The Portland Trail Blazers have and continue to pursue a trade for Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo. Although the chances of an Antetokounmpo blockbuster trade are higher than ever, Portland's odds of acquiring Milwaukee's superstar have actually declined.
At February's trade deadline, the Blazers were prepared to offer a lucrative package including up to four first-round picks, NBA insider Jake Fischer recently reported on The Stein Line. But as Fischer notes, Portland is no longer willing to go to those extremes this summer.
"I'm told that Portland, back at the February trade deadline, was prepared to sacrifice up to four years of first-round draft capital in an Antetokounmpo trade … even without knowing for sure that Antetokounmpo would commit to an extension. It is strongly believed that the Blazers are no longer willing to go to such lengths — since it has been conveyed to them that getting such an extension signed is considered unlikely — and that perceived retreat has only fueled the notion that Miami and Boston have little current company at the forefront of these sweepstakes."
The Bucks' indecision about whether to trade their franchise icon at the deadline cost them the best trade package they were ever going to get.
Bucks should've accepted Blazers' offer for Giannis at the deadline
They desperately want to recoup their draft capital lost to Portland in the Damian Lillard deal. While that can still happen this offseason, it's far more difficult to find a viable path, as a direct Giannis-to-Portland trade no longer seems realistic.
The Miami Heat and Boston Celtics are in the lead to win the Giannis sweepstakes, but the former has nothing worthwhile for Portland to sacrifice those valuable picks for, while it remains to be seen if the latter is even willing to part ways with Jaylen Brown.
The Heat have made Bam Adebayo off-limits in these trade talks and can trade up to four first-round picks. That would likely include the No. 13 overall selection in this year's draft to go along with players such as Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., and Kel'el Ware. That's not exactly a package that's too good to refuse when looking to jumpstart a rebuild after trading away a top-five player in the world.
The amount of potential first-round picks may have been the same, but there's far more value in what Portland had to offer. Milwaukee could reclaim control over its own draft future, giving it more incentive to embrace a rebuild. Not to mention, the Blazers could've included a more established building block of their own, whether that was Shaedon Sharpe, Scoot Henderson, or Toumani Camara.
The Bucks are hoping to decide on Giannis' future before next week's NBA Draft, but there's a reason they continue to weigh their options for this long. The Heat package doesn't include any franchise-altering assets, while the Celtics route relies on multiple things to break their way.
At this point, Milwaukee's best bet is to hope Portland facilitates a Giannis trade to Boston. In that scenario, the Blazers could send the Bucks their picks back in exchange for Brown. But not only are the Bucks faced with uncertainty surrounding teams' willingness to agree to that multi-team blockbuster, they also still wouldn't be getting the same amount of assets had they simply shipped Giannis to Portland in February.
The Bucks continue digging themselves a deeper hole throughout this seemingly never-ending Giannis trade saga. Had they just taken the best available package from Portland in February, they'd be in a much better position to escape this mess.
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