BREAKING: Giannis Antetokounmpo EYEING Knicks | Could Brooklyn Nets Swoop In With BLOCKBUSTER Offer?

BREAKING: Giannis Antetokounmpo EYEING Knicks | Could Brooklyn Nets Swoop In With BLOCKBUSTER Offer?

Coming up, Giannis Antenna wants to play in New York, but it’s for the Knicks, not the Nets. Could Brooklyn re-enter that conversation at some point in the next year? I’ll answer that after this. [Music] You are Locked on Nets, your daily Brooklyn Nets podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Welcome in to the Locked On Nets podcast right here on the Locked on Podcast Network. It’s your team, the Brooklyn Nets, every single day. I’m Eric Slater, Brooklyn reported for clutchpoints.com. Thank you for making me your first listen of the day. This show is 100% free on all those great platforms. The show is also brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the FanDuel.com app to get started. And on today’s episode, I’m going to be reacting to Sham Gerania’s bombshell report that the Milwaukee Bucks and New York Knicks held brief discussions about a Giannis trade this summer. I’ll dive into what the report says about Giannis’s future and whether the Nets could be a team that enters the equation as the situation plays out. And joining the pod now, we got Lucas Kaplan of Nets Daily. And Lucas, we had a major NBA story break this morning. Not necessarily involving the Nets, but I think it does have some significance to the Nets. And that is surrounding one Giannis Tennako, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the New York Knicks. And we’re going to talk about this report and how the Nets could potentially tie into it down the line. But first of all, how are you? How was your weekend? I’m good. I logged off. I just caught up on the Net’s preseason game and I’m excited to I’m I’m feel refreshed. I’m ready to get back into a full NBA season of games and stories like this. Yeah, exactly. Before the actual games come along and we can talk about that, we got to hit on some uh you know, offseason rumor trade stuff like obligatory. But basically, we sum up this report uh for everybody. I’m sure a lot of you people saw it, but it came from Sean Shrania of ESPN who has been covering the story throughout the summer and it seems like had been sitting on this for a while and put out today. And basically what this report said like there are a few key takeaways. The first being Giannis doesn’t think the Bucks can contend for a championship as is and he wants to trade to the Knicks. Like that’s number one. Number two, the Bucks don’t want Giannis. They don’t they don’t want to trade Giannis because they just waved and stretched Damen Lillard and signed Miles Turner and did all these things. So, they want to see how this season plays out. Plus, the Knicks don’t really have anything to offer that they like. The Knicks know this, so they weren’t going to jump through all the hoops that it takes to get the wheels turning on a multi-team trade, which would ultimately, you know, blow up in their faces, you know, during what could already be a championship season. So, basically, both teams are kind of waiting this out and we’ll see how it plays out down the line. Now, why this is relevant to the Nets and I can already feel through the screen a lot of people rolling their eyes right now because we’ve talked about this Giannis thing for so long. And sorry, I’ll I’ll try not to. My bad. That’s on me. Lucas being one of them. Um, but we talked about Giannis and the Nets obviously and why this is relevant. We know that the Nets want Giannis. Like there’s been extensive reporting on this over the last almost two years now that Giannis has been the Nets guy. I’ve talked to people I’ve talked to people throughout the league, talked to some people around the Nets organization who said before the male Bridges trade, their plan A was Giannis and also that really, you know, that smaller really athletic guard uh in Cleveland. That was like kind of what they were aiming for. Number two, Giannis seems to want to play in the East and he wants to play in New York. And you look at this report and you know, he didn’t ask about any other teams. He didn’t say he wanted to go to Houston or Dallas or San Antonio or any of these playoff caliber teams who have more to offer. He said New York and he said the Knicks. And I believe part of that is the market obviously, but also that the East looks a hell of a lot more attractive if you’re a star who’s trying to contend right now. A lot more attractive to be in the East than to go into the West, which is a gauntlet right now. Third point, the Nets have the asset to put together a hell of a package for Giannis if they want to. and four, they don’t have control of their pick in 2027. So, they’re going to want to be good uh this the season after this coming season. So, all of that is why I feel that this has some relevance to the Nets. And there’s really three questions that we need to answer to determine whether the Nets can get involved in this. And Lucas and I will will go through these, but I think the first is how do the Knicks do this season? Because obviously if the Knicks win a title, they’re not