The Milwaukee Bucks are reaching a crossroads. They are signaling to other teams, according to recent reports, that they want to go star-hunting on the trade market to try and convince Giannis Antetokounmpo to commit his long-term future amid the swirling trade rumors involving his name.
Alas, the Bucks are nearly stripped bare of tradeable assets after a few years of blowing their wad on blockbuster trades. They are still out a few picks in the Jrue Holiday trade of 2020, and then they gave the Portland Trail Blazers control of their first-round picks from 2028 to 2030 — leaving them with nothing but picks in the 2030s to trade in any potential deal.
While there are some trades that could potentially work, the realistic outcome for the Bucks is to whiff on their star-hunting, forcing them to settle for lower-end trades that won't make much of a dent in their long-term future.
For instance, they have been linked to a trade for Blazers wing Jerami Grant; Grant is a talented scorer who can defend, but he is not a needle-mover — especially not for a Bucks team struggling amid Antetokounmpo's absence due to a calf injury.
But alas, Grant, if anything, is a gettable piece for the Bucks, value-wise. This is what it would take for the Bucks to pry away another key piece from the Blazers.
Bucks' trade package for Jerami Grant
Bucks acquire: Jerami Grant
Blazers acquire: Kyle Kuzma, Bobby Portis
Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday (21) drives for the basket against Portland Trail Blazers forward Jerami Grant (9) in the second quarter at Fiserv Forum.
Benny Sieu-Imagn Images
There was a time when Grant's contract looked very much untradeable. He was coming off a putrid 2024-25 campaign in which he played in just 47 games and averaged just 14.4 points on 37.3 percent shooting from the field. That is not the kind of production any team would want out of anyone making around $30 million.
The Blazers looked stuck with Grant's contract, and heading into the 2025-26 campaign, it looked like he was going to be phased out even more from the team amid the rise of Deni Avdija into the team's main scoring option. But amid the team's injury problems, Grant has restored his value, thanks to his re-emergence as one of the more consistent scorers in the association.
At present, he's averaging 20.0 points per game on 44/40/86 shooting splits, which is good for a true shooting percentage of 60.7. That is a career-best for Grant, who is helping the Blazers stay afloat amid the injury woes to their point guards.
But since the start of the decade, Grant being productive has not exactly translated to winning basketball. Since Grant signed a huge contract with the Detroit Pistons prior to the start of the 2020-21 season, his teams have put up a 103-187 record with him on the floor. While that is not solely his fault, it's evident that he is not meant to be a main scoring option on a good team.
This is not to say that Grant has no place on a winning team. He did well when he came off the bench for the Denver Nuggets during the 2019-20 season, but his calling appears to be that of a crucial role player on a winning team. He's miscast as a first option and he might be underqualified to be a second option as well, and for a Bucks team in need of star power, Grant is not going to be coming in to magically fix their issues.
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As far as star-hunting goes, Grant may not even be the moon for the Bucks. And that is not a slight on Grant. But Milwaukee surely has to be dreaming bigger in any potential trade.
Moreover, Grant is making $32 million this season and a combined $70.6 million for the next two seasons, and for that kind of money, the Bucks are better off allocating that towards other pieces.
The only scenario where a trade for Grant makes sense for the Bucks is if it doesn't cost them any first-round picks or any of their talented guards (Ryan Rollins or Kevin Porter Jr.). Thus, packaging Kyle Kuzma and Bobby Portis for Grant should be worth the Bucks' while.
Kuzma has been on a steady decline over the past few seasons, and like Grant, he is coming off a horrible 2024-25 campaign. What makes matters worse for the Bucks is that they traded franchise legend Khris Middleton for the shell of Kuzma, who hasn't moved the needle one bit for Milwaukee.
The Bucks envisioned that Kuzma would be a more athletic presence and another scorer alongside Antetokounmpo. But Kuzma's three-point shot has deserted him (32.9 percent on the season on just 2.7 attempts per game) and he's scoring just 13.5 points per contest. That is not the kind of production Milwaukee expected from him, not when he's the third-highest earner on the team.
It would be one thing if Kuzma made up for it with other contributions, but he's not a dominant presence on the glass, a playmaker who makes his teammates better, or a defensive ace.
Meanwhile, Portis, who's been with the team for quite some time now, has been in trade rumors for a while. Portis is beloved in Milwaukee, but the Bucks don't have too many options when it comes to salary-matching purposes especially when they're eating $22.5 million of dead money courtesy of the Damian Lillard waive-and-stretch.
For the Blazers, this at least helps them replenish some of their depth that's been gutted over this past offseason. Portis is a solid backup center to have behind Donovan Clingan, which is badly needed considering how unready for NBA minutes Yang Hansen is. Kuzma is a huge downgrade from Grant, but his contract at least expires one year earlier.
At the end of the day, fans should not expect any movement to happen in this regard. The Blazers love Grant too much for them to part ways with him for this kind of package. For the Bucks, it'd be asinine for them to trade away anything more for Grant since he's not the kind of star who could make Antetokounmpo stay.
This is a hypothetical trade that the Bucks are better off leaving in the imaginary world.