So, your favorite team wants Giannis Antetokounmpo?
Well, good luck, as almost every team in the NBA is gearing up to make a call to the Milwaukee Bucks to take their best shot at trading for the multi-time MVP and one of the best players in basketball.
And the Bucks, who don’t necessarily need to trade Antetokounmpo, have all the power and will be asking for a king’s ransom to trade him before the NBA trade deadline next week.
Although it’s been alleged that both Antetokounmpo and the Bucks have reached a point where they see a trade as the best option for both sides, Antetokounmpo has not yet publicly or internally demanded to be moved to a new franchise.
As this all goes on, the actual transaction market in the league has been completely frozen. Teams like the Miami Heat, New York Knicks, and Los Angeles Lakers, who are all in precarious positions and need to upgrade their rosters to contend for a title, have held onto their assets in case they don’t want to miss out on Antetokounmpo.
National NBA insider Marc Stein set the tone on Thursday for what the Bucks are looking for in the package that will ultimately send their franchise’s best-ever player to a new city.
The Bucks are aiming for “the moon” in the trade for Antetokounmpo, demanding multiple first-round picks and multiple young, talented prospects.
After the Dallas Mavericks traded away cornerstone Luka Doncic to the Lakers for only a single first-round selection and aging superstar Anthony Davis, the Bucks are putting their foot down that this transaction is going to be a whole lot different.
If the Bucks are looking for that type of package, realistically, only a few teams in the NBA have a depth of young players to flip along with available draft capital.
If Milwaukee doesn’t budge from their asking price, look for the Miami Heat and the Atlanta Hawks to have the best packages the Bucks would be enticed by.
The 2026 NBA trade deadline is on Feb. 5, at 3 p.m. ET.
Newsweek