Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumors: Celtics reportedly going all-in, have ‘real shot’ to land two-time MVP
As recently as last week, league sources talking to NBC Sports were playing down the idea of Boston as a serious suitor for Giannis Antetokounmpo, saying they weren’t really all-in on their pursuit.
That appears to have changed over the weekend. First, NBA insider Marc Stein of the Stein Line wrote in a late-night missive Sunday:
“One league source, after this story was published, told The Stein Line that the Celtics managed to emerge from the weekend ‘with a real shot’ to win this race with a Jaylen Brown-centric offer, adding that Milwaukee has considered going ahead with a Boston swap even without a third-team facilitator.”
Monday morning, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on Get Up, “I was really skeptical that the Boston Celtics were going to go all-in on this, but from what I understand, they have.”
The expectation remains that this trade will be completed before Tuesday night’s NBA Draft. Miami is still near the front of the line and may yet win this sweepstakes with an offer reportedly involving Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jamie Jaquez Jr. and draft picks. However, it’s clear Milwaukee doesn’t love that offer, or this trade would already be done.
ESPN’s Shams Charania added this on the network’s Get Up show: “It’s going to consist of Milwaukee and likely one of these two teams. There’s no third team, fourth team in any construct right now.”
He added later that these are also the only two teams Antetokounmpo has agreed to sign an extension with if traded there. That has been Antetokounmpo’s leverage throughout this process, he has only one more guaranteed year on his contract and could leave a place he didn’t want to be as a free agent. That threat of him just walking has slowed the market for him from teams not on his list.
Boston’s offer would be based around All-NBA wing Jaylen Brown, coming off the best season of his career, averaging 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists, leading the Celtics to 56 wins and the No. 2 seed in the East despite Jayson Tatum being out for most of the season. The talk in league circles had been that Boston didn’t firmly put Brown in an offer, that Milwaukee had been using the situation more as leverage to get more out of Miami, but that appears not to have changed.
What other players (if any) and draft compensation would be in a Boston trade are the real questions. There have been rumors about Payton Pritchard being in the offer, but he would be a player the Celtics would want to keep because of how well he would fit playing off Antetokounmpo. Stein suggests it would be a young player, such as Hugo Gonzalez, plus draft picks. Boston has the No. 27 pick in Tuesday’s NBA Draft, which likely would be part of the package.
Would Milwaukee keep Brown and try to build around him, or flip him to another team in a second trade? The argument for a second trade is that the Bucks are rebuilding and a 27-year-old player in his prime does not fit that timeline. Does Milwaukee believe that what it could get in return from Boston, plus a second Brown trade, outweighs what Miami has on the table?
Or, does the new lottery system, which punishes the teams with the three worst records in the league, change the calculus for Milwaukee, which now does not want to go into rebuild mode? Windhorst reported Brown is open to the idea of having “his own team,” suggesting he is open to the idea.
Is it worth it for Boston?
Trading for Antetokounmpo would be a huge gamble for the Celtics.
We know that Brown and Tatum work together — they have won a title as a lead duo. If Boston spends this offseason filling out the roster around them — specifically upgrading along the front line — it enters next season as one of the true contenders to come out of the East, along with New York, Detroit and a healthy Indiana.
Antetokounmpo, at his best, is a two-time MVP and a better player than Brown, giving the team an elite dowhill attacker. Celtics president Brad Stevens talked in his postseason press conference about the need for the team to put more pressure on the rim, and nobody does that better than Antetokounmpo. He also is a two-way force. The risks are that he is also older (31) and has a growing injury history that has sidelined him or slowed him in each of the last three playoffs. On top of that, he will demand a new max contract after the trade, and it’s likely that as he ages, that will be an anchor in the last season or two.
That risk is countered by the vision of just how good Boston could be with Antetokounmpo and Tatum. (Plus, Antetokounmpo becomes valuable looking ahead to a potential matchup with Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs, not many people have the size, strength and athleticism to bother Wemby.)
If this trade falls apart and Antetokounmpo heads to South Beach, it leads to another issue: Has Boston crossed the Rubicon with Brown and now has to trade him? Has it gone so far down that road that the relationship has soured and the two sides need to part ways? There will be a lot of speculation about that, but it’s a question only Brown and Stevens can really answer, and both are intelligent men who can at least talk it out. If they choose to.
