{"id":566880,"date":"2026-01-28T19:19:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/566880\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T19:19:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:19:20","slug":"what-celtics-rivals-are-threats-to-make-giannis-antetokounmpo-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/566880\/","title":{"rendered":"What Celtics rivals are threats to make Giannis Antetokounmpo trade?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Giannis Antetokounmpo is ready for a new home<\/a> and the superstar forward could potentially shake up the Eastern Conference for the Celtics<\/a> and others ahead of next week\u2019s NBA trade deadline. Shams Charania of ESPN.com<\/a> was first to report Antetokounmpo\u2019s desire for a fresh start and the situation adds a new layer to trade season as teams jockey to try to reach the Bucks asking price for the former MVP. <\/p>\n

Whether Antetokounmpo gets dealt before the trade deadline is an open question. The Bucks could wait until the offseason to move him if they don\u2019t get an offer to their liking. However, Antetokounmpo is projected to recover from his calf injury before the playoffs, so there will be plenty of incentive for teams to get aggressive with their offers now. <\/p>\n

So what teams in the Eastern Conference are worth monitoring for Antetokounmpo? Let\u2019s explore a few possibilities and what they have to offer: <\/p>\n

Detroit: They own all of their draft picks but are currently running away with the Eastern Conference in the standings. The buzz around the league has been centered on them staying the course now so it\u2019s hard to see that changing even with Antetokounmpo available. Detroit would need to package several key starters and future picks to entice the Bucks to pair Antetokounmpo with Cade Cunningham. <\/p>\n

New York: The Knicks reportedly had trade talks with the Bucks this summer about Giannis and the urgency for New York to land the star is probably only growing after an underwhelming first half of the season. The problem for New York is a lack of draft assets to entice Milwaukee as they traded away all their movable future first round picks for Mikal Bridges. New York can make some offers centered around Karl-Anthony Towns and a high-priced wing, but the Bucks aren\u2019t going to go for that unless a third team is giving up draft assets for those guys. Barring Antetokounmpo leveraging his way to New York, hard to see the Knicks emerging as the winning bidder now. If Antetokounmpo stays put at the deadline, the Knicks will be able to put two first round picks on the table this offseason. <\/p>\n

Miami: They only have two first round picks to offer in a trade (2030 and 2032) along with pick swaps. Those aren\u2019t exactly high-value draft assets. There are also intriguing young players on the roster but no true blue chipper. They are making offers per multiple reports, but like New York, there doesn\u2019t seem to be enough to get a deal done now unless Bam Adebayo gets put on the table or Antetokounmpo refuses to sign an extension elsewhere. Like New York, Miami\u2019s odds go up of landing him this offseason since they will be able to put four first-round picks on the table instead of two. <\/p>\n

Toronto: They have their full arsenal of draft picks and swaps to offer but lack the young blue-chip player to entice the Bucks, in my opinion. Scottie Barnes surely will be off the table and everyone else is on pricey veteran deals or doesn\u2019t project to be much more than a role player. <\/p>\n

Cleveland: The Cavs are over the second apron so they would have to dump salary elsewhere first to get in on trade talks. Evan Mobley for Giannis Antetokounmpo is a fascinating starting structure of a deal but it\u2019s unclear if either team would bite on that. <\/p>\n

Atlanta: This is a true wildcard for the Eastern Conference. They have an emerging young star in Jalen Johnson along with the draft capital (New Orleans first round pick) to top pretty much any team on this list, if they want to. It\u2019s highly possible both of those assets are off limits. Whether the Hawks have enough leftover to build around Antetokounmpo is the bigger question as well as whether he\u2019d be open to signing long-term. <\/p>\n

Final thoughts<\/p>\n

The trade asset pool in the Eastern Conference is not that impressive compared to other potential suitors out West (San Antonio, Houston). However, New York and Miami have been tied to Antetokounmpo as potential destinations already and the Greek Freak is going to have some kind of say where he lands since he will be eligible for an extension in October. Otherwise, he could walk as soon as the summer of 2027. <\/p>\n

Barring Antetokounmpo pulling a power play now, the Bucks\u2019 chance of a getting a compelling enough offer to move him now probably comes from a Western Conference team, unless a wildcard emerges (Detroit? Atlanta?) on this list. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giannis Antetokounmpo is ready for a new home and the superstar forward could potentially shake up the Eastern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3775],"tags":[7,103,102,121,3871,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-566880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-bucks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bucks","10":"tag-milwaukee","11":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","12":"tag-milwaukeebucks","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115974344822769900","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566880","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=566880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}