The Milwaukee Bucks’ season-ending collapse has brought a long-simmering question to the fore: Is it time for Giannis to leave Milwaukee? And if so, who should trade for him?
Giannis Antetokounmpo is the Milwaukee Bucks franchise leader in just about every important category: points, rebounds, assists, blocks, triple-doubles, total games, playoff wins. The 15th pick in the 2013 draft, Giannis transformed himself from a gangly teenager to a modern-day Shaq. He put the Bucks back on the NBA map and led them to the 2021 title, capping it off with a historic 50-point effort in Game 6 and a truly inspiring 17-of-19 performance from the free throw line, where he had struggled throughout those playoffs. The defining characteristic of Giannis’s career thus far has been sheer force of will—to turn himself into the most feared athlete in the NBA in the first place, and then to dictate the terms of every single possession when he’s on the floor.
But you know where this is going. In recent years, Giannis’s force of will has bumped up against the realities of team-building in the modern NBA. Injuries forced him to miss some or all of the Bucks’ first-round series in 2023 and 2024 (both losses), which resulted in massive changes throughout the organization. His longtime coach, Mike Budenholzer, was dismissed in 2023. His longtime co-star, Jrue Holiday, was traded for Damian Lillard that same year. His even-longer-time co-star, Khris Middleton, was traded for Kyle Kuzma in February in a desperate and sad attempt to ignite something in this year’s team. It hasn’t been enough.
Tuesday night’s Game 5 collapse against the Pacers might have been rock bottom. Down 3-1 in the series, Milwaukee led by four with under a minute to play in regulation. They again led by seven with less than a minute to go in overtime. And still, they found a way to lose, 119-118, after a pair of costly turnovers and multiple defensive breakdowns. Giannis finished with a heroic 30-20-13 triple-double, but even he couldn’t carry a roster that needed 40-plus minutes from Bobby Portis, AJ Green, Kevin Porter Jr., and Gary Trent Jr. (who, admittedly, was scorching) in an elimination game.
More on Giannis and the Bucks
More on Giannis and the Bucks
Now, Milwaukee enters the offseason bereft of avenues to build another contender around Giannis. There are no future draft picks. No promising prospects. Damian Lillard is staring down a long recovery for a torn Achilles. Middleton is gone and Brook Lopez is entering free agency, so the Bucks don’t even have the kind of flawed but productive veterans they could swap in a my-problem-for-your-problem trade to change the shape of their team. All of which leads to a question that has simmered for years and is now unignorable: Is it time for Giannis to leave the Bucks?
At 30 years old, Antetokounmpo remains absurdly dominant. He averaged 30 points, 12 rebounds, and seven assists per game in 2024-25, and he has two full seasons and a player-option remaining on the extension he signed last summer. That same force of will that has lifted the Giannis era in Milwaukee could now bring about its end, if Antetokounmpo requests a trade to a more competitive outfit. If he does, we’ll find out the actual market rate for a generational superstar, we’ll mark the end of one of the defining superstar-team pairings of the past decade, and we’ll have to sort through a remade competitive landscape. In the meantime, to make sense of the options on the board, we asked our staff to pitch their dream Giannis trades. Here’s what they said.
Bucks receive: : Franz Wagner, Jonathan Isaac, Jett Howard, and Orlando’s first-round picks in 2025, 2027, 2029, and 2031, with pick swaps in 2028 and 2030 for Giannis.
Michael Pina: The Orlando Magic could do nothing, run this season’s roster back, hope for some better injury luck, and be freaking awesome in 2026. They’re a homegrown behemoth, fortified by two large, young, über-skilled forwards with perennial All-Star potential. They care about defense and are stockpiled with ascending two-way talent. But as auspicious as life may seem in Orlando, we’re talking about Giannis Antetokounmpo, the type of generational superstar who can obliterate even the most sensibly laid five-year plan. (John Hammond, who currently holds an advisory role in the Magic’s front office, drafted Giannis.)
If this trade were to actually happen, Orlando’s starting five next season would be: Jalen Suggs, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Paolo Banchero, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Wendell Carter Jr. Pretty good!
