Giannis trade from Bucks to Spurs w/ Victor Wembanyama would BREAK THE NBA

Giannis trade from Bucks to Spurs w/ Victor Wembanyama would BREAK THE NBA

One of the things too that’s beneficial to Milwaukee here is Shams has reported that Giannis is pretty open-minded about where he’s willing to end up. So there’s no demand, right? There’s no like a send me to the Knicks or send me to the Lakers. And as we look at those two teams, like the Knicks just can’t really put together too much of a package for him. They blew most of their draft capital in the male Bridges move. And if I’m the Bucks, I have no interest in taking Carl Anthony Towns back, right? So like I don’t see the Knicks as too much of a threat here. The Lakers can actually put together a decent package thanks to the rise of Austin Reeves, who I think has been clearly one of the 15 best players in the league to start this season. It’s not to say he’s going to stay there, but he’s certainly encroached in on that like top 20, top 25 range and is one of the higher level offensive players in the league. He’s been one of the best pick and roll players in the league this year. And he’s really wellrounded in the margins. Like he’s not like the Zack Lavine types that are going to lose shooters and miss box outs, you know, 12 times a game and end up hurting his team. and undercutting his offensive success. Like Austin’s a really good player, but ultimately the Lakers can only include one first round pick and some swaps. So, you know, and that first round pick would be tied to a team led by Luca and in this scenario, Giannis as well. So, it’s unlikely to be a high lottery pick. So, yeah, I think Austin would be a really nice piece. I actually think Austin would fit really well alongside Ryan Rollins since Ryan’s such a good athlete, but you know, it just doesn’t seem like it’s possible with the types of other draft packages attached to young players, good young players that other teams around the league could offer. And Brian Winhor said as much yesterday. He basically said Giannis would have to demand the Lakers in order to get the Lakers. And as we mentioned earlier, it appears Giannis is not making those sorts of demands. Also, kind of like side note, I don’t love the Luca Giannis fit as much as some other people do. To be clear, I’m not dumb. Like, I take it in a heartbeat just for the talent play. He’d obviously make the Lakers better, but I always when I’m looking at superstar duos, I always get a little bit nervous when they can be guarded by similar defenders. Who would you put on Luca? A big athletic strong forward that can kind of handle his size and physicality. Who would you put on Giannis? A big athletic strong forward who can kind of handle his size and physicality, which means it would likely end in a lot of switching when those two would run twoman game together. And when you run superstars together and they can’t play twoman game, then it just becomes a more difficult dynamic to make them fit. To be clear, Luca and Giannis would find a way to win a lot of games. I just don’t love that fit as naturally as I like some other fits that I’ve looked at around the league. I like teams I like duos where they’re being guarded by different types of defenders so that they’re unlikely to switch or if they do they’re giving themselves up a compromising advantage, right? So that opens the field up and there are a lot of interesting options. San Antonio is one of the obvious ones. They could include one of their blue chippers like they could include a Steph Castle or a Dylan Harper and a bunch of draft compensation. and they’ve got picks that they can include. That’s going to beat the hell out of any offer from the Lakers or from the Knicks, right? Giannis and WBY would be frightening together. I also love them as a counter to what Oklahoma City does. Those two guys would be able to basically completely shut off the rim to OKC, which turns them into almost entirely a jump shooting team. And San Antonio, even if they made that sort of deal, would still have enough size and athleticism at the guard spot to at least make life tougher on Sheay if the jumper was all that he had available to him. I think it would be a a really a really interesting kind of like styles make fights type of matchup to see a Wemi Giannis le team versus Oklahoma City. But ultimately, I think it’d be really bad for the league if Giannis went to the West. All three of the other top tier superstars in the NBA are already in the West. So yeah, speaking strictly about basketball, I’d love to see Giannis in San Antonio. I think it’d be so much fun and and Oklahoma City San Antonio playoff series would be a movie. I just I just think it’s in the best interest of the NBA for him to stay in the East somewhere. You don’t want a situation where you have all four of your top tier contenders, Oklahoma City, Houston, Denver, and San Antonio all in one conference. I I don’t think that’s necessarily good for the league. Atlanta was a team I brought up this summer. I’ve talked about how I view Trey and Giannis as a much better basketball fit than Dame and Giannis because Trey is so much better as a passer, specifically as a lob passer and as a pocket passer. So, I think the two of them would be much much better, much more dynamic on offense than a Dame and Giannis type of duo. The tricky