After the now-infamous Paul George trade between the Thunder and Clippers showed the perils of giving away the farm for a singular player, the price of Giannis Antetokounmpo has dropped far below market value.
Sam Quinn of CBS Sports wrote an excellent feature on how the Paul George trade has come back to bite the Milwaukee Bucks (in multiple ways). After the trade, the Clippers never came close to the NBA Finals, and the era would end in infamy. “Playoff P” turned to “Pandemic P.”
A second consequence of the trade, one far less foreseeable at the time, is that the Thunder have built a contender reminiscent of the 2017 Warriors. They traded George for a rookie Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the 2025 MVP who has a strong case to repeat as winner of the NBA’s most prestigious award. They used the combination of the Clippers’, Rockets’, and their own first round picks to fill the team in with elite supporting talent. They lucked into finding one of the league’s best coaches.
The Thunder didn’t just show the consequences of an unsuccessful trade. Their own success has made it foolish for opponents to push the chips in for a 31-year-old player like Antetokounmpo.
The asking price for Giannis is as low as it ever will be
The Atlanta Hawks are reportedly not considering trading the 2026 first round pick swap between New Orleans and Milwaukee for Giannis. While this is absurd in a vacuum, the Hawks are not the only team that is keeping their premium assets off the table.
The Spurs currently consider Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper untouchable, and the Heat could consider Kel’el Ware in the same category. (Ware didn’t even place top-five in Rookie of the Year voting last season!) The Chicago Bulls, whose star is Josh Giddey, are rumored to be flat-out uninterested in a trade. What happened to star trades!
The fact of the matter is that trading a premium future asset, such as the 2026 pick, Castle/Harper, or Ware, only makes sense if you think you can win a championship. The Thunder have the reigning MVP, the league’s best second option, the league’s best defense, the league’s deepest bench, and elite shooting. Are you confident that Giannis is enough to topple the Thunder if you are the Hawks, Spurs, or Heat? Probably not, and you are even less confident if you send out your most valuable asset in a trade.
Whoever ends up with Giannis should quietly thank the Thunder for allowing the highway robbery. Whatever the price ends up being, it’ll be one of the cheapest acquisitions of an MVP-caliber star we’ve ever seen.