Giannis Thread - On Asking for a Trade - "I am not this kind of guy, they would have to kick me out”.

[raferfenix]

To clarify, I'm not saying we get Flagg or I'm going into next season w/ Giannis automatically. It's more that we should unless we start bleeding even more talent (KPJ, Trent/equivalent or better wing, Bobby/equivalent or better big). Then Harper, Castle + picks type deals should still be there.

Caveat: if Giannis does an ACL his value changes plenty.

It is worth noting the Bucks just got burned by planning to shop Dame in the summer instead of pulling the plug at the deadline (but when you have a chance to get Kuzma you just gotta take it apparently…)

Otherwise it’s not like there wouldn’t be plenty of teams itching to pay top dollar and planning their season around the sheer possibility of being able to.

[JonHeist]

just chiming in that next year's draft is looking absolutely insane

3 dudes (peterson, dybantsa, boozer) roughly on the same level cooper was this time last year

I wouldn't quite bet on any of them having a better freshman year than cooper did, but damn there's some talent in this draft, 3 dudes who would be #1 in a lot of years

[Bernman]

To clarify, I'm not saying we get Flagg or I'm going into next season w/ Giannis automatically. It's more that we should unless we start bleeding even more talent (KPJ, Trent/equivalent or better wing, Bobby/equivalent or better big). Then Harper, Castle + picks type deals should still be there.

Caveat: if Giannis does an ACL his value changes plenty.

It is worth noting the Bucks just got burned by planning to shop Dame in the summer instead of pulling the plug at the deadline (but when you have a chance to get Kuzma you just gotta take it apparently…)

Otherwise it’s not like there wouldn’t be plenty of teams itching to pay top dollar and planning their season around the sheer possibility of being able to.

Counter: If Giannis blows his ACL players seldom don't recover from the 1st one to 100% these days & he'd sign an extension so problem solved.

Why Dame's was so crushing was he was almost 35, it was an achilles, & he was never in the same stratosphere as Giannis.

[emunney]

To clarify, I'm not saying we get Flagg or I'm going into next season w/ Giannis automatically. It's more that we should unless we start bleeding even more talent (KPJ, Trent/equivalent or better wing, Bobby/equivalent or better big). Then Harper, Castle + picks type deals should still be there.

Caveat: if Giannis does an ACL his value changes plenty.

It is worth noting the Bucks just got burned by planning to shop Dame in the summer instead of pulling the plug at the deadline (but when you have a chance to get Kuzma you just gotta take it apparently…)

Otherwise it’s not like there wouldn’t be plenty of teams itching to pay top dollar and planning their season around the sheer possibility of being able to.

I don't think an ACL changes his value much. Everybody was clamoring after KD with a torn Achilles'. Perennial MVP candidates basically have infinite value.

Also, was there reporting that the Bucks were planning on shopping Dame?

[raferfenix]

I don't think an ACL changes his value much. Everybody was clamoring after KD with a torn Achilles'. Perennial MVP candidates basically have infinite value.

Also, was there reporting that the Bucks were planning on shopping Dame?

Ok I’ll restate: Serious injury that’d cause Giannis to lose at least a step after a prolonged absence.

And yes, sucks bad:

Had Lillard remained healthy, and had the Bucks still fallen in the first round, league sources say there would have been discussions about whether Lillard wanted to remain in Milwaukee. The relationship between Antetokounmpo and Lillard is strong, as is the respect level, but the imperfections of their on-court pairing remained in their second season together. And with the group’s collective limitations growing more evident by the month, a conversation was looming about whether Lillard and the Bucks might be better off parting ways.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6325492/2025/05/01/giannis-bucks-trade-chatter/

[BigO]

There's some silly takes on here, so let's just clarify:

1) Giannis's value will not be higher next year. He will be one year older and one year closer to free agency. If he had 3 o4 years more on his contract, his value would be even higher. This is so obvious, that people who claim otherwise are just contrarian for the sake of it.

2) Even if #1 weren't true (which it is), Cooper Flagg won't be available next season, which is the only deal I'd be interested in right now. Either he confirms what I think of him or he is something less. Right now, his value can be debated and thus Dallas has an incentive to get a bonafide superstar rather than a possible one.

3) Those who say Flagg won't be available because Dallas says they're keeping the pick, must have been born yesterday. We don't know if he will be available unless and until an offer is made.

It's Flagg or bust for me. Nothing has changed since I mentioned it 6 weeks ago.

[JayMKE]

I think Dallas is picking Flagg and that Giannis would be an awkward fit

[jakecronus8]

If Jokic demands a trade…

[Matches Malone]

Bill does this **** to annoy Bucks fans. You can't tell me otherwise. Smug little masshole.

