The list of suitors willing to make an all-in trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo is seemingly shrinking. At least in-season.
However Dyson Daniels’ Atlanta Hawks are among the sides that remain a fascinating watch as a logical suitor for Antetokounmpo.
So should Atlanta go chips in on the ‘Greek Freak’?”
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The likes of the New York Knicks, San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets have been most frequently linked to Antetokounmpo. The OKC Thunder could basically get any player they want with all their assets.
But don’t count on any of those teams taking the plunge anytime soon.
OKC isn’t tampering with a team that has the potential to be all-time good right now. Similarly, the Rockets and Spurs have an exciting young nucleus they don’t appear to be keen to break up anytime soon, plus they’re already in the inner circle of contenders as is.
And the Knicks, long touted as Antetokounmpo’s preferred home if he left Milwaukee, are over the second apron. Which makes pulling off any deal hard to pull off, let alone one for a $54 million player. Notwithstanding New York has its own good thing going coming off its NBA Cup triumph.
That’s before you get to talk that Milwaukee isn’t willing to discuss Antetokounmpo trades yet and seems determined to make things work (for now).
So for the two-time MVP to suddenly be moved by the February deadline, you’d think Milwaukee would need to be absolutely bowled away by an offer too good to refuse to convince the franchise keeping Antetokounmpo is a lost cause and it’s time to move in another direction.
There’s even indications the Bucks could look to be buyers — not sellers — to try and improve the roster around Antetokounmpo by the deadline to try make this thing work. Though their lack of assets and a $113 million black hole in their salary cap over the next five years following the waiving of Damian Lillard leaves them with little to work with.
Sure, there’s other teams that would love Antetokounmpo, like the Golden State Warriors and LA Lakers. But they probably don’t have the assets to get a deal done, unless LA was willing to deal Austin Reaves.
You can never count out the Miami Heat and they should firmly be in this conversation.
Then there’s the Hawks.
For starters, there’s already baked in incentive for Milwaukee to deal with Atlanta, for it controls some of the Bucks’ future capital.
That includes Atlanta holding the most favouable 2026 first-round pick between the Pelicans and Bucks, as well as the least favourable of Pelicans and Bucks’ 2027 first-rounder.
So if Milwaukee decided to trade Antetokounmpo to another team and go into all-out tank mode, it could end up with New Orleans’ pick — not its own — which would clearly come with risk. In other words, if you were going to tank, which would seem Milwaukee’s likely path if it moved Antetokounmpo, you’d want your own pick.
Whereas trading with Atlanta could give Milwaukee control of its own pick and/or access to the Pelicans pick, which currently has the fourth-best lottery odds (but more on that later). And in essence give the Bucks more scope to go in any path it wants, not that getting back their pick should necessarily be the main priority in a situation as critical at this with arguably its best all-time player.
As for the Hawks, they went into this season with increased expectations. They added Kristaps Porzingis and Nickeil Alexander-Walker to a rising, young core in the weakened and wide-open Eastern Conference following a 40-win 2024/25 campaign.
And Jalen Johnson, who was limited to 36 games last season, has gone to a whole new level in an All-Star campaign.
Yet Atlanta is bang on .500 at 15-15 amid a three-game losing streak to currently occupy a play-in spot among a logjam of teams in the middle of the East.
The defence has been up and down, despite hope they could become a greater force on that end of the floor when Trae Young was sidelined, including giving up 152 points to the Chicago Bulls. And they’re equally mediocre on offence, though Young should help improve that.
With Porzingis sidelined for an unknown period for further evaluation for an illness, Atlanta feels like a team primed to make a move for a shot in the arm and to shore up its thin frontcourt.
Particularly when you look at the state of the East, with New York and perhaps Detroit the only two teams you can really trust. There’s a pathway to the conference finals there, especially with the addition of a top-five player like Antetokounmpo.
Atlanta is almost in that perfect sweet spot, where the team isn’t going well enough to be weary about doing something bold and how it could interrupt chemistry. And the Hawks have the assets to get a deal done and are probably a big move away from being a serious contender.
For if Antetokounmpo isn’t the answer to help get this team to another level, what is?
The Hawks could always stick with their current plan of developing their budding core of Johnson (24), Daniels (22), Onyeka Okongwu (25) and Zaccharie Risacher (20). But they might be able to have their cake and eat it too.
Porzingis’ expiring $30 million contract and ownership of the Pelicans pick are two valuable assets to potentially use in a trade.
There might be more urgency to move the New Orleans pick now too, before it declines further in value.
While the Pelicans pick is a golden asset regardless, it doesn’t look quite as good as it did a couple of weeks ago when New Orleans had the worst record in the NBA. The team has since gotten healthy and rattled off four-straight wins.
It’s seen the Pelicans move up the standings to now have only the fourth-worst record overall — or the pick with the fourth-best lottery odds right now. Again, it’s still a highly-valuable pick.
Plus, given New Orleans doesn’t own that pick, there’s no incentive for the team to tank like other teams languishing down the standings. So it’s likely the Pelicans only continue to rise.
“If I was Atlanta, I would trade that pick right now,” The Ringer’s Bill Simmons said on his podcast.
“Atlanta has the Porzingis expiring contract, they have a huge trade exception, they’ve got to figure out the Trae Young thing.
