The Los Angeles Lakers are not a top contender to deal for Giannis Antetokounmpo because of what they lack in both assets and salary filler, but a couple of NBA insiders believe there is potentially a path to a deal if the Milwaukee Bucks superstar wants out ahead of the mid-season deadline, and wants to play with Luka Doncic and no one else.
Bill Simmons and Rob Mahoney of The Ringer discussed the possibility of a deal between the Lakers and Bucks with Austin Reaves as the primary return from a personnel standpoint.
“I love Austin Reaves when LeBron [James is] not playing,” Simmons said. “But when all three of [James, Reaves and Doncic] are playing, all of a sudden Austin Reaves is not as impactful or whatever because he’s on the same team with Luka Doncic and Lebron James.”
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“Is there a Reaves and a ton of picks and other stuff for Giannis [trade]? If Giannis is like, ‘I wanna go to the Lakers, that’s where I’ve decided I wanna go,'” Simmons continued. “You’d have to patch together all of their expiring [contracts] to get there, [Jarred] Vanderbilt, [Maxi] Kleber, Gabe Vincent.”
Mahoney chuckled initially when Simmons brought up the notion, but came around on the idea to some degree as the conversation continued.
“How insane is it that both of these conversations are happening? LeBron James, maybe the greatest player of all time, is getting in the way of Austin Reaves being Austin Reaves,” Mahoney responded. “The other part of this is we are earnestly floating Austin Reaves as the primary return in a Giannis trade, and I’m not walking out of the room right now.”
Reaves is averaging 27.8 points, 6.7 assists, 5.6 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game and has shown he can be the offensive engine for a competitive team this season, or the No. 2 option on a very good team, even if only across a minimal sample size.
Beyond Reaves, the Lakers could send Milwaukee a first-round pick in either 2031 or 2032, plus include first-round swap rights across five different seasons.
Unfortunately for L.A., that is a hard sell in Milwaukee, even with the trade market regressing from just a couple of years back when a player like Mikal Bridges cost the New York Knicks five first-round picks.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst and co-hosts Anthony Slater and Vincent Goodwill contended on December 5 that the trade market in the second-apron era of the NBA for a player like Antetokounmpo — an MVP candidate who now has a meaningful history of injury and is on the wrong side of 30 — is closer to a player like Reaves and a couple of first-round picks than it is to five draft assets and then some.
Even still, the presence of Doncic on the Lakers’ roster and the fact that the team will be able to essentially clear the decks to rebuild around him in 2027 devalues Los Angeles’ first-round picks and swaps for several years to come because, barring a Doncic injury, the Lakers’ win floor should remain considerably high through his prime.
Thus, the Lakers are at best a dark horse team in the Antetokounmpo trade sweepstakes, even despite Reaves’ leap to an All-Star level player at the age of 27.
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