Read on Twitter

[paulpressey25]

Bill does this **** to annoy Bucks fans. You can't tell me otherwise. Smug little masshole.

It’s a decent idea if we did the Kuzma for Garland piece.

But that’s the problem with all these outside pontificaters….they always fail to add more coming to the Bucks.

ETA: listened to the full pod. Was ridiculous as they wondered if Milwaukee needed to add more.

Later in pod
Rusillo: Would you trade Tatum for Giannis?
Bill: I don’t think Tatum is on the table

Rusillo just moves on. No, make Bill answer the Question

[blazza18]

It's so bs, man. This **** is clearly done on purpose.

[RiotPunch]

I'm sick of the media and other fanbases operating as though the Bucks don't have all of the leverage. Even if Giannis asks out, we can always play hardball with him rather than accepting the best of mediocre offers presented to us. Houston drawing a line in the sand at Amen, Spurs drawing a line in the sand at #2, it's just ridiculous. Cool, guys, then you don't get the top 2 player on planet Earth, enjoy the treadmill.

[Prez]

At this point I don’t really care about what the media says about this stuff anymore, it’s irrelevant. If Giannis asks for a trade it’s going to start the most absurd bidding war in recent NBA history and none of these dumb **** “Bucks need to dump him for whatever they can get” type of ideas from the media will matter. And all of the “Amen’s off the table” or “you can have #2 but not Castle or anything else” stuff from the Houstons and San Antonios of the league will change real quick when it’s actually going down and it’s time for them to get serious.

Simmons is a straight up dunce this point, and at least alongside this stupid commentary by him the Celtics window is also closing/might’ve already closed.

[drew881]

I think Dallas is picking Flagg and that Giannis would be an awkward fit

I think they’ll pick Flagg too but isn’t Davis a perfect stretch 5 for Giannis and Kyrie should be fine too?

They can dump one of the backup centers in Lively and Gafford for more assets.

[ACMFFL]

I think Dallas is picking Flagg and that Giannis would be an awkward fit

I think they’ll pick Flagg too but isn’t Davis a perfect stretch 5 for Giannis and Kyrie should be fine too?

They can dump one of the backup centers in Lively and Gafford for more assets.

AD wants to play at the 4 and both Giannis and AD are sub-par 3pt shooters, honestly I don't see the fit at all.
Mavs have to give up almost everything to match his salary and value, and then they are left with almost nothing else to improve a roster that still badly lacks shooting and playmaking.
Kyrie could also miss a good junk of the next season and who knows if he'll be back the same.
Considering how fragile AD and Kai are, that team could easily turn into Giannis+a bunch of mid role players at any given moment.
And in this new CBA envirnoment I feel like it's almost impossible to build a legit championship team around 3 supermax contracts.

I don't even think that Flagg alone is enough to entice Milwaukee FO, as good as he is projected to be, he's not a Luka level prospect so imho they should ask for their picks back too at least in order to start a proper rebuild but Mavs definitely don't have the assets for that. I don't see a realistic path that brings GA to Dallas.

Spurs make a ton of sense for all parties, something like:
MIL: #2, Castle, salary filler, 2026/2027 MIL 1sts, 2 future 1sts (via SAS);
NOP: 2026/2027 ATL 1sts;
SAS: Giannis.
If you feel Castle and Harper are redundant, you could move one of them for a good haul imho.

[JayMKE]

I think Dallas is picking Flagg and that Giannis would be an awkward fit

I think they’ll pick Flagg too but isn’t Davis a perfect stretch 5 for Giannis and Kyrie should be fine too?

They can dump one of the backup centers in Lively and Gafford for more assets.

AD wants to play at the 4 and both Giannis and AD are sub-par 3pt shooters, honestly I don't see the fit at all.
Mavs have to give up almost everything to match his salary and value, and then they are left with almost nothing else to improve a roster that still badly lacks shooting and playmaking.
Kyrie could also miss a good junk of the next season and who knows if he'll be back the same.
Considering how fragile AD and Kai are, that team could easily turn into Giannis+a bunch of mid role players at any given moment.
And in this new CBA envirnoment I feel like it's almost impossible to build a legit championship team around 3 supermax contracts.

I don't even think that Flagg alone is enough to entice Milwaukee FO, as good as he is projected to be, he's not a Luka level prospect so imho they should ask for their picks back too at least in order to start a proper rebuild but Mavs definitely don't have the assets for that. I don't see a realistic path that brings GA to Dallas.