going to blow up their team for Giannis. And I’d say even if they’re close to winning a title, meaning, you know, they say they win the East and they have a competitive, you know, finals series, I don’t think then that they blow their team up to go after Giannis. They could, but there’s a conversation to be had. So, let’s let’s start there. There’s a few other questions that we need to answer, but Lucas, when you look at this Knicks roster, how bullish are you on their ability to legitimately contend for a title this season? Yeah, I mean, I they are certainly contenders. I mean, they made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, and I know it’s sort of seems like now looking at it in the past that it’s been, you know, that that was the Pacers year, but listen, Tyresese Hallebertton lucky bounce in game one changes the series. I mean, they were right there in that series, even if they had a lot of room to do things better. And I think they recognize that and that’s why they have Mike Brown coaching the team instead of Tom Tibido. Um, and yeah, they’re contenders. I mean, would it wouldn’t surprise anybody if they’re in the finals next year. So, um, yeah. What about winning the finals? Do you think that they have what it takes to hang with a team like OKC as currently constructed? Yeah, I wouldn’t pick them, but once you talk about getting to the finals, you know, anything can happen. I mean, I certainly wouldn’t have them as the favorites, but once you get to a finals and after 82 games of a regular season and we know how hard it is to repeat, like, yeah, I I wouldn’t pick them as, you know, currently constructed over probably Denver and OKC and maybe if you know, I’m kind of a believer in the Warriors if they really kind of put it together and remain healthy. But this is not a team that should be looking to really throw themselves at Giannis in the public eye because they have a chance to contend this year. Yeah, that’s really the bottom line with this Knicks story. Like this Giannis situation, like could it come to a head and could there be a trade during the season? Like I’m not going to rule it out, but I’d say it’s highly unlikely. I’d say that this is trending in a direction where it’s probably going to be next off season that he gets traded. And I do think he’s going to get traded because I just don’t think that this Bucks team is even close to contending even in a watered down Eastern Conference. And can we just take a second off the heels of this story coming out to acknowledge how legitimately insane it is that this team waved and stretched Damen Lillard without talking to Giannis and confirming that he’s like in on this situation. Giannis was not consulted on that decision per the reporting and at the time of that decision was kind of making it clear that he didn’t want to be there and they still did that. Is that that’s one of the more insane moves that I can think of since I started covering the NBA. And what did he have on on on how many years did he have left? Was this So he had two years, right? Uh yeah, I think so. Two he had this season and next. So now it’s going to be on their books for like four or five years at like 23 million a season. It’s unbelievable. Really, they they they must believe that, you know, Miles Turner. Listen, I don’t know. I hope that they do trade Giannis so I don’t have to keep hearing about it anymore. I think that’s where I’m at on it. And yeah, I think really when you just look at the mismanagement of their roster over the last few years and the talent depletion, you know, they were in a tough spot with Chris Middleton, but it it really is unreal. And then like everyone likes to point and laugh at Philly, but when you look at the talent that they’ve been able to keep recycling around their aging superstar, it’s it’s night and day. Yeah. The Bucks would dream of having that Philly roster. I mean, they’re they’re so far away from that. The difference is we know what Giannis is and Embiid is a bit of a question mark at this point. Yeah, it’s uh it’s just pretty wild how this situation has played out in Milwaukee and I think it it says something. I mean like honestly obviously Giannis is a Milwaukee icon like that goes without saying but these small market teams when you get a guy like this who’s a top you know four or five player in the NBA they’ll go to extreme and a lot of people would say ridiculous lengths to try to retain that player and that’s what the Bucks have done. But um you know another question that we need to answer is you know if the Knicks don’t win a title this season, do they have enough assets to pull off this trade and is it something where you know this is going to be a situation where Giannis is going to find his way to the Knicks and no other teams are even really going to get involved? I think other teams will get involved just for the sake of you know you’re going to want as many teams to get involved as possible. We’ve seen you know players obviously have a lot of power in the NBA. Do they always get what they want? No. You know we saw Damen Liller go to Milwaukee. saw Jimmy Butler go to Golden State instead of Phoenix. Like not always, but at next off