Giannis Antetokounmpo Trade Timeline: Bucks Will Wait Until NBA Finals End to Move Star
The longest-running NBA story of the year is finally about to get a resolution, but not yet.
The Milwaukee Bucks plan to wait until the end of the NBA Finals before trading Giannis Antetokounmpo, per a report Wednesday from Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. The thinking is that Milwaukee wants to see if either of the Finals teams becomes a serious bidder, or if any other team in the East or West reads the room and jumps in late.
This is smart. Frustrating for fans who have been refreshing trade machine pages for two months, but smart. The longer the Bucks wait, the more leverage they have. Teams that get bounced in the second round are already lobbying. Teams still alive in the Finals can wait until the trophy is handed out before making their move.
The Finals tip-off Wednesday night between the Spurs and Knicks. A sweep in either direction ends by June 10. Seven games drags this all the way to June 19. The NBA Draft is June 23 to 24. So we are looking at a four-day window between the end of the Finals and the start of the draft where everything is going to happen.
Giannis is 31 years old and entering the final guaranteed year of his contract at $58.5 million. He has been increasingly unhappy with the direction of the Milwaukee franchise since the early playoff exit. There has been zero clear signal from the player or the team that he wants to return for another rebuild attempt, and frankly nobody around the league believes he will.
The list of teams that are still considered viable trade partners is short. The Heat are aggressively engaged. The Trail Blazers are pushing despite Giannis reportedly having zero interest in playing in the West. Houston has the assets but not the urgency. Brooklyn could put together a package but it would be more about getting a star to attach to their roster than building a real contender.
Five teams that are now officially out of the sweepstakes per reporting earlier this week include the Cavaliers, Nuggets, Mavericks, and Hornets. The Knicks are reportedly not considering blowing up their roster mid-Finals run to chase Giannis, which makes sense.
The framework of what a Giannis trade looks like has gotten clearer over the last few weeks. Milwaukee needs a young star at a reasonable contract, multiple first-round picks, and an established veteran or two that can be flipped for further assets. Miami can offer Bam Adebayo plus picks plus filler. Portland can offer Scoot Henderson, picks, and salary matching, but the West problem is real.
The wild card in all of this is Giannis himself. He has a no-trade clause coming next year but does not have one right now. The Bucks can theoretically send him anywhere. In practice, no team is going to give up a king’s ransom for a star who will publicly demand a trade six months later if he is unhappy with the destination. So the player has all the leverage about where this lands.
Expect a flurry of rumors over the next 10 days as the Finals play out. Expect a confirmed deal somewhere between June 20 and the start of the draft. The Bucks are betting that patience pays off in higher returns. They are probably right.
The Giannis era in Milwaukee is over. Now it is just about getting the maximum value before the closing bell rings.
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.