“But this is their chance to get somebody really good. I think they should after Giannis, I’ve been saying that from day one.
“I would put that New Orleans pick on the table, because two months from now, I really, genuinely think New Orleans will not be one of the five worst teams in the league. They have too much talent.”
So does Antetokounmpo make sense with Atlanta’s other core long term?
It might seem like a no-brainer, but clearly it would partly depend on what the Hawks would need to give up.
Jalen Johnson, having flourished as the number one option with Young on the sidelines, should be an untouchable. But Milwaukee would certainly ask the question.
Johnson’s agent, Rich Paul, even curiously said the Bucks should call Atlanta and ask for Johnson, who’s originally from Wisconsin. Anything to see there?
You sense Daniels is also off limits. The Aussie was given a four-year, $100 million extension in the off-season and played such a vital role in the team’s turnaround last campaign, claiming the Most Improved Player of the Year Award and making the All-Defensive First Team.
He’s the sort of talent that you could really get burned by trading, as New Orleans has lived. But this is NBA, after all, and stranger things have happened.
A deal would more likely centre around Young and player/s like former No. 1 pick Risacher and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who’s in the midst of his own breakout year, with a multitude of picks.
That would give Milwaukee flexibility to stay competitive with an All-Star like Young, who has a player option to opt out of his $48 million deal next season and become a free agent, along with young building blocks and long-term assets.
Or the Bucks might prefer Porzingis’ expiring deal with the likes of Risacher and Alexander-Walker.
Either way, there’s plenty of interesting stuff there that would appeal to Milwaukee.
It could meanwhile give the Hawks a key core of Antetokounmpo, Johnson, Daniels and Okongwu. It’s a core that could be frighteningly good defensively, but in need of a point guard.
None of that quartet are elite 3-point shooters either, even if Johnson and Okongwu profile strong enough for their positions. So the Hawks could run into spacing issues and would obviously need to find a guard that can shoot.
Joining Atlanta would crucially allow Antetokounmpo to stay in the East and away from the rising powerhouse teams in the West.
All the talk is that Antetokounmpo is keen to continue to contend for championships, and there mightn’t be many better landing spots or stars to team up with than Johnson.
Antetokounmpo is technically contracted for two more seasons after this, but it’s important to note he has a player option in 2027/28 he can opt out of. It means he could, in theory, leave a new team he’s traded to after the 2026/27 season — the season after this current one.
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It’s a key factor in all of this, for teams wouldn’t want to absolutely sell the farm without some sort of long-term commitment from the superstar beyond 2027.
NBA insider Zach Lowe, who previously called Atlanta a “wildcard” in the Antetokounmpo sweepstakes, thinks it remains the “most interesting Giannis team”.
“They hold that pick that half belongs to Milwaukee and they hold a piece of Milwaukee’s pick next year. They have the big semi-expiring salary of Trae Young, they have Risacher,” he said on his podcast.
“They are the one team I could see looking in the mirror and saying: ‘If this Porzingis this isn’t going to happen and we’re not going to be able to count on him (we should go for Antetokounmpo). We’re currently playing Mouhamed Gueye and Asa Newell as our backup centres behind Okongwu, who’s been outstanding. And we think we can make a real leap with Giannis this year and our roadmap for the next few years is way, way better with Giannis than without Giannis, because we’re not sure what’s going to happen with Trae.’
“There’s a lot of factors that would sway to me think pretty hard about it and this Porzingis thing is one of them.”
Of course, if Atlanta didn’t want to go chips in on Antetokounmpo, it could always assess the marker for other star bigs that would come at a cheaper price.
Anthony Davis is the obvious name that comes to mind, but he comes with significant injury risk.
Domnatas Sabonis and Jaren Jackson Jr. are other options that could become available.
Or if Atlanta wanted to go even cheaper, the likes of Daniel Gafford and Nic Claxton are seemingly gettable.
Young’s fate is a fascinating side plot to it all in what feels like a crossroads moment for his career with Atlanta.
The Hawks went 13-10 when Young was sidelined and had periods where they looked like a better team with more ball movement and length. But they’ve also missed his offence and it’d be dismissive to think he can’t make them better.
So how the guard reintegrates with the Hawks over the next few weeks could have a key influence on which direction they go.
There’s long been speculation around Young potentially leaving the Hawks, but it feels more real than ever given he’s effectively a pseudo free agent this off-season with that player option on his contract.
The 27-year old’s offensive talent is undeniable. But Young’s passive pay package and role as a very heliocentric point guard on offence, while being a negative on defence, means there’s not an obvious list of suitors lining up for him.
That could always change, especially if Young helps propel the Hawks’ season from here. But then Atlanta might felt less inclined to move him in the constant push and pull NBA teams are always weighing up.
“This is probably the most pivotal season for Trae. How he comes back, because the Hawks have gotten a feel of what this team is capable of doing without him,” NBA insider Chris Haynes said on The Kevin O’Connor Show.
“Does Trae make this team better, or does Trae hinder them from reaching their next step? That’s why I say it’s a very pivotal season for Trae.
“That being said, I haven’t heard anything concrete that would suggest Trae would be moved in-season. So I think his situation will be decided ultimately this coming off-season.
“The market is tough, there’s not a lot of teams out there in need of a point guard. Even how he comes back and how he meshes is going to have a big say on what teams may have interest moving forward.”
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