{"id":704929,"date":"2026-04-08T09:15:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T09:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/704929\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T09:15:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T09:15:06","slug":"nets-havent-given-up-on-trying-to-acquire-giannis-antetokounmpo-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/704929\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets haven\u2019t given up on trying to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows Giannis Antetokounmpo, who did not play, looks on during the Nets’ 96-90 win over the Bucks on April 7, 2026 at Barclays Center, Image 2 shows Nets general manager Sean Marks has had interest in Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo for awhile<\/p>\n

The Nets didn\u2019t face Giannis Antetokounmpo in their 96-90 win over the Bucks<\/a> on Tuesday night at Barclays Center, and it\u2019s unclear if they\u2019ll see him Friday when they travel to Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s almost a fait accompli that they\u2019ll call the Bucks about their want-away superstar this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll make calls,\u201d a source told The Post. \u201cThey\u2019ve made calls in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antetokounmpo has been Brooklyn\u2019s proverbial white whale going as far back as 2023, with general manager Sean Marks hoarding draft capital to make a bid for the two-time MVP.<\/p>\n

But Antetokounmpo has spent so long dropping bread crumbs about a potential exit but never pulling the trigger that the Nets\u2019 timing has gone from terrific to terrible to\u2026whatever it is now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going after max-level talent, they have to automatically and absolutely change the trajectory of your team,\u201d Marks said at this point last year. \u201cThis can\u2019t be like, \u2018Let\u2019s go get this [guy] and lock ourselves into being a six or seven seed.\u2019 When we go all in, you\u2019re going in to compete at the highest level and contend.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nets never viewed Mikal Bridges as Superman, but as the perfect Robin to team up with a potential Batman like Antetokounmpo. And sources told The Post that Brooklyn\u2019s hope had been to lure the Greek star back in 2023-24.<\/p>\n

But when Antetokounmpo opted to stay put in Milwaukee, Marks pivoted and traded Bridges to the Knicks that June for a record-setting haul of five first-round picks and a swap. They picked a lane, and that lane was headed toward a rebuild with no exit ramp.<\/p>\n

\"Giannis<\/p>\n

Giannis Antetokounmpo, who did not play, looks on during the Nets\u2019 96-90 win over the Bucks on April 7, 2026 at Barclays Center. John Jones-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

There was irony in the fact that when Antetokounmpo finally met with Milwaukee general manager Jon Horst last July in his native Greece and expressed a willingness to leave the Bucks, it was only for the Knicks.<\/p>\n

The hard bargain that Marks had driven a year earlier had hamstrung the Knicks and left them without enough draft capital to make a viable play for the superstar.<\/p>\n

According to an ESPN report, Horst and Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers pitched Antetokounmpo and Bucks ownership on contending in the Eastern Conference after waiving and stretching veteran guard Damian Lillard. But a horrible start to the season saw Antetokounmpo and agent Alex Saratsis reiterate a desire to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the whole Giannis thing, it made everything problematic for us,\u201d Rivers said Tuesday night of Antetokounmpo\u2019s injuries and lack of availability.<\/p>\n

\"Nets<\/p>\n

Nets general manager Sean Marks has had interest in Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo for awhile. Jason Szenes for New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a tough year. I have not had a lot of these in my career, and this was not one that I thought we\u2019d have one. On the injuries, we knew that our roster construction was tough. We were going to come into the season with quite a lot of young guys, a lot of minimum salary guys; but we thought it\u2019d work. We thought Giannis would be available for 65 to 70 games. We did know that if we had injuries, it\u2019s going to be a tough year.\u201d<\/p>\n

What has been a tough year for Milwaukee is about to get terrible.<\/p>\n

Nets fans can sympathize, watching the Big 3 of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden break up without even getting the title that the Bucks did.<\/p>\n

To be clear, with teams like the Heat, Warriors and Knicks perceived as likelier landing spots, it\u2019s a long shot Antetokounmpo will end up in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

The odds are just better than the microscopic near-zero they were in February.<\/p>\n

The Bucks reportedly rejected offers of four first-round picks from Golden State, and Tyler Herro and Kel\u2019el Ware plus assets from Miami.<\/p>\n

Despite a Bleacher Report story that claimed Brooklyn had called the Bucks about Antetokounmpo, sources told The Post that the Nets never did. Having paid Houston dearly to reacquire their natural 2025 and \u201926 first-round picks \u2014 and now committed to building with those lottery picks \u2014 it was the worst possible timing.<\/p>\n

But this coming summer will surely be better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows Giannis Antetokounmpo, who did not play, looks on during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3775],"tags":[7264,7,670,103,125,123,292,560,938,304,967,295,1260,102,121,3871,6,671,3596,361,492,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-704929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-bucks","8":"tag-barclays-center","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-brooklyn","11":"tag-bucks","12":"tag-damian-lillard","13":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","14":"tag-houston","15":"tag-james-harden","16":"tag-kevin-durant","17":"tag-knicks","18":"tag-kyrie-irving","19":"tag-miami","20":"tag-mikal-bridges","21":"tag-milwaukee","22":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","23":"tag-milwaukeebucks","24":"tag-nba","25":"tag-nets","26":"tag-sean-marks","27":"tag-the-bucks","28":"tag-tyler-herro","29":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704929","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=704929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}