season when Giannis has one year left on his contract, he’s going to have more leverage. So it really comes down to, you know, can the Knicks scrge together the assets to put together a respectable offer? And another question in conjunction with that, are the Bucks willing to take less than the best offer to make Giannis happy and do right by this guy who has been with them for a decade plus and been committed and done all the right things? And you know, there could be a ton of questions that crop up in the offshoot of that, but let’s just focus on that. Like, say the Knicks don’t win a title. First off, if the Knicks if the Knicks don’t win a title, like do you think that they’re a team that realistically should blow up their roster to go after Giannis? Because that’s what this is going to take. It’s going to presumably be, you know, Cat and then Male Bridges andor OG Aninobi going to a third team and they’re really just going to be gutting their depth to pair Giannis with Jaylen Brunson. Yeah, I would. I mean, Giannis, if he’s barring injury, barring whatever, this top this A+ tier, uh, in this A+ tier of players in the league, and you compare him with Jaylen Brunson, um, you do it. And obviously, a lot of this depends on how Cat performs and whatnot. But yeah, Giannis is one of the few players in the league where you can just look at the trade machine and say, “Oh, well, it’s Giannis, so we will be willing to go to extreme lengths to get a guy like this.” Uh, and the interesting thing about the Knicks asset stash is you would think they’d be really motivated to get it done sooner rather than later because they do have two first round picks this year. One of them is Washington protected one through eight. So, that’s probably what So, let’s just cross that one off the list. That’s not a first round pick. Not a first round pick. I don’t know what it conveys to, but um, you know, I think it goes it the protections go up on it each year. like it gets protected deeper and then eventually it goes to seconds if I’m not mistaken. So yeah, it’s hard for Milwaukee to sell a fan base on, hey, we traded Giannis and you will reap the benefits of that trade in about six years when we make those first round picks. Um, and if that Washington pick was unprotected, maybe this is a different conversation, but yeah, I don’t I don’t see it yet. Yeah, I mean, if we’re talking about, you know, what the Knicks have to offer, you know, if it gets to this point next off seasonason where say they strike out on a title this year, they don’t win and they’re looking to blow it up, like they’re not going to have the best offer. Like, I think that goes without saying. It’s really going to, you know, get to a point of can they put together an offer that’s close enough to these other teams where Milwaukee says, “All right, like we don’t have to get a hundred cents on the dollar. will take maybe 80 cents on the dollar and do right by our guy and Giannis and not let this get ugly and be kind of a sour note of how, you know, this guy exits our franchise. And yeah, for the Knicks, like it’s going to be Carl Anthony Towns, it’s going to be can they get a few first round picks for, you know, Muel Bridges andor Ojanobi and then they’re going to trade a bunch of swaps and like that’s going to be the offer. Do the Bucks take that offer? you know, do the Knicks are the Knicks even motivated, you know, to go in and do all of that and blow their team up. That a lot of that’s going to depend on how this season plays out. But regardless, one thing I do know is that if the Nets want to, which they by all accounts in the past have, obviously the situ situation has changed, but if they want to, they can make a really good offer. So, we’ll get into what a Nets offer could look like, should they get involved, how all that could play out when we continue locked on Nets after a quick break. But before that, want to tell you about our friends over at Monarch Money. Guys, most people can’t name all their financial accounts or even what they’re worth, whether it’s 401ks, properties, or investments. And when you don’t have the full picture, you end up leaving money on the table. That’s why there’s Monarch Money. It’s an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or your phone. Guys, Monarch is built for people with busy lives. If you put off organizing your finances, Monarch is for you. Monarch does the heavy lifting for you. 