165bows wrote:cl2117 wrote:I struggle to imagine the C's don't get outbid for Giannis. Bucks are only trading him if he asks out and at that stage there isn't much reason for the Bucks to not go straight to full tear-down. That's not the type of package that the C's would be offering if it's headlined by Brown et al., which is more of a "stay competitive" type offer.
The logical trade to me would be a Tatum/Giannis swap but the Bucks don't control their own pick in 2026 thanks to a swap owned by the Pelicans, which makes it less palatable for them. If they did they could take a year off and come back with a healthy Tatum/Dame and top 5 pick. C's on the other hand keep their foot on the gas and give Giannis the best roster he's ever had in his entire career. Swap a couple years of longevity for health.
There's just no circumstance I can work out where the Pelicans give up that pick without expecting a massive pay-off since the trade is predicated on the idea that Giannis has asked out so Bucks are highly likely lotto team and most likely a basement dweller. Bucks are short on assets which would have C's footing the majority of that bill and then it becomes Tatum++ for Giannis and I lose interest. Maybe if the Bucks were willing to fork over all their future draft capital for a roll of the dice on the 2026 tank, which honestly isn't that crazy of an idea if you're also getting Tatum, but again feels unlikely.
Maybe there's a world in which Bucks decide to take a Tatum/Giannis swap anyway because it's just one down year and then they have a franchise cornerstone coming back, something rebuilding packages can only hope to one day become, and I'd take that swap if they were up for it. It'd pain me but I'd take it.
Jrue/Pritchard/ Davison
White/ Walker/ #32
Brown/ Hauser / Scheierman
Giannis/ Walsh / #28
KP/ Horford/ Queta/ Luke?
That's the best team Giannis has ever had. The defense and the shooting around him would be phenomenal. His ability to take it to the basket in crunch time would get us out of our iso funk. Either he's getting doubled and shooters are open or you've got Giannis with a defender on an island.
The more I think about it the more I think the Bucks could talk themselves into it if they had no other choice and Giannis wants out. The Tatum injury is tough to gauge but if he does come back 100% it's the best value you're going to get straight up for Giannis. You can go with some picks and high upside guys but there is no guarantee they become Tatum who is just on the outside looking in at the MVP race perennially. I know the Luka trade is an aberration but it does remind you that crazier things have happened.
Bucks are totally screwed there is no way you even contemplate Tatum for Giannis. They don’t control their own picks for three years in a row and more after that so they absolutely can’t trade Giannis for young guys as the odds of having one pan out SGA style is extremely low.
We complain about KP but he’s won more playoff games in Boston than Giannis has in Milwaukee in that time. Guy is always broken down at the end of the season.
Imo OKC is one of the obvious other trade partners but if I’m Okc why do I make that trade? They are already running rough shod over the league and look poised to do it again next year before running into the same $ issues the year after that. So they don’t need him but want to get older and more expensive more quickly? Houston is there but again they don’t have good players to send for the immediate future and they’d have to send Thompson imo which their fans don’t even want.
So this is not me saying ‘ooh they have to send him to Boston’ I didn’t even want to talk about the guy and said so even though I’ve been pretty sure he’d be on the move since I thought the much stronger play was holding out for the chance Jokic becomes available the same way.
But a lot of these details and more are why we are seeing reports with Boston’s name on it because they solve a ton of problems for both parties. No way we bail them out and send Tatum for an older expensive guy who has won two playoff games in three years.
I didn’t even want to talk about the guy but he’s either hoping to leverage Boston to get somewhere else like NYC or he’s hoping to get bailed out and follow Jrue in which case you start to think about it but I don’t make offer A at all and prob not even offer B either.
I think a big part of Giannis breaking down is the fact that he's propping so much up. If he had a better supporting cast he'd be more durable, play less minutes, not have to carry the entire team on his back.
He only won 1 playoff game this year but he averaged 33/15/7 in the series on good efficiency. He wasn't why they lost that series. The guy lives up to the nickname, he's a freak. Now replace Dame/Kuzma/Portis/Trent with Jrue/White/KP/Brown and a bench featuring the 6th man of the year and see if that series turns out differently.
I think there will be some surprising teams coming out of the woodworks if Giannis does get put on the block. And I don't think the Bucks not owning their future would preclude them from going straight into a rebuild. If they can get a package with a high pick this year and some picks with upside in the future, they can tear this thing down knowing they've got things still in the pipeline even if they don't control their own.
They can absolutely choose to stay competitive and take a Brown et al. package but without additional assets that team isn't making waves in the playoffs in my opinion (even with a healthy Dame next year). I think in that circumstance they take a Houston or OKC package with younger/cheaper/worse options with upside in addition to some picks and go the middle route committing neither to full rebuild or tear-down. Probably a scrappy play-in team for the next 2-3 years unless they hit on a pick or one of the guys they get back makes a huge leap. At that stage they're back into having control of their own future and can re-assess.
If they were on board though I swap Tatum for Giannis without question. Tatum's injury is scary. I have the highest of hopes and it seems like things are shaping up to put him in as good a position as possible to come back at 100%, but we just don't know. Giannis is an absolute beast and freak and will be able to play with the championship core we've already got for next year. I'm taking the bird in the hand. He's older but again he's a freak, he could easily play like LeBron far beyond what an average NBA player can. I also think he's a great fit for the current team as well. If ownership foots the bill I could see us in the Finals the next 2-3 years straight. I'll take that and worry about the rest later.
