ESPN’s Brian Windhorst: How the Lakers Could Pull Off a Trade for Giannis | The Rich Eisen Show

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst: How the Lakers Could Pull Off a Trade for Giannis | The Rich Eisen Show

when Giannis returns, let’s say it’s a month from now, Doc Doc said, right? Right. But I mean, this sort of stuff, how how many times have we seen calf strains turn into something far worse, right? So, um, let’s just say, let’s just give it the month here. Doc did say we’re just a 10ame win streak away from this thing going away. Um, there they’ve got I agree with that. If they win 10 in a row, it would go away. They got nine more to go. They got they got nine more to go. um you know and so uh let’s just say they might not win nine more in a row. They come back, he’s healthy, or at least everybody believes he is. What? Play it out for me. What trade deadline is when and who might be interested and and I’m imagining the uh this won’t be a pocket listing just for the Lakers if it happens. So uh what what do you think? Play it out for me, Brian. So this is the this is the conversations I’ve been having for a day now, you know. Sure. Um so the question is will you know and obviously the injury is a new factor in all this. So I I don’t know how it correct affects it. Okay. Right. Um will Giannis simply rattle the saber like he has in the past and the Bucks when he’s rattled the saber in the past like um you know there were times when Giannis like you can go back and look at I won’t give the exhaustive, but you know, like for example, Giannis a few years ago said, “I’m not going to sign the contract extension uh that they have on the table right now. I’m just going to wait.” And then they traded for Dame Lillard and he signed the contract extension. Okay. Um you know, like he had another contract extension. They trade for Drew Holiday. He obviously was had some angst the way this last season ended. They go out and make this Miles Turner trade. I think they’re pretty much out of moves, but John Horst and the Bucks ownership have pulled off some things like maybe there’s a move that they could make where they get a player and it does help them. Maybe they don’t go 10 and0, but maybe they go six and four or seven and three and Giannis comes back because this has happened. Giannis has radically changed before. So, people wonder like, will he actually ask for the trade? That’s an unknown. That’s number one. Number two, let’s say that he does ask for the trade. Is it a situation where it’s, you know, in August it was a one team list? It was the Knicks. If he does ask for that trade, is are the Knicks still number one or is it three teams, four teams, nine teams, 13 teams? I don’t know. The third thing is Giannis after this season has one year plus a player option left on his contract, but essentially one year. When we see players in this situation, Jimmy Butler was an example of this. Last year, Jimmy Butler had one year left on his contract. Anybody who traded for him knew that they had to have a contract understanding with him. So when he went to Golden State, they negotiated a contract extension with the trade and he signed it. Now Giannis is not eligible to sign an extension for rules that I won’t get into right now, but you certainly would want to know that if you traded the sun, the moon, and the stars for Giannis that he intended to sign next summer. So, the question would be, does Giannis get to control this if he actually asked for a trade? And I have talked to a bunch of people in the league with this exact question. And I I thought the answer would be yes. He’s been there 12 years. He won a championship. He’s won two MVPs. They want to respect for him. They want the most that they can possibly get in a trade. Giannis, they would work with Giannis. Not everybody agrees with me. People in the league think that the Bucks, if they had to, would make a deal where they wouldn’t uh do what Giannis wanted. I don’t believe that. I believe that Giannis would basically choose his team. So, if you’re a Laker fan, which is really what you’re getting to, Rich, what you’re saying because Lakers fans are like, “Well, when are you going to say how he’s getting to the Lakers?” Like, when are you getting to that? Yeah. If if Giannis said to the Bucks, “Trade me to the Lakers.” Yes, sir. He would be he would be a Laker. But any other way, I don’t see how the Lakers do it. Um because I don’t think the Lakers can win a bidding war. Okay. If it’s a bidding war where there’s teams offering draft picks and players and stuff because I don’t know how long when do you want me to go here? But the Bucks don’t control their next three drafts. Okay. So the Bucks starting a rebuild where they like, okay, we’re going to we’re going to sink down and get that doesn’t work because they don’t control their picks. So, the the the Bucks probably are either going to want real players to help them today in a trade or they’re going to want draft picks from a third team. What I mean by that, a third team is me having my draft pick doesn’t work. I don’t control the next three. I’m trading you Jas Tennakoupo. Your team’s going to be awesome. Giving me your draft picks for the next couple years aren’t doing me any good. Do you have third team picks that might be valuable? And so these are all things that would be valuable. I don’t think the Lakers have a package that can out that can win out teams that have draft picks, have good players, and have third party. There’s teams out there that are good teams that have third party draft picks that could offer. So I don’t think the Lakers can win a bidding war, but if Giannis says, “Make me a Laker.” Yes, there’s a deal there that could happen because the Lakers have a bunch of expiring contracts that I think could make it. But I do think it would be a bit of a journey to get there, but not impossible. All right. Plus, I don’t think John Horst wants to have his name in the rafters next to Nico Harrison’s as a retired jersey in crypto. Fans of the Lakers are trying to say a word. That’s the difference. That’s the difference. Well, I’m sure. Wild, man. This is wild. Listen, I know I’ve kept you or he doesn’t ask for it all at all and he’s a buck for the next six months. What do you want? It could be. It could be. What do you want from me? Hey, you made it all the way to the end. Thanks for that. Check us out every single day streaming live on Disney Plus and the ESPN app 12 to 3 Eastern.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst and Rich Eisen discuss the chances Giannis Antetokounmpo could ask the Bucks for a trade and which teams could be in the mix for the 3-time NBA MVP if he does ask out of Milwaukee.

Tune in to the Emmy-nominated Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from Noon to 3PM ET on Disney+, ESPN+, ESPN Radio, and streaming on SiriusXM channel 80.

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