Here we sit after the third straight first-round loss for the Milwaukee Bucks, with questions swirling among the national talking heads about where Giannis should go and that the Bucks need to trade Giannis away. While I understand their need to fill airtime and talk about a very hot-button topic, we need to know if there’s any smoke to what they say, and if there isn’t, should the former two-time MVP ask for a trade out of the Cream City?
What are the insiders saying?
At this stage, every insider in the book is saying that Giannis is staying, and a trade would only arise if Giannis were the one who would push for it. The first domino started the day after the Bucks’ first-round loss to the Indiana Pacers, where ESPN’s Jamal Collier reported that Giannis “respects Damian Lillard” and remains happy in Milwaukee. That same day, on ESPN during an episode of NBA Today, in a discussion about the Bucks, Brian Windhorst reported that there has been zero speculation about his future. Windhorst went on to say the following:
“He’s worked very hard and so has his representation to shut down anything. He has been completely focused on the Bucks. So therefore this is basically a bit of a mystery. It might be a mystery within the organization a little bit. It’s definitely a mystery for other teams out there. Whether he would want to get moved and who would potentially be on a list of interested teams.”
Marc Stein followed up on Friday when he joined the All-NBA Podcast, saying that the only way the Bucks would trade the franchise star would be if his camp went to the Bucks and requested a trade. He does acknowledge that maybe they should do something to restock for the future, but as of now, there are no rumblings of that happening:
“I don’t think Giannis himself does not want to go to the Bucks and say ‘trade me’. But next year there’s no way with Damian Lillard carrying a salary of nearly $60 million, they don’t have control of their own first round pick till 2031, they don’t have a pathway to build a contender around him at this point. But the rumbles that you always hear are that just having Giannis is so important to them financially. They’re not going to trade him unless he pushes it.”
He goes on to say that the entire league is just waiting to see what Giannis and his side end up deciding to do:
“The whole league is on edge waiting to see will Giannis’ representatives go to the Bucks and say, ‘it’s time. Move us, hold the auction, and start over.’ I don’t think the Bucks want to do that. You could make the case that they should want to do that, that they should say, ‘Let’s go out and get the largest haul we can get back for Giannis’, but I don’t think the Bucks are there. We’re going to see where Giannis is.”
Shams Charania of ESPN reported on April 30 that Giannis and the Bucks will go through the standard exit interview to discuss his future and the plans for the team. We have not heard how that interview went or even whether it took place, but if Giannis truly does want to leave, we’ll know. Yet everything that has come out shows that Giannis is focused on the Bucks and winning the franchise their third title in team history.
The big one: Should Giannis ask out?
While the reporting is pointing to Giannis staying in Milwaukee, and that’s great, there are bigger questions at hand here: should he ask out, and should the Bucks trade him even if he doesn’t?
Let’s start with the first question, which is a hard thing to gauge at this point. There is no doubt that the Bucks have done almost everything they can to build a championship contender around Giannis since his ascension to one of the top players in the league. Acquiring Jrue Holiday, Brook Lopez, Bobby Portis, P.J. Tucker, Pat Connaughton, Grayson Allen, among others. Then, acquiring Damian Lillard to put another dynamic offensive weapon next to Giannis to push themselves back to championship contender after a second-round loss to the Boston Celtics in 2022, and a first-round loss to the Miami Heat in 2023.
There have been missteps along the way, as is the case with any GM at any time. Drafting DJ Wilson over OG Annunoby, trading Donte DiVincenzo for Serge Ibaka, trading Khris Middleton and AJ Johnson for Kyle Kuzma, and trading five second-round picks for Jae Crowder. Even with all those hits and misses, there is no doubt that GM Jon Horst will do whatever it takes to get the most out of Giannis and this core.
While that is a definite pro, let’s take a look at the current core of players heading into the offseason. Lillard will be out anywhere from December at the earliest (more likely February or March), Kyle Kuzma is on the roster, there are currently eight pending free agents, including Brook Lopez, Gary Trent Jr., Jericho Sims, and Ryan Rollins (RFA). Portis, Connaughton, and Kevin Porter Jr. have player options. Who knows how many of these players will return, and some of the uncertainty may scare off players like Trent for a more stable situation.
For Giannis, it may seem like the right time to get him to a new team to start with a more concrete situation. Continue your legacy, knowing you will be loved in Milwaukee forever. Yet that doesn’t seem like anything Giannis would do. He has stated over and over again that he doesn’t want to be traded, and he’d never go to a team and tell them, “trade me.” He said in his post-game press conference after the loss to the Pacers that he desperately wanted to win the series for Dame. Does that sound like someone who would walk out on him and the Bucks as a whole?
There was much hoopla made over a comment he made where Collier asked him if he could still win a title in Milwaukee after three-straight first-round exits, basically saying he didn’t know. What people might have missed is that Giannis started his answer by saying that whatever he says is going to be translated a certain way, which people are doing anyway. He was avoiding the question not because he doesn’t believe he can win a title here, but because he doesn’t want whatever he says to be taken out of context and blasted around the league and on social media.
Giannis is going to be one of the few players who stay with one franchise his entire career, much like Dirk and Kobe did. Both of those franchise icons were circulated in trade rumors, and Kobe himself was almost a Dallas Maverick and a Chicago Bull based on some reporting. Giannis is of that build, and I see him finishing his historic career in hunter green.
Should the Bucks trade Giannis even if he doesn’t ask?
Short answer: No. Never in your life do you trade a top-three player in the league unless he demands it. I mentioned earlier how, with half the active roster being pending free agents, it might make sense for Giannis to depart; there is a world where, from the front office, it makes sense to start fresh. Clean the slate, trade Dame in the 26–27 season where he’ll have that year on a player option left, clear that contract, and build around what you get from the Giannis trade. There are some intriguing options, much like The Athletic put forward, with sending Giannis to Houston or Toronto for a bevy of young players and draft picks.
These do look enticing on paper, but it would be organizational malpractice to trade a star of Giannis’ caliber while he is still in his prime. No one said it would be easy to re-tool a contender with Lillard out most of next season and a ton of free agents with little cap flexibility, but you make it work as best you can. Find a trade partner for Kyle Kuzma and get two usable role players, or package him with Bobby, Pat (assuming they both pick up their player options), and either the 2031 or 2032 picks to get a disgruntled star. Maybe you swipe Kristaps Porzingis from the Celtics, with them rumored to be looking to cut costs after this season.
Outside of the basketball reasons, Giannis has helped the Bucks become an extremely valuable franchise, with Jimmy Haslem paying for his share on a $4 billion valuation when he purchased the team in 2023. I doubt the Haslem family would approve a trade for the franchise’s biggest attraction and money earner just two years into his tenure as owner.
Any way you slice it, from almost any perspective. Giannis is going to be a Milwaukee Buck for the foreseeable future. Now the true work begins of not just building a title-contending team around him, but a team at this point that can get out of the first round, which they haven’t done in four seasons. Yet, as the old saying goes, nothing great comes easy, nothing amazing comes without hard work.