When the OKC Thunder cleaned house back in the summer of 2019 by trading both Russell Westbrook and Paul George in exchange for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a treasure trove of future draft assets, they essentially set the gold standard for what the ideal return for star players could look like.
Since then, however, no team has come remotely close to replicating such a transaction.
From Utah's return, headlined by a mere three unprotected first-round picks and two swaps for Donovan Mitchell in the 2022 deal with Cleveland, to last year's surprise Luka Doncic blockbuster that netted the Mavericks a laughably mediocre one single first-round pick from the Lakers, it seems as though the days of bringing in draft hauls are far gone.
Here in 2026, the Milwaukee Bucks are learning this the hard way amid the ongoing Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes.
Now, not only are the stars' prospective buyers rather limited in the assets department, but, as ESPN's Tim MacMahon recently noted, the Bucks don't even have ownership of their own picks, making it rather hard for them to commit to a full-fledged tank as the Thunder did seven years ago.
Thunder had ownership of their draft picks amid rebuild, unlike Bucks
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During [an "emergency pod" edition](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoPGOhNyMsA&t=1046s) of the Hoop Collective Podcast, the veteran reporter highlighted how even though Milwaukee is likely to receive an enviable asset collection in return for Giannis if they decide to deal him ahead of Thursday's deadline, it still won't seamlessly lead them to a Thunder-esque rebuild, for a large chunk of their picks are not technically in their possession.
_"The Thunder also had their own picks for the next several years, which the Bucks do not. That's a drastic, drastic difference,"_ MacMahon said.
As a result of the 2023 trade that brought Damian Lillard out to Wisconsin for his two-year tenure, Milwaukee owes the rights to their next five first-round picks to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Needless to say, the work that Sam Presti put in behind the scenes on the respective Westbrook and George deals was truly a GM masterclass, and, to this day, the Thunder find themselves [still reaping the rewards of his efforts](https://thunderousintentions.com/paul-george-is-gift-that-keeps-on-giving-for-thunder).
However, the dynasty-pushing results that they're currently experiencing wouldn't have been fully possible without holding onto their own capital along the way, as such assets led OKC to core players like Chet Holmgren (selected second overall in 2022) and Alex Caruso (by way of trading Josh Giddey, who was selected sixth overall in 2021).
With all this in mind, though MacMahon did acknowledge that receiving, say, the Warriors' future picks during the twilight years or after the retirement of Stephen Curry is "attractive for sure" for Milwaukee, without their own draft rights, it's hard to envision a scenario where they replicate anything close to the Thunder's early 2020s rebuild.