In the breathless, 24-hour cycle of NBA trade rumors, it’s easy to lose the plot. We obsess over the player, the potential destination, the salary cap math, and the hypothetical basketball implications. But in the current mania surrounding Giannis Antetokounmpo, everyone seems to be missing the forest for the trees.
We are so busy asking where Giannis wants to go and bandying about how much the Golden State Warriors need him now, that we’ve forgotten the most important entity in the entire conversation: the Milwaukee Bucks.
For months, perhaps years, the idea of trading the franchise icon was anathema in Wisconsin. It took several mortgages going underwater, a mountain of losses, injuries, and a looming extension deadline for the Bucks to even whisper that they might be “open for business.”
And even then, it was couched in the polite, ambiguous language.
So, honestly, why would Milwaukee be in such a rush to trade Giannis by Thursday’s deadline?
Let’s look at the reality on the ground: Giannis is currently sidelined with a calf injury that will keep him in street clothes until March. The Bucks, meanwhile, are wallowing with the seventh-worst record in the NBA.
Connect those dots, and the picture is clear — Antetokounmpo has almost certainly played his last game for Milwaukee. Whether he is traded by Thursday’s deadline or moved in July, he isn’t suiting up for a tanking Bucks team this spring.
This renders a common argument for immediate resolution — that the Bucks need to move him now to end the “distraction” — completely hollow. A player rehabilitating a calf injury away from the court is not a distraction. He is a ghost. And in Milwaukee, Giannis will be a ghost for decades to come — he is that great a player, that important to the organization.
But the locker room of an already losing team isn’t being torn apart by a guy who isn’t playing, much less one as affable and positive as Giannis, who clearly wants to do right by Milwaukee.
What actually holds water is the historical weight of this moment. This is the most significant trade in Bucks history since they sent Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) to the Lakers half a century ago.
And they can’t get this one wrong, or it’ll be another half-century before the Bucks are relevant again.
Bucks general manager Jon Horst has a fiduciary duty here. While there is always room for class and facilitating a star’s wishes (whatever those might be), but Horst needs to be ruthless. He needs to be selfish.
His job isn’t to get Giannis to the playoffs this season; his job is to wipe the slate clean and procure a trade package that erases the sins of the last half-decade (all in pursuit of a second Bucks title) and also secure the next decade-plus of Bucks basketball.
Taking the best offer on the table today — which we can hypothetically say (though only hypothetically) is a package from the Warriors — is tantamount to a liquidation sale. Not exactly good business.
The prudent move — the only move that makes actual basketball sense for Milwaukee — is to wait.
Right now, the market is constrained. Teams are locked into rosters, cap aprons are strung too tight, and draft capital is tied up in a million different conditions. It’s nice that the Warriors can put together a clean, easy-to-understand package, but the Bucks don’t need clarity now.
But fast forward to the summer, and the landscape changes entirely. Dozens of new draft picks become tradeable. Rosters become fluid. Teams that flame out in the playoffs will enter the market with desperation and aggressive intentions.
Waiting until July allows the Bucks to pit the Warriors’ offer against a league-wide bidding war, rather than negotiating against a deadline that only benefits Golden State.
To be fair, Giannis might want a trade now. Perhaps he wants to chase a ring this spring or secure a massive $275 million extension in October rather than waiting until next January. Those are valid desires for him. And he can express them if he so wishes. So far, he has not. Again, he wants to do this with class.
We also know the Warriors want it now. Their window is always “right now.”
But at what point does anyone stop to think about the team actually employing the player, holding the contract, making the call? Is it gauche in this era of supposed player empowerment to consider the Bucks a party to this process?
Plus, if the Warriors’ offer was truly undeniable — a “Godfather” package that the Bucks simply couldn’t refuse — we wouldn’t be having these bloviation sessions. The tweet would be sent, the All-Star would be on a private jet, and Horst would be thanking Giannis for his incredible service.
The fact that Giannis is still a Buck tells you everything you need to know: The offer might be the best right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s good enough.
Not good enough to warrant expediency, at least.
Until there is a sign of genuine urgency coming out of Milwaukee — not the media, not the player’s camp, but the apparently forgotten franchise itself — we are all just spinning our tires.
It took a long time for the Bucks and Giannis to reach this point.
Why should anyone expect a quick resolution?
The Mercury News
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