Worried about spacing? Orlando has some options coming off its bench and can play Giannis a ton of minutes at the 5. Concerned about Banchero and Antetokounmpo forging the right on-court chemistry? They’re smart, humongous, and can figure it out (while being staggered in a rotation that ensures one will always be on the court). This team could have two top-10 players and the best defense in the NBA. That smells like championship contention for the foreseeable future.
If you’re Milwaukee: Wagner has All-NBA potential. He’s competitive as hell, functions on or off the ball, tries hard on both ends, and is one fixed 3-point stroke away from being a genuine franchise player. Good luck finding a better player who’s under 25. Isaac is one of the best per-minute defenders alive and Howard may be awesome if given more opportunity in a different ecosystem. For a team that’s light on picks for the rest of this decade, four firsts and two swaps are a nice gift, too.
Bucks receive: Jalen Johnson, Zaccharie Risacher, and a modest assortment of draft picks for Giannis.
Howard Beck: In theory, the Bucks should go for the gaudiest haul of draft picks they can get. But there just aren’t many teams who (a) have a gaudy haul to offer, and (b) would still have a quality lineup after matching salaries in the trade. (Oklahoma City could do it, but I’m not touching a 68-win team.) So let’s try an alternate path.
The 23-year-old Johnson was having a breakout campaign—averaging nearly 19 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists—before a torn labrum ended his season in January. He has the size and skills to be an All-Star. Risacher, the no. 1 pick in the 2024 draft, showed promise in his rookie season. In tandem, the two forwards could form the foundation of a fun, competitive new Bucks team and prevent them from bottoming out entirely. (Tanking is off the table, since Milwaukee doesn’t control its first-round pick until 2031.) Atlanta could round out the package with some combination of draft picks, perhaps including two this June: no. 13 (obtained from Sacramento) and no. 22 (from the Lakers).
Pairing Giannis with Trae Young would give the Hawks a younger, bouncier version of what the Bucks envisioned in pairing Giannis with Damian Lillard: an absolutely lethal pick-and-roll duo. The offensive fit of Giannis and Onyeka Okongwu might be a bit wonky, but they’d present a formidable defensive safety net. And the Hawks would still retain enough draft capital to keep adding talent.
Bucks receive: Jalen Duren, Jaden Ivey, Ron Holland, Tobias Harris, a 2026 first-round pick, 2028 first-round pick, and 2031 first-round pick for Giannis.
Danny Chau: Milwaukee would surely prefer not to trade with a divisional foe, and Detroit may not be top-of-mind for a superstar who could very well have his pick of landing spots, but you have to admit: It’s an intriguing thought. There aren’t many teams in the league with as much to gain and as little to lose in taking a massive swing as the Pistons. Cade Cunningham’s postseason debut has been well worth the wait, and he’s carried a tremendous burden. (Cunningham has the sixth-highest usage rate in the playoffs.) Pairing a jumbo initiator like Cunningham with arguably the most dominant player of his generation could be a modern take on Magic and Kareem in both style and form.
In return, the Bucks roll the dice on three lottery selections still on their rookie contracts in Duren, Ivey, and Holland—each player an elite athlete for his position. Ivey was in the midst of a breakout season before suffering a broken left fibula at the start of the new year; when healthy, there are less than a handful of players faster with the ball in their hands. Duren’s had a rough go in Detroit’s first-round matchup with the Knicks, but it’s rare to find a player with his blend of rebounding craft and playmaking instincts. Holland remains an eye-of-the-beholder wild card: his motor is unrelenting, his passion is unconcealed, his refinement is underway. Harris has restored his bona fides this postseason and would be an easy deadline rental for a team on the cusp. Recouping a few first-rounders while developing promising young talent sounds like Doc Rivers’s worst nightmare, which is to say, a sensible path for the Bucks to begin again. —Danny Chau
Bucks receive: Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun, and first-round picks in 2025 and 2027, plus one of the Suns’ future firsts
Logan Murdock: Despite their recent postseason struggles, the Houston Rockets will enter the summer of 2025 in the enviable position of being an overachieving young team with a treasure trove of assets. They’re in prime position to acquire a star. For months, they’ve been linked to Kevin Durant, who seems to be all but finished in Phoenix. But with all due respect to Slim, Giannis would set Houston up to be a factor in the Western Conference for the next decade.
The Rockets can offer potential future All-Stars plus valuable first-rounders. And if the Bucks say, “Please, you know you got more than that,” Houston can always maintain its youth, seek out another shooter, and maybe try to prod Booker out of Phoenix.
Combine Giannis’s all-world ability with the trajectories of Amen Thompson and the other young role players on the roster, and you can see a team that can compete with the Denvers, Minnesotas, and OKCs of the world while maintaining the youth to carry it into the next era of the NBA.
Bucks receive: Isaiah Hartenstein, Cason Wallace, Nikola Topic, Aaron Wiggins, Dillon Jones, two to four first-rounders, and some leftover quinoa from Sam Presti
Matt Dollinger: This feels blasphemous considering the Thunder have yet to lose a game this postseason and could very well run away with the title. I get it. But the Thunder are the sleeper team in the Giannis sweepstakes that the rest of the league is probably worried about. Pairing Giannis with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, smack-dab in the middle of their primes and surrounded by elite role players, is about as scary as it gets. Oklahoma City would finally have the superteam it thought it was getting when it had KD-Russ-Harden a decade ago.
But Presti is going to be frugal here. After all, OKC just won 68 games and could put its stamp on the league after a deep playoff run. But what’s the point of saving up alllllll of those picks if you aren’t going to spend them at some point? The Thunder are already impossibly deep. It’s hard to imagine a more deserving player ever becoming available on the trade market (unless the Nuggets hire Nico Harrison). If other Giannis suitors don’t come correct and the Bucks are interested in a full reset, there’s a chance the Thunder will quietly offer the best package. Maybe it’s time to start scouting in Greece again.
Bucks receive: Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, Jeremy Sochan, and a plethora of picks and swaps for Giannis.
Isaac Levy-Rubinett: If Giannis and Victor Wembanyama had joined forces in San Antonio 200 years ago, Texas might have been able to defend the Alamo. Alas, let’s pair them now and unleash the most devastating defensive duo in recent NBA history. Together, Wemby and Giannis have over 15 feet of wingspan. They are defensive game breakers and the two most dominant paint scorers in the league. Their nicknames are “Freak” and “Alien.” It doesn’t take much to imagine the indefensible Wembanyama-Antetokounmpo pick-and-rolls, or the way De’Aaron Fox’s ability to get downhill and score in isolation would open things up even further. There isn’t a more compelling basketball situation for Giannis; the only questions are whether the Spurs would pursue such an aggressive tack (they should; see above) and whether they have the assets to win a bidding war.
Despite the Spurs’ enviable long-term outlook, they might actually have trouble putting together an attractive enough package for Giannis. Newly minted Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle would be nonnegotiable, and San Antonio would also have to include multiple other good young prospects. But those players don’t have quite the same pedigree as some of the other blue-chippers on this list—Franz Wagner, Amen Thompson, and even Jalen Johnson have greater upside than anyone the Spurs can offer. That means the most attractive aspect of San Antonio’s package would have to be the draft assets, and not even Nico Harrison would want to fade a Wemby-Giannis frontcourt. The Spurs have incoming picks from the Hawks and future swaps with Boston, Dallas, and Minnesota, but that may not be appealing enough for a Milwaukee team that would essentially be starting from scratch.
Bucks receive: Pascal Siakam, Bennedict Mathurin, Ben Sheppard, and a bounty of picks
Tyler Parker: Generally, my dream scenario with small-market superstars is for them to be able to stay in one place their entire career. I’m a softy. But it’s hard to deny that the Bucks have not been able to surround Giannis with the kind of help he deserves. So, should Antetokounmpo get to the point where he does decide to ask for a trade, for the purposes of this exercise, and because everyone else already took the good answers—let’s make him a Pacer.
I made my selection before Indiana closed the series out Tuesday night, and before Papa Haliburton stepped on the court, opened his mouth, and showed his ass. But now that the post-series confrontation has happened, I am stoked about my choice and feel that I may be a genius. I don’t wish a Giannis trade on Bucks fans because they show up loud for their team and legitimately care. But if I have to pick a destination, I’m picking the funniest option.
It’s not like he wouldn’t fit in Indiana. He’s Giannis. He fits everywhere. Pacerland would provide him all the space he could want, a young, tested supporting cast that can score without him having to generate everything. He’d still be on a proper contender, and his load would not be so heavy. Maybe Giannis and Haliburton would hate each other, but they’d thrash teams.
