Zach Lowe tries to make sense of Giannis’ three-team trade rumors
With the NBA trade deadline only 10 days away, the rumors are sure to heat up. Some will include huge stars, including Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose name has come up since the beginning of the season. With the Milwaukee Bucks in no man’s land and Antetokounmpo does not see success with the teamit would make sense for him and the crew to split up.
The New York Knicks they have been one team that has been linked to Antetokounmpo for some time, most recently NBA insider Zach Love brought the rumor that he had heard of them, the Bucks and the Portland Trail Blazers.
“A three-team trade between New York, Milwaukee and Portland. Because Portland owns pieces of three consecutive Bucks from the trades they made together, including the Dames trade. ’28, ’29, ’30 trades and pieces of picks etc… I’m like, so how does that work?,” Love said of the rumor. “And I’ve heard a few different versions of it. One of them had the Knicks getting both Giannis and Jrue Holiday, which would make sense because if the Knicks trade more for one, it hurts their depth. And I played around with concepts where they got Giannis and Kuzma in a two-team trade with the Bucks.”
In that scenario, it looks like the Bucks will get their picks back from the Trail Blazers, which would be a win for them as they gain their own control over the asset.
“The Bucks are getting some money, say Jeremy Grant, I can’t remember what it was,” Lowe said. “And the rights to some or all of their picks from the Blazers. What’s the golden chip for the Bucks in any Giannis trade. Can we regain control of our draft assets? I was like what Portland is getting and one version, they’re getting KAT and the other is KAT and Bridges. And I’m like why did these super trade? Why can they add KAT? Linder? A $60 million deal for a .500 team?
It sounds like there are a lot of moving parts to a deal involving those three teams, which means it probably won’t happen during the season. If nothing else, they’ll be waiting in the offseason for something that big.
2026-01-26 21:43:00
