannis and Bam Adebayo as a frontcourt pairing. That is the best two way frontcourt in the league. Nobody else is close.
Erik Spoelstra is one of the best defensive coaches in basketball, and he now has a Defensive Player of the Year candidate flanking one of the best all around players in the sport. Miami’s ceiling on defense is scary. They will run offense through Giannis in the half court and let Bam do everything else.
The offense is where things get interesting. Miami lost Herro, who was their leading scorer. That is a real loss. Giannis is not a shot creator for others in the traditional sense. He is a downhill freight train who needs space. That is why Milwaukee started to slow down over the last two years, because opposing defenses figured out how to wall him off.
Miami has to solve that same problem. They will need to add shooting around him. They will need a real point guard, and Pat Riley is reportedly still hunting for one. The pieces they got back from Milwaukee are role players who will need to be traded or reshaped into a real supporting cast.
But even with the fit questions, this is a massive upgrade for the Heat. They were the No. 8 seed last year and lost in the first round. Adding Giannis makes them a top 3 team in the East immediately.
The rest of the East just took a big hit. The Cavaliers were the No. 1 seed last year and now have to deal with Giannis every playoff series. The Sixers have LeBron watchers wondering if he goes there just to compete with this Heat team. The Knicks are going to be in every game with anyone, but Giannis in the paint is a matchup nightmare.
Milwaukee is the loser here, and everyone knew it going in. The Bucks got value back but they got value back too late. They should have moved Giannis when they were still close to a title window. Instead they held on through three straight first round exits and a missed playoff year, and now they are starting over with a returns package that includes three young players and picks. That is a rebuild.
Doc Rivers can only do so much with what is left. Milwaukee has to find its next franchise player. The picks help. The young players might contribute. But the Bucks are going to be bad next year, and the loyalists in Milwaukee know it.
The Ringer’s Michael Pina made a fair point in his breakdown: the Giannis trade changes everything for Miami but solves little on its own. The Heat still need to add shooting and playmaking. Riley is not done.
The bigger picture: this is one of those trades that resets the balance of the entire conference. Miami is a real title contender now. The East just got harder for everyone else. And Milwaukee has to figure out what it wants to be without the greatest player in franchise history.
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.