Spurs make a ton of sense for all parties, something like:
MIL: #2, Castle, salary filler, 2026/2027 MIL 1sts, 2 future 1sts (via SAS);
NOP: 2026/2027 ATL 1sts;
SAS: Giannis.
If you feel Castle and Harper are redundant, you could move one of them for a good haul imho.

Flagg is on another level as a prospect compared to Harper, their values aren’t similar. The Rutgers kids will bust therefor #2 in this draft not worth giving up assets for. Castle is also meh. Spurs poo poo platter sucks, I wish them no success. I’d rather have one elite asset over a collection of mediocre ones.

[ShootingtheJ]

At this point I don’t really care about what the media says about this stuff anymore, it’s irrelevant. If Giannis asks for a trade it’s going to start the most absurd bidding war in recent NBA history and none of these dumb **** “Bucks need to dump him for whatever they can get” type of ideas from the media will matter. And all of the “Amen’s off the table” or “you can have #2 but not Castle or anything else” stuff from the Houstons and San Antonios of the league will change real quick when it’s actually going down and it’s time for them to get serious.

Simmons is a straight up dunce this point, and at least alongside this stupid commentary by him the Celtics window is also closing/might’ve already closed.

Agree. If Giannis was available teams wouldn't care if they were still contenders after the deal, they'd bid to land Giannis no matter the cost.

I can't believe people still listen to Simmons.

[ACMFFL]

I think they’ll pick Flagg too but isn’t Davis a perfect stretch 5 for Giannis and Kyrie should be fine too?

They can dump one of the backup centers in Lively and Gafford for more assets.

AD wants to play at the 4 and both Giannis and AD are sub-par 3pt shooters, honestly I don't see the fit at all.
Mavs have to give up almost everything to match his salary and value, and then they are left with almost nothing else to improve a roster that still badly lacks shooting and playmaking.
Kyrie could also miss a good junk of the next season and who knows if he'll be back the same.
Considering how fragile AD and Kai are, that team could easily turn into Giannis+a bunch of mid role players at any given moment.
And in this new CBA envirnoment I feel like it's almost impossible to build a legit championship team around 3 supermax contracts.

I don't even think that Flagg alone is enough to entice Milwaukee FO, as good as he is projected to be, he's not a Luka level prospect so imho they should ask for their picks back too at least in order to start a proper rebuild but Mavs definitely don't have the assets for that. I don't see a realistic path that brings GA to Dallas.

Spurs make a ton of sense for all parties, something like:
MIL: #2, Castle, salary filler, 2026/2027 MIL 1sts, 2 future 1sts (via SAS);
NOP: 2026/2027 ATL 1sts;
SAS: Giannis.
If you feel Castle and Harper are redundant, you could move one of them for a good haul imho.

Flagg is on another level as a prospect compared to Harper, their values aren’t similar. The Rutgers kids will bust therefor #2 in this draft not worth giving up assets for. Castle is also meh. Spurs poo poo platter sucks, I wish them no success. I’d rather have one elite asset over a collection of mediocre ones.

I get where are you coming from. SAS fans have been particulary greedy on the T&T board, but imho it's a fair starting point, both Castle and Harper are highly regarded around the league and unprotected picks are no jokes, if Horst agrees with you, you could still move both of them for a ton of value.
I think they have the best package to offer.

Imho Mavs are not in the position to make a trade of this magnitude.
I guess Dallas package would be Flagg + PJ + Gaff + Lively + Marshall + 1 or 2 future 1sts.
Then they are left with the following lineup: AD (disgruntled cause he doesnt want to play the 5) / Giannis / Martin / Klay / no starting level PG until January at very best, basically no depth off the bench and no asset left.
Giannis is the best player in the world with Jokic imho but that team isn't going anywhere.

Anyway Giannis doesn't strike me as the guy who asks out, East looks wide open and even if he got moved, it's not a lock at all that he ends up in a better situation that the actual Bucks considering how much it would cost to pry away Giannis from MIL.

[BigO]

I think Dallas is picking Flagg and that Giannis would be an awkward fit

Giannis is not an awkward fit anywhere.

I saw an article stating Giannis is the fifth best trading piece in the league behind Luka, Tatum, et al. It's these kind of analysts who make Horst look like a genius.

Anyone who watched the playoffs who doesn't think Giannis is the best player in the league have no insight. And of course no one remembers Giannis missed two of the last three playoffs or the narrative of his value would be different.

Giannis with the Mavs and Davis (assuming he's healthy) makes them odds on favorite next year, in my view.

[Bobicous]

What about the Spurs trading with Dallas for the 1st pick, then use that plus more for Giannis, same thing for OKC or Houston. All of this is moot unless he ask out, but if he does there will be options. Also depends if OKC wins it all this year.