There might not be a good Giannis trade
Sometimes the best way to win is not to play
Giannis needs a new home. With better teammates, he’d be the MVP of almost any playoff series, instead the Bucks won’t be in the playoffs. The whole NBA is wondering how that problem will be solved.
The Giannis trade scenarios are tricky.
Giannis is injured with no set date for his return.
Giannis wants to leave to increase his odds of winning a title.
Any team trading for him will have to ship out something similar to his $54 million salary.
The Bucks will only do a deal that can deliver them draft picks and young players.
The Wolves, Nuggets, Suns, and Knicks have very little to offer in the way of draft picks.
The Wolves and the Knicks have serious salary cap constraints.
Also, Giannis has an option to walk after next season, so trading for him is a bet he will be happy in 18 months, and a handshake deal with his current agent may not mean a damned thing should he be terminated. (One prominent agent told me he countered these kinds of concerns, in another case, by asking “are you God? Can you assure me you will still be employed by the same team and that your owner won’t sell the team by then?”)
I could easily make a case that the Thunder or Nuggets should trade for Giannis, and I expect those two teams could be super confident Giannis would want to stay. But the Heat, Knicks, Rockets, Suns, Wolves and the like have to really sweat it. Should they tear up a good team for what could be a rental?
There are trade proposals on every NBA website and podcast. I obsessed over the trade machine myself.
