Inside Warriors’ all-in Giannis Antetokounmpo trade pursuit ahead of deadline

Since the reports of The Milwaukee Bucks are actually calling for two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and expressing a level of openness they’ve never shown before to trade him, the NBA trade landscape has been put on hold.

Teams around the league are calling the Bucks to see if Giannis can be acquired before Thursday’s trade deadline, which has led to much of the NBA trade buzz surrounding the superstar big man.

Over the past week, nothing has changed on the Bucks front. Executive Jon Horst and his front office are listening to any team that presents a compelling offer, and the Bucks have yet to signal one way or the other whether they will indeed be willing to part ways with Antetokounmpo before the Feb. 5 deadline.

Well, it’s time for Milwaukee to make a decision, because the next few days won’t just change their immediate future, but the NBA landscape as a whole. With the league as a whole divided on whether Giannis will be on the move before Thursday’s deadline, several teams have already made firm offers and/or engaged in trade talks with the Bucks regarding Antetokounmpo.

The Miami Heat, New York Knicks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Toronto Raptors and Brooklyn Nets are among the teams that have already contacted Giannis. Then we have Golden State Warriorswho have been waiting for this moment since Kevin Durant left the franchise in 2019.

Warriors owner Joe Lacob has long dreamed of having Giannis by his side Stephen Currymaking Golden State the most aggressive team to pursue The Greek Freak at this year’s trade deadline.

While the Warriors continue to discuss several scenarios with the Bucks, offering plenty of draft assets and young talent, the easiest path to a Giannis trade taking place over the next few days involves this Dubs team. Can they really make a trade for a future Hall of Famer to make one last push for a title at the end of Curry’s career?

Warriors’ all-in pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo detailed

Last season, the Dallas Mavericks shocked the NBA when they traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis. In fact, it was a year ago yesterday that the infamous trade happened. This year, the Bucks could be the ones to completely change the NBA trade landscape if they do indeed trade Giannis.

This was the biggest question being asked among the league’s staff over the weekend. Even with the trade deadline closing in 72 hours, there’s still no sense if Milwaukee will accept the best offer for Giannis now or wait until the offseason to explore the matter further.

Despite the Bucks still signaling they will be buyers at the trade deadline, the overwhelming belief in the NBA is that he will be on a new team for the start of the 2026-27 season. From Milwaukee’s perspective, the idea of ​​getting a high draft pick, making some minor upgrades at the trade deadline, and offering Giannis his four-year, $275 million supermax extension in the summer it might be enough to sway him.

The future is unknown, but the present is not. Currently, the Warriors have been the most aggressive team pursuing Giannis, as the two organizations have discussed the idea of ​​trading Giannis at length, league sources familiar with the matter told ClutchPoints. Antetokounmpo is the only player Golden State has locked up before the deadline, and Lacob and GM Mike Dunleavy Jr. are on the same page that no player other than Curry is truly off limits in negotiations with the Bucks.

Unlike last year, when the Warriors went after Kevin Durant in a big way and turned around Jimmy Butler with Durant negotiations falling apart, this appears to be the only option for the Warriors to add star-level talent. If Giannis isn’t traded and stays with the Bucks, sources say the Warriors will keep their valuable asset and revisit talks with the Bucks in the summer.

This is an opportunity Lacob and Dunleavy won’t give up until it’s over.

To this point, the Bucks have not turned down the Warriors’ offer, sources said. Horst and Milwaukee’s front offices have been intrigued by the idea of ​​acquiring all of Golden State’s future assets, but are also stalling on making a decision, which isn’t expected to happen until sometime within 24 hours of the trade deadline.

So what does this mean for the Warriors’ immediate future and their plan for the trade deadline? Well, their plan and dream scenario is to get Giannis. If he stays with the Bucks, he probably will Jonathan Cumminga staying with the Warriors increases dramatically, as he has a $24.3 million team option for the 2026-27 season.

Both Brooklyn Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. and New Orleans Pelicans wing Trey Murphy III are trade targets The Warriors have expressed interest inbut there will be no trades for any player before the trade deadline. In fact, it is unlikely that any player will be traded in the next few days.

The Warriors are all in the hunt for Giannis and are trying to complete a trade before Thursday with the Bucks, which has led to much speculation among rival front offices that Lacob and Dunleavy are exploring the idea of ​​trading Draymond Green for Jimmy Butler.

Over the weekend, ClutchPoints checked in with sources close to the matter and the team to try to get some insight into where Giannis’ trade talks with the Warriors are at. Although not much has changed since last week, for the first time all year, there was no emphasis “no” when asked if Green is completely off the table in trade talks for the Bucks superstar.