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Coming back from the break on today’s lockdown Nets episode talking about the NBA news surrounding Giannis and Tennako and whether or not he will end up with the Knicks and we have said that that could happen. There’s also a very realistic world where that does not happen. If it does not happen the Nets could be a team who get gets involved in this despite them being in a rebuild making five first round picks doing all of the these things. We’ve known that the Nets have wanted Giannis and Tennupo. this has been described as their white whale, their guy that they wanted to go after. So, you know, we’ll we’ll talk about whether or not we think that ch that has changed, you know, with the direction they’ve gone with the rebuild, but first just the Nets have the assets to get involved like this. Like if somehow Giannis sees a path where the Nets could be, you know, a team that he feels could build a contender around him, he wants to play in the New York market, he wants to play in the East, like I could see a scenario where it, you know, they enter the equation. I think a lot of people probably think it’s ridiculous for the Nets to even be mentioned in this conversation given they’re going to be, you know, a top three worst team in the league this season probably. but they have the market. They have league leading draft capital. They have financial flexibility and they do have some, you know, decent players on their roster. So, what what are your feelings about their ability to get involved here? I mean, I it’s tough to follow up that ringing endorsement of the 2026 Nets. Uh some decent players on the roster. Um, no. I listen, this is why the Nets, you’ve heard all along, people around the league, in the organization, they’re like, “Yeah, we don’t really want to be bad beyond this year.” I mean, beyond the fact that they owe the pig swap to the Rockets, they do believe, and I do think this is a real belief from the top of the organization, from ownership. We don’t want to be bad and irrelevant in a New York market. like whether you subscribe to the notion that you can tank in a major market, whether you can’t, that’s some form of that is a belief in the org. And so they do have a pathway to saying, “Okay, we were bad last year, got all these picks, we’re bad again this year. We have really the crown jewel of our draft assets and this really loaded 2026 draft at least at the top. We get one of those guys. We have all these draft picks that we just made this year. we have all this, like you said, flexibility, all these future assets, but we don’t own our pick in 2027. Now is the time to go. And so, right now, it seems like the most likely scenario is that they’re just a year too early or too late, I should say. You know, you think Giannis gets traded next summer. Yeah. Too early and too late. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. They just are kind of caught in between. But, you know, if one of the rookies pops and they get the number two pick or something and another kind of Btier star wants out, like they should be mentioned as the dark horse team if there is one. Um, cuz we all know, listen, we read this report today, the messaging seems clear. It’s the Knicks or nothing for Giannis. That’s not really how these trade negotiations ever go. Like, I I can’t really think of one where it was I’m going here or nowhere. You know, even Nets fans will remember when they had the Harden sweep stakes the first time. Philly kind of like it was all Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn. Philly enters kind of at the 11th hour and really ups the trade price and you know that could be the Nets this time. So, I I mean my thoughts are kind of jumbled here and we’ll talk more about it, but point being I do think it’s fair to like just keep one eye on them, especially knowing these directives from ownership and how much they love Giannis for years and years. Yeah. Like, and I see people, you know, I’ve seen like Nets certain people on Nets Twitter bring this up, you know, in the fallout from the Shams report and other people coming in and laughing and saying it’s ridiculous and all that. And I understand like for a Nets team that is not going to be is going to be awful this season is tanking right now. Like ridiculous. But like I think there’s a a few things you said that are really like the points to drive home. One being this isn’t a team that wants to be tanking beyond this season. like they very reluctantly went into a tank and it was something that they were desperately trying to avoid to the point where they just couldn’t do it anymore and it became so obvious that they had to take this godfather offer from the Knicks from Male Bridges and then they could get their picks back and all that. You have a directive from ownership probably and then in conjunction with that you don’t have your pick in 2027. So the Nets after this season, we all know it, the Nets are, you know, pressing on the gas pedal after this season. It’s just going to be a question of are they tapping on the gas pedal and you know getting up to the speed limit or are they flooring it and you know going like 30 miles per hour over and potentially crashing and blowing the whole team up. I think that’s a good metaphor right there. Yeah. Like that’s the that’s some of my better work here on live. That’s uh that’s the question right now. and pressing the pedal fully down. If they were going to do it, they’re going to do it for a player who, you know, wall might not fit their window from an age perspective, is one of the best players in the league. Completely changes the perception of your franchise if you get him in your in your uniform. And they’ve been rumored to be extremely high on in the past. And Giannis is that guy because if you look at like the Nets wanting to get involved in this conversation of being a team that can have one of these top tier guys