The Portland Trail Blazers have unique leverage in the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes: control over Milwaukee's draft in 2028-30 as a result of the Damian Lillard trade. They've been labeled as potential buyers, with many anticipating an additional move to upgrade the roster beyond bringing in sharpshooter Vít Krejčí from Atlanta. But unfortunately, landing Giannis himself remains in pipe dream territory for Portland.
They've expressed interest in acquiring Giannis, but are still more likely to help facilitate a multi-team deal in which he lands elsewhere.
It's not that the Blazers can't put together a competitive offer. Although they don't have the "blue-chip young talent" Milwaukee is looking for, Portland can more than make up for that with those Bucks picks. Those picks have more value than any other draft capital teams can offer, as they give Milwaukee the green light to initiate a full-on rebuild.
However, the issue for Portland is that the Bucks superstar doesn't want to come here.
Blazers can't convince Giannis to come to Portland
Marc Stein recently reported on The Stein Line that the Blazers are hesitant to sacrifice their future (subscription required) unless they are confident Giannis will agree to a contract extension down the road. That doesn't appear to be happening.
"...Portland has conveyed to Milwaukee that it would love to trade for Antetokounmpo directly if it could. Sources say, however, that Antetokounmpo's camp has continued to signal no interest in a contract extension with the Blazers, which would dissuade them from surrendering good assets to trade for him and likely limits Portland's realistic involvement in an eventual Antetokounmpo deal to third-team facilitator status," Stein writes.
The Blazers had everything in place to shock the NBA world with a Giannis blockbuster: draft capital no team could match, a good mix of youth and veterans to help the Bucks rebuild while remaining in contention, and even connections to former teammates in Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday. Everything was aligning as they finally looked to buy and accelerate their rebuild right when a top-five player suddenly became more available than ever.
But the one thing they can't change is Giannis' stance on Portland.
While he likely still wants to team up with Lillard and Holiday, he wants that to be somewhere other than the Pacific Northwest. Portland remains an underappreciated city, and that is hurting its chances of landing another superstar.
There's still a non-zero chance that they acquire Giannis, especially since general manager Joe Cronin has a history of making bold bets. But the stakes are higher with this one. Giannis could opt out of his player option after next season, leaving the Blazers wondering why they ever sacrificed all the progress they've made over the last four rebuilding years.