thing here is that Jaylen Johnson has to be a centerpiece in that type of deal. like they have the first round picks to give up, but if they’re going to compete with some of these other offers that are going to be on the table, they’d have to include a blue chip piece, right? Like if if a deal with the Lakers is giving you Austin Reeves, if a deal with San Antonio is giving you a Steph Castle or Dylan Harper, if a deal with Orlando is giving you someone like Palonero or something like that, like you’re getting an awesome player and draft picks or draft pick in the case of the Lakers if you make one of those types of deals. So, if you’re going to get in on this action as Atlanta, you got to include Jaylen Johnson. And Jaylen Johnson’s averaging 23 points, 10 rebounds, and seven assists on 64% true shooting this year. Looks to be a legit budding star and has been those numbers don’t even do justice to how good he’s been in the last couple of weeks. So, it’s just extremely high risk, high reward for a team like Atlanta. There’s a version where you do that deal as the Hawks and Trey and Giannis surrounded by a bunch of highlevel role players just wrecks the Eastern Conference and suddenly you’re in the NBA finals, right? But there’s also a version of that story where Trey Young gets hurt. you got hurt already this year and maybe he gets hurt again, you lose in the first round or you make the finals but you end up getting beaten badly by Oklahoma City and suddenly you have like an aging Giannis and Trey and your fans are all pissed off because Jaylen Johnson is hanging 30 point triple doubles in a Milwaukee Bucks jersey, right? So it’s just like a really high risk, highreward decision for Atlanta now because it’s different with Jaylen Johnson. It was easier when Jaylen Johnson was a little bit more of an unknown commodity like he was this summer coming off of an injury. Orlando’s a really interesting talent play. They have a bunch of massive salaries so they could get there pretty quickly in a variety of different ways. I wonder if they’d be willing to include Paulo in a deal like that. They play the same position. And with Paulo, like he’s a star that’s shown potential to be awesome, but also potential to be disappointing as his kind of like floor game and and uh like playmaking ability can leave a lot to be desired and he just settles for so many of these like tough mid-range jumpers that he just doesn’t make at a super high clip. But there’s also a version of that where Paulo could be awesome. Like I think if I’m Milwaukee, I’d be like, you know, that’s a legit blue chip type of talent to get back. and he’s still technically on his rookie contract, although he’s got an extension that kicks in next season. Uh, but then you look at it, if you’re Orlando and you’re like, okay, you’re led by Giannis and France, they’d have some similar issues with spacing and shooting, but if I’m a Magic of the Magic front office or if I am a Magic fan, don’t overthink it. Like, Giannis is way better at basketball than Paulo on both ends of the floor. There’s real twoman game potential. Not necessarily with Fron. That fit would be clunky. Same kind of dynamic we were talking about with Luca, right? Like you’re guarding both of those guys with big strong forwards. You’re likely going to be doing switching there. But there is real twoman game potential with Giannis and Desmond Bane. We’ve seen a lot of different actions that the Bucks run with Giannis inverted with him on the ball with like AJ Green coming to screen and getting out of it. or if you have Giannis screening for a Desmond Bane, there’s a lot of different potential there for Giannis in the pocket or for Desmond to easily get downhill as teams are hesitant to offer help there, right? So, like I think even though it’d still be a little bit clunky on offense, there’s there’s still plenty of upside there with Giannis. And and then on the defensive end, you think Orlando’s defense is good. Now, go ahead and add in Giannis like as as a uh as a backline weapon in helpside and as a defensive rebounder. Like they’d be frighteningly good on defense. They’d win ugly. A lot of their games would be ugly, but they’d win a lot of games and overnight, uh even if they did include a Paulo, they’d overnight become the prohibitive favorite in the Eastern Conference. So overall, if I was speaking purely about basketball and what I want to see, I’d say San Antonio. They’re just such a fun option to compete with Oklahoma City and they present a hilarious basketball problem for most teams with him and WBY together. But if I had to pick my overall preferred option, I’d say Orlando just because of my desire to keep Giannis in the East so that the league has more balance. I’d rather have a legit top tier contender coming out of the East and, you know, one of those contenders coming out of the West so we have a great NBA finals than four top tier contenders to all be out in the Western Conference cuz ultimately Giannis is that good. Wherever he goes, he’s going to be on a top tier contender.

Jason reacts to the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumors from the Milwaukee Bucks and explains that while the San Antonio Spurs and Victor Wembanyama are the most fun basketball fit, it might break the NBA in a bad way.

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