Big Teams Might Sit Out Potential Giannis Antetokounmpo Sweepstakes
If Giannis Antetokounmpo does request a trade, it would not be surprising if all the contenders tried to make a run for the two-time MVP. However, given all it would require to get him, moving a ton of assets and taking on a ton of money may not work for some of the best teams in the sport.
A new report from Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst appears to confirm that, stating that a potential sweepstakes might not include as many teams as you'd expect.
Don't expect major bidding war for Giannis Antetokounmpo
ESPN analysts Brian Windhorst and Tim Bontemps spoke to executives and coaches around the league to find out what a market for Giannis Antetokounmpo might look like. We've been down this road before, wondering where Antetokounmpo's future lies.
He's remained with the Milwaukee Bucks all this time, but if they can't turn it around, a trade request seems highly likely. And if that does happen, executives and coaches are split on how much action there will really be.
Antetokounmpo is still in his prime and he's one of the five or three best players in the world, but that won't last forever, and eventually, he'll be very costly and not worth the salary he earns now. That's how it goes with older players more often than not, so trading for someone like that brings an inherent risk, especially when factoring in the need for picks and players to build a package.
"I don't think you'd see 29 teams make an offer like if, say, Victor [Wembanyama] was available, but there would be plenty of interest, and probably two to three teams would be willing to go all-in right now," an East executive told ESPN. "Every player has risk, and he'd have some risk, but this is one you don't have to work too hard to talk yourself into."
"I'm sure the front office would have pros and cons and all that," an assistant coach revealed. "But if you're asking me, I'd want him on my team in less than a second. He plays hard every night and clearly wants to win and can be unstoppable. This is the kind of player you need to win it all."
Extension complicates things
Antetokounmpo is going to likely sign an extension nearing $300 million, which would be hard for a lot of teams to stomach. That's part of the cost of trading for a superstar.
"You are going to gulp and do it," an East executive said when asked about such an extension that runs through the forward's age-37 season. "But you have to be good enough where the beginning of the deal is worth it, because you are baking in the back end. If you're a play-in team? Or a six seed? Then, you shouldn't be doing it."
Giannis Antetokounmpo might determine his own fate
The executives and coaches also believe that Antetokounmpo will have a say in where he goes if this all transpires, which further limits his market.
That essentially means that only playoff teams, like firm playoff teams who generally contend year in and year out, who have the assets and salaries to actually make this deal are the only ones who might be interested. And within that group of maybe 10 teams, Antetokounmpo won't want to go to all of them.
And that essentially means there are probably five teams that might legitimately jump into the foray if Antetokounmpo requests a trade. Otherwise, his market might be a lot more depleted than a player of his caliber might ordinarily have.
These are extenuating circumstances, and while all 29 other teams would benefit, it's probably not worth it to around 25 of them.