and presumably have a chance of contending for a championship in the next like three, four, five years. Giannis is the guy like go through the top of the league like go through the top players in the league. You have you know SGA not going anywhere. We not going anywhere. Lucas, Lucas, Luca probably going to be probably going to be on the Lakers for the foreseeable future. Like any of these other guys you want to go through, Giannis is the guy that might be moving. So, I could see the Nets looking at that situation and being like, if we have this opportunity to get this guy in our building, we do it and we figure out the rest. Now, also, you make a lot of money if he’s on your team. Exactly. And even if you’re not a tier one contender, you make a lot of money. And that matters. I mean, it’s kind of a weak, not exactly the hottest of takes for me, but you make a lot of money. And so, the real question is going to be why would Giannis want to come here? That that’s the question that they’re going to have to answer. You know, for the Nets, they will gladly have Giannis as like the Lamborghini next to the decrepit like apartment that’s falling apart. They’ll do that. The question for Giannis is are they going to be ready? Like best case scenario, right? Best case scenario, the Nets draft A Darren Peterson or AJ or Boozer, one of them, and then they pop in year one. They have like a oh man, this dude’s like nearly an all-star in year one type of thing. And then you somehow get Giannis to delay the official trade request until next next summer. So the summer of 27. There’s a lot of huge ifs here, but all within the realm of like Well, he would be a he would be a free agent in 2027. Maybe he signs a one in one an extension before that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. If he signs an extension, but we think I think that this is trending in a direction where he’s going to be traded next off season. I think that’s the overwhelmingly likely outcome because the Bucks are going to want to play this year out and see if they can do anything to convince him to stay. if they can punch above their weight a little bit, they’re going to want to see the Knicks are going to want to see how they do. And then we’re going to get to a situation where it’s going kind of going to be, you know, you know what or get off the pot time for both sides of the equation there. And then if that doesn’t come to fruition, that’s where these other teams get involved. And you said, you know, is there going to be a reason for Giannis to want to come to the Nets? What does the Net’s pitch to him look like? Should they, you know, go in if they should they make that pitch? And should they seriously consider that? We’ll touch on all that. We close out lockdown Nets after a quick break. The NFL season is here and FanDuel has an offer you don’t want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. That’s right. Pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Guys, FanDuel gives you so many ways to play. You can build parlays, try player props, and even follow live lines during games. It makes watching football even more exciting when you’ve got a little something riding on the action. Whether you’re a casual fan or love diving into stats, FanDuel makes the game day experience so much better. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. Coming out of the break, closing out today’s lockdown on Nets episode. sifting through the rubble of this Shams Trannia Giannis and Tennacoupo report and trying to tie some net significance into it which I think can be done. I think we’ve made an effective case for Lucas. You were saying before that, you know, the Nets had the assets to get involved. There’s a clear benefit from a financials perspective. There’s a clear incentive from a basketball perspective in terms of the Nets owing their 2027 pick to Houston. But is Giannis, is there any situation where if this Knicks, you know, scenario doesn’t work out that Giannis would want to come here? You started kind of, you know, playing it out and making the case, but what would you say is the Nets pitch if they are to get involved with this? Aside from the fact that they can make a really good offer to um to Milwaukee, which just quickly touching on that, they have this 2032 first round pick from Denver, unprotected, which I think in any trade package, which if the honest thing doesn’t come to fruition, the Nets are going to be involved in other trade discussions. That pick, oh yeah, is going to be the headliner of their trades package, their trade packages from a pick uh perspective. Then they obviously have all the Knicks picks. They have the Philly pick. They have some of their own picks. And then I think what also can’t be discounted, and you mentioned this before and it was a good point, these five rookies that the Nets picked, they’re not picks anymore, but they’re like essentially draft picks. Like they’re these young guys where if they show promise, you know, and whoever out of the group shows promise, those guys are young prospects that would probably be involved maybe multi multiple of them in a negotiation. So, the Nets have all that stuff. They have