The Milwaukee Bucks announced the signing of Alex Antetokounmpo to a two-way roster spot, making the Bucks the first team in NBA history with three brothers on active-roster contracts. The Bucks will now be dedicating 17% of all available roster spots to the brothers and heading into a season with Kevin Porter Jr. as the starting point guard.
While the addition of the third Antetokounmpo brother doesn’t directly impact the Blazers, it does show the NBA that the Bucks are deeply committed to keeping Giannis in Milwaukee, which has heavy draft implications for Portland in the near future.
Blazers benefit from Bucks' desperation to keep Giannis
Part of the blockbuster Damian Lillard trade was a set of two pick swaps occurring in 2028 and 2030; in those years, the Blazers can elect to swap their own first-round picks with Milwaukee. The Blazers also have an unprotected first-round pick from Milwaukee in 2029.
In the NBA, a full, successful rebuild can take between three and five years. The median falls squarely within that range, and outliers generally hinge on some degree of luck, be it good or bad. If the Bucks traded Giannis this season, it would signal the start of a full-scale rebuild. In an ideal scenario for Milwaukee, a rebuild that kicks off in 2026 would receive some immediate draft compensation for Giannis, as all of the Bucks’ picks are inexorably tied to swaps until 2031.
Signing more Antetokounmpos to the roster pushes the reconstruction into a more favorable window for Portland. At the conclusion of the upcoming season, the 2028 NBA Draft will occur in just two years, making a full Bucks rebuild in that frame a bit far-fetched. When that draft rolls around, Giannis will be six weeks shy of 34 years old.
At the start of the 2028 NBA season, the average age of Henderson, Sharpe, Avdija, Camara, and Clingan will be just 25.6 years. Ideally, Sharpe and Camara will be serving out contract extensions while Henderson and Avdija will have just finished their contract years. Jrue Holiday and Jerami Grant’s contracts will be off the books. And while it’s too early to guess who might be on the board for Portland in 2028, one Wembanyama-like candidate will be there in 2030.
Mohamed Dabone is the next NBA “it” guy, and will be turning 14 on October 21. He’s already 6’11” and playing for the FC Barcelona professional club. If the NBA hasn’t retooled the lