With the NBA Draft next month and free agency a week after that, NBA trade rumors are starting to fly fast and furious around the league’s back channels. Here are a few worth noting.
Antetokounmpo latest: To meet with Bucks, more
The decision falls to Giannis Antetokounmpo. It always has. As NBC Sports has reported from the start, the Milwaukee Bucks are not going to trade the two-time MVP unless he tells them he wants out because he is worth too much to Milwaukee on and off the court for ownership and GM Jon Horst to consider otherwise.
Antetokounmpo and Bucks brass are set to meet this week to discuss his and the team’s future, reports Chris Haynes.
Antetokounmpo is at a crossroads. On one hand, he values loyalty, loves Milwaukee and its people, and would like to play his entire career for one team. On the other hand, he is as competitive a player as there is in the league, he desperately wants another championship, and that’s not likely with the Bucks. Look at it this way: Despite him having a season that landed him in the top three in MVP voting, Milwaukee finished fifth in the East and was bounced in the first round, and now will have to play most (if not all) of next season without Damian Lillard after his torn Achilles. If winning another ring is what matters most to Antetokounmpo, he will ask for a trade.
Adding fuel to the fire was this: Antetokounmpo honestly answered a fan’s question on X, but his answer only threw fuel on the fire.
Brooklyn’s “Plan A” for a rebuild is trading for Antetokounmpo and they have the draft picks to make an interesting trade package. As for the other New York team, if Giannis went in and told the Bucks he wants to be traded to the Knicks, the sides would talk (although the Knicks have to feel pretty good about their team as it is heading into the Eastern Conference Finals).
Durant not headed to 76ers
Coming out of the rumor mill that is the NBA Draft Combine, there was a lot of speculation that Philadelphia would be willing to trade the No. 3 pick for another win-now move — specifically, going after Kevin Durant, who will not be in Phoenix when next season starts. The idea is that the 76ers would pair Paul George and the No. 3 pick to get Durant and more out of Phoenix.
Don’t bet on it, reports NBA insider Jake Fischer at The Stein Line.
“There have been no indications that they are looking to package George with the No. 3 pick or try to move him on his own. The Sixers surely understand that there is little-to-no chance they could optimize a trade return for the 35-year-old after his injury-riddled maiden season as a Sixer.”
This trade made zero sense for Phoenix anyway, outside of certainly some interest in the No. 3 pick and the chance to have Ace Bailey or V.J. Edgecombe. The core issue in any George deal is that he has a virtually untradeable contract, especially considering his age and injury history. George signed a new four-year deal last summer to move to Philly and has three years, $162.4 million remaining. Why would Phoenix, a team trying to lower its tax bill, trade away the old expensive guy with one year left on his contract for the old expensive guy with three years left on his contract?
Expect the 76ers to run it back with George, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain, and add whoever is the No. 3 pick. In what will be a down East next season (with Jayson Tatum and Damian Lillard’s injuries), Philadelphia can bet on health and know if things break their way, they can be in the mix to win the East. That is far, far more likely than a Durant trade.
Teams monitoring Hornets
The Charlotte Hornets have new ownership and a new front office, but one thing remains the same: They have not made the playoffs for nine years.
Which is why teams are checking in just to see if they are looking to make win-now moves. Here is what Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo wrote at ESPN: “The Hornets took a patient approach at the trade deadline, and opposing teams are curious about their level of urgency this offseason.”
LaMelo Ball is 23, Brandon Miller is 22, Josh Green is 24, and even their “old” veterans, Miles Bridges and Grant Williams, are just 26. That is a young team, but one too old to have won just 19 games last season.
Consider it all just something to watch.
NBA Draft Rumors
• While the expectation is ultimately that the Spurs will use the No. 2 pick to select Dylan Harper and deal with their crowded but talented backcourt later, the team will “entertain” calls about trading the pick, ESPN reports.
• Not so with Dallas at No. 1, they are not trading that pick and the rights to Cooper Flagg, league sources told NBC Sports. Nor should they. Not even for Giannis Antetokounmpo (no way the Mavericks should trade an 18-year-old potential star for a 30-year-old, no matter how good he is). Even if Nico Harrison thought about it for a moment, the backlash from fans in the wake of the Luka Doncic trade should scare him off the idea.
• Speaking of Dallas, they lack point guards on the roster with Kyrie Irving out at least to start the season (torn ACL). Well, they have Brandon Williams and Jaden Hardy, but they need more. If Boston is about to move on from Jrue Holiday and maybe Derrick White, do the Mavericks want to try to jump into that bidding? I’m not sure if they have the picks and players to make it work, but Nico Harrison has to at least make the call.
• Zion Williamson representing the Pelicans at the NBA Draft Lottery should be a sign to the rest of the league that the new head honcho in New Orleans, Joe Dumars, plans to build around Zion, reports Marc Stein.
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