salary fillers obviously like Michael Porter Jr. and Nick Claxton, but so they can get involved from that perspective. But if they’re making the P pitch to Giannis, what do you think is the pitch? Well, I don’t know if you saw that uh KOC tweet today. Um he noted Newark airport is the only airport in the country with non-stop direct flights to Athens, Greece all year round. I did, you know, every other market. It’s a seasonal sort of thing, you know. So, that’s got to be at the top of the list. Um, too bad they’re not still playing in the Peru and in Newark. Then, you know, if they were playing it, if they were playing at Predential Center, it’ be a done deal. Now, they just have now they’re just like, “Hey, like we got non-stop flights. We can get you extra leg room on these flights. Like, you know, come here and we’ll we’ll figure it out. You can be in Athens and however many hours it takes to Yeah. could go back, you know, the night of and then come back. There’s a day between games. No, I think it’s, listen, it’s obviously the New York market. Um, it is the fact that they do have a lot, like let’s say it’s a trade executed this summer. They have a lot of cap space and they essentially are making this long-term bet on just the accumulation of assets and flexibility being they’re going all in on that as the way to like relevance as an NBA franchise. And it is a very fascinating bet for them to make. And this is a case of how it could work out because you’re not just coming here by yourself. Like we if you’re coming here, we will be able to work the trade market and you know the uh free agent market whatever of it exists in a year in a year’s time to get people to join you. Um, Cam Thomas, one of those free agents, you know, I mean, I’m sure Nets fans will worry about Giannis potentially taking some onball reps away from Cam Thomas, but that’s all all that will blow over on the championship parade down Flatbush in two years time. Um, yeah. Yeah. So, I I would say uh yeah, like the Nets, it’s it’s a flexibility, you know, pitch and I think I think flexibility has become a new buzzword. Like it’s become the new culture, I think. um which some fans are probably nauseated by at this point and tired of hearing about it, but it is just a relevant word because that’s what the Nets have. Like they’re they have flexibility. They’re making a bet on flexibility. Whether you or not you think that’s a foolish bet, well, we could have that conversation, but that is the case right now. And if they’re going after a guy like Giannis, like I think the pitch definitely centers on the New York market. we have financial flexibility so we can do things to try to get this other player whether through the free agent market or whether through trades and you look at their picks they have nine tradable first round picks over the next seven years that’s the most in the NBA and then they also have these young guys as I noted who are essentially like extensions of draft picks if they show promise and then if they tank this year and they do it right and they get a pick you know in the top three and they can get one of these guys like AJ Demansa Cam Boozer or Darren Peterson. I think that changes your outlook on whether or not you should do this. But for a Nets team, maybe that makes it easier for them to think that they can get a guy like Giannis because it’s just an extreme like crown jewel asset added to the pool. So that is the pitch. I think that talk about the top three pick which we hope they can get is a good segue into why they should or should not do this. So Lucas, you know, if they could get involved, obviously the price, but assuming it’s going to take a really, you know, a pretty steep offer of like four first round picks, swaps, salary fillers, probably one of their good young prospects. Is there any scenario where you think the Nets should actually, you know, go this route? Yeah, there is a scenario. It would have to be really one of the high-end outcomes of this season. like multiple of their uh more than one of their first round picks this year pop. They get the top three pick. You know, there’s an unforeseen entry into the free agent market or the trade market this offseason that wants to switch teams. So, yeah, there is a scenario. I just don’t really see it being likely. And again, my gut feeling is that there were just one year too early. Like just if it was if you had back shifted this a year and then you know this year was like Darren Peterson’s rookie year on the Nets for example then you could maybe get me to say yeah but I just don’t see it being super likely. I agree and I think that I’ve been you know we’ve had this discussion before. I think this is new news that adds context to it but we’ve both said that we don’t think that this is a path they should go. Have I said that it’s completely like asinine and ridiculous? Having gone that far, it’s it might No, I wouldn’t. Yeah, say that. Yeah, I wouldn’t say that. I would just say that it’s probably not the best path for this team, especially if one or two of these guys that you have this year show promise and then next year you’re able to land a guy like an AJ Deansa or a Camboozer and