{"id":558914,"date":"2026-01-25T01:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T01:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/558914\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T01:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T01:20:14","slug":"rival-teams-believe-bucks-are-becoming-more-willing-to-part-with-giannis-antetokounmpo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/558914\/","title":{"rendered":"Rival Teams Believe Bucks Are Becoming More Willing To Part With Giannis Antetokounmpo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> suffered a calf injury<\/a> Friday night, momentum had been building toward a potential trade of the Bucks star before the February 5 deadline, sources tell Jake Fischer of The Stein Line<\/a> (subscription required).<\/p>\n

\"\"Antetokounmpo said two weeks ago that requesting a trade is \u201cnot in my nature,\u201d<\/a> and team officials have indicated that they plan to approach the deadline as buyers in hopes of upgrading their roster. However, Fischer states that the Bucks\u2019 poor performance since then has led to \u201cwhispers circulating throughout the league\u201d that an Antetokounmpo deal was becoming m0re realistic.<\/p>\n

Milwaukee has dropped five of its last six and is currently 2 1\/2 games away from the final play-in spot at 18-26. Antetokounmpo called his team \u201cselfish\u201d<\/a> after falling Wednesday to Oklahoma City, and ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania said during a recent appearance on the Pat McAfee Show that Antetokounmpo\u2019s frustration level is at \u201can all-time high.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Those comments have echoed throughout the league, according to Fischer, who hears from rival team officials and a few well-placed sources that speculation surrounding Antetokounmpo is the number one topic as the deadline approaches, far ahead of potential trades involving Ja Morant<\/a>, Anthony Davis<\/a> or Michael Porter Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n

The impact of Antetokounmpo\u2019s injury, which could sideline him for four-to-six weeks, was still being assessed at mid-day Saturday, Fischer adds. It\u2019s not certain if his absence will lessen the offers Milwaukee gets heading into the deadline or if teams will be willing to strike now in hopes that he\u2019ll be fully recovered after the All-Star break.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Fischer cites a growing consensus that the Bucks and their best player are headed toward parting ways, with one source telling him, \u201cThis is shaping up to be a draft-day kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the wake of the injury, Fischer expects Milwaukee to abandon its stated plan of aggressively trying to add talent on the trade market. League sources tell Fischer that the Bucks weren\u2019t making much headway with deals centered around Kyle Kuzma<\/a> and Bobby Portis<\/a>, especially with few draft assets to offer. He notes that Porter, Zach LaVine<\/a>, De\u2019Andre Hunter<\/a>, Jerami Grant<\/a> and Miles Bridges<\/a> are among the players who have been reported as possible trade targets.<\/p>\n

Teams are also reluctant to help the Bucks improve when they might benefit from an eventual Antetokounmpo trade, Fischer adds. Among those teams is Portland, which owns draft picks from Milwaukee in 2028, 2029 and 2030 that could be useful in helping to facilitate a deal sending Antetokounmpo to another team. Fischer states that the Trail Blazers have long been fans of Mikal Bridges<\/a> and could be incentivized to help the Knicks land Antetokounmpo if they\u2019re able to get Bridges in return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before Giannis Antetokounmpo suffered a calf injury Friday night, momentum had been building toward a potential trade of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3775],"tags":[7,507,103,1219,123,5673,124,562,1260,10510,102,121,3871,6,3212],"class_list":{"0":"post-558914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-bucks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bobby-portis","10":"tag-bucks","11":"tag-deandre-hunter","12":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","13":"tag-jerami-grant","14":"tag-kyle-kuzma","15":"tag-michael-porter-jr","16":"tag-mikal-bridges","17":"tag-miles-bridges","18":"tag-milwaukee","19":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","20":"tag-milwaukeebucks","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-zach-lavine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115953115488533767","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}