Unlike the Anthony Davis trade rumors, when the Warriors adamantly signaled that Green would not be considered in discussions, the same idea hasn’t come up recently with Giannis. Could trading Green, a four-time NBA champion and nine-time All-Defensive All-Star who spent his entire career with the Warriors, be the key to making a trade happen in the next 72 hours?

One rival executive who has previously dealt with the Warriors in trade talks spoke with ClutchPoints on Sunday and laid out an interesting scenario where Green himself could be involved in such a maneuver, where he could be traded and return next season along with Curry, Butler and Antetokounmpo, as he holds a $27.6 million player option.

“Look, without Jimmy, the Warriors are not going to make it to the NBA Finals, even if they added Giannis right now,” the executive told ClutchPoints. “If you use Draymond and get more funding, you can make the biggest blockbuster and leave these other teams who want Giannis scrambling for answers. There’s no doubt there are those who would immediately offer a first-round pick for Draymond to make an immediate title run.

I 100 percent believe there are teams that would essentially help the Warriors get Giannis if it meant getting Green for the next three or four months to win a title.

This idea of ​​trading Draymond now to get more assets for a trade with the Bucks, as the executive described it, could eventually lead to Green opting out of his contract in the summer and signing a team deal with the Warriors as an unrestricted free agent. The only catch is that such a move would result in Green having to accept a minimum contract.

Would Green really consider taking a $20 million pay cut to make this happen and finish his career on a minimum contract?

Again, this is simply something that league personnel brought up to ClutchPoints and not necessarily something that’s being actively discussed between the Warriors, Green, and Bucks. But at the same time, is it hard to believe that something like this could happen to Golden State if it meant acquiring Giannis?

The only way for the Warriors’ offer to change, short of including Butler, is to include a third team and trade Green for additional assets to go to the Bucks with a bunch of unprotected first-round picks, Cummings, Brandin Podziemski and other assets. Outside of this hypothetical scenario, the Warriors’ offer is as is and will not change in the offseason.

That’s why the Dubs now want to take advantage of their opportunity with the Bucks and not let the door close.

Other Warriors trade discussions earlier NBA trade deadline

In addition to the ongoing discussions about Giannis, the Warriors recently talked to Toplin on Andrew Wiggins’ availability, sources said. Team sources have described these talks as “exploratory,” with no real intent to complete a trade at this time. Many in the NBA have concluded that Golden State is seeing if buying Wiggins alongside Giannis would be possible.

The Heat are not actively shopping Wiggins, and he is expected to remain in South Beach, especially with Miami also pursuing Antetokounmpo and holding every possible asset to maximize their trade offer to Milwaukee. There are also talks between the Bucks and Heat regarding Antetokounmpo, but league sources say Milwaukee wants all of Miami’s young assets, including Tyler Hero.

So far, it doesn’t look like the Heat have made all of their assets available at this deadline like the Warriors have, resulting in counteroffers from the Bucks thus far.

Another team linked to Golden State all season long as a potential trade partner is the Sacramento Kings, given their long-standing interest in Cummings. After acquires De’Andre Hunter from the Cleveland Cavaliersit seems unlikely that the Kings would still be desperate to add Cummings, but never had the chance to do so.

A Warriors source told ClutchPoints that talks with the Kings about Cumings, both dating back to the offseason and before the start of 2026, never went anywhere because Sacramento had “nothing worth sacrificing assets for.”

Malik Monk and DeMar DeRozan, the two players the Kings kept making available in the Cummings talks, weren’t of interest to the Warriors, and now that Keon Ellis is gone (Golden State had interest), the chances of a trade between the two teams are essentially nil.

The Warriors want Giannis. Everyone around the NBA knows this, and so do the Bucks. It will be a very interesting 72 hours to see if Golden State can improve on their bid for the Bucks’ superstar, as Milwaukee could wait until the summer when each team’s best assets and draft picks are available.

Still, league personnel are on the edge of their seats, expecting some kind of big trade to happen soon.

When various agents, scouts and front-office personnel were playfully asked Sunday about their thoughts on the trade market and who will follow the Kings-Cavs-Bulls and Hawks-Blazers trades, expecting the usual names that have been floating around recently to be the topic of conversation, nearly every person hinted that something big is on the horizon.

The fact that no names or context were presented suggests that something significant is being discussed and is making the rounds around the front office, so could these be early signs that Giannis will indeed be traded? Is there something else brewing behind the scenes that we don’t know about yet?

Buckle up for the next few days, because things could get crazy if the Warriors or another team starts closing in on a trade for Giannis.