a Darren Peterson. Like sure, you could trade in all your flexibility for Giannis, but having that base that you have right now, and then having all of those picks and having all of that cap health, we’re seeing how that’s working out right now for teams like the Houston Rockets, obviously the Oklahoma City Thunder, to a lesser extent, the Orlando Magic. Like, that’s a really good way to start your rebuild. And the prospect of trading all of that in for Giannis is it’s not crazy because Giannis is a top four player in the NBA who still is in his prime, but it’s I would not say an advisable or a smart route to go. Now, the caveat there is the East sucks. If the East didn’t suck, if the East was like the East of past where it was like pretty good and there were several teams that you were really afraid of, I don’t even think this would be a conversation. But because the East is so decrepit and shitty, frankly, I think that really adds another layer to the conversation. And I think that adds to Giannis wanting to be in the East or stay in the East. And then for the Nets, like if the Nets are looking around and saying, we got Jason Tatum and Tyresese Hallebertton coming off of injuries. We have, you know, Joel Embiid’s, you know, lifeless body waddling around in Philadelphia. We have, you know, the Knicks maybe don’t play out the way that you would hope. and you know, Muel Bridges is still afraid to take a layup and he’s not shooting threes well and that team just isn’t playing out the way you want and the Cavs like Darius Scarland’s not staying healthy and things aren’t working out there. Like there is a scenario where I think the Nets are looking around and saying, “Hey, we get Giannis, we keep, you know, some of our decent like prolevel players that we have right now and we have all these assets left over.” I do see a scenario when you tie in the fact also the financial incentive, all the other things that are working for them. I could really see in like just have a window into the management room at HSS training center and just see those gears start turning for Shawn Marks and for Joe Sign for all these people especially Shawn Marks a guy who’s trying to save his job really like like he’s trying to revitalize this next franchise. Yeah. So, you know, I that’s how I could see it. And I really like it’s a nice full circle moment six years later that the Nets are getting their own version of the Zion, Kyrie, Katie, Nicks fan edits entering the 2019 off season uh with like Giannis, Darren Peterson, and like insert whatever co-star they would try to trade for. But we said that the Nets would make themselves will try to make themselves known and heard from whenever, you know, it really hits the fan with Giannis. And they may seem to be in the most in the least likely, the least flattering position to try to go get Giannis, but I think we can agree that is not going to stop them. They have their sights set on this guy. And um he’ll love it. He’ll love it here. There’s a lot of good Greek food. There’s an adoring fan base of of of, you know, kids just waiting to be shoveled into the Barkclay Center wearing Ana Kmpo jerseys. There’s a lot of marketing opportunities here, too. And direct flights to Athens. Direct flights to Athens. That That’s where we’re going to close this out and leave this. Giannis, if you’re watching, direct flights to Athens. Extra leg room. We’ll get you, you know, a few extra snacks on the flight. The Nets will get you a few extra snacks on the flight. But I hope so. All we got here, Lucas, we’re going to come back tomorrow and I know to your delight and to the delight of some other people, we’re going to talk about actual Nets basketball and we’ll give some thoughts on the preseason game. I know that you got a chance to watch it. We’ll talk about these Nets rookies and then before you know it, we’ll have the regular season coming around. So, I appreciate you taking the time, man, and uh excited to have you back on to talk some actual Nets hoops. That does it for today’s episode of Locked on Nets. Hope you guys enjoyed the talk with Lucas hitting on everything to do with the Nets and that potential Giannis situation which we will be monitoring over the coming year. But if you guys do not already, make sure to subscribe to Lockdown Nets on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast with our Apple podcast or Spotify. If you enjoy the show, take a second right now. Please smash that like button, leave a comment, leave a fivestar review. Anything you can do to engage is much appreciated. We’re going to have Lucas back on the show tomorrow to react to the Net’s first preseason game, preview some of the upcoming preseason action, and talk about all the other developments surrounding this team. So, I have all that and more when I’m back tomorrow talking more Brooklyn Nets basketball.

Erik Slater and Lucas Kaplan react to Shams Charania’s report detailing Giannis Antetokounmpo’s interest in a trade to the New York Knicks. They analyze the likelihood of the Greek Freak ending up with the Knicks and whether the Brooklyn Nets could enter the trade conversation.

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