If any team is comfortably positioned to sit tight and watch the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes play out, it’s the Oklahoma City Thunder. They also have the opportunity to create a gargantuan threat to the future of the entire NBA by adding the Milwaukee Bucks superstar.

Remember when the 73-9 Golden State Warriors brought in Kevin Durant and completely upset the balance of the league for several years? Adding Antetokounmpo to the defending NBA champions is an equally terrifying thought.

The Thunder are 21-1, as it is, after hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy last season. Much of that was accomplished without their second best player, Jalen Williams, in the lineup.

Sam Presti has a treasure chest of assets that would make a move for Antetokounmpo child’s play, should he want it. The Los Angeles Lakers, along with the rest of the league, should desperately plead for that future timeline to not be the one that comes to pass.

Adding Antetokounmpo would only further solidify the Thunder as unstoppable

The Thunder are currently first in net rating, have the best defense in basketball by a healthy margin, and dominate so many categories that listing all of them off would take far too much time. Giannis being the sweetener on top of that? Yikes.

Granted, it is also because the Thunder have been as great as they are that there is no real need to make this move. That will be the hope all other teams hold on to in this process.

Oklahoma City has a proven championship-winning core. They have so much depth that players who would be regular contributors elsewhere simply ride the pine. They also have a wealth of draft capital to keep replenishing the pieces as they see fit, including a pick from the Los Angeles Clippers that is going to end up being very high in the 2026 NBA Draft.

The Thunder do not need Giannis. That is the scary part.

However, they could also field an offer that no one could compete with, should they choose that path. Grabbing Antetokounmpo for yourself prevents a formidable threat forming elsewhere. At that point, you might as well rename the NBA Playoffs to the Oklahoma City Thunder Invitational.

Brian Windhorst on who will call MIL for Giannis:

“It’ll be Giannis instructing the Bucks where he wants to be traded and the Bucks trying to make the best possible deal with that team…you can put whatever verbiage…[in the summer] he basically said ‘I want to be a Knick.'”

— Kris Pursiainen (@krispursiainen) December 3, 2025

Luckily for the NBA, it really does not feel like a move fitting of the competitor that Antetokounmpo is. If the Bucks intend to give Giannis a sense of control over picking his next team, it is difficult to imagine him choosing the Thunder.

Antetokounmpo comes across as the type of player who would want to beat the big bully, not join them.

The Bucks superstar certainly wants to win. That would be why an exit from Milwaukee feels so imminent. Giannis joining a contender is very likely a given. The nightmare scenario of envisioning him suiting up for the contender might just be PTSD from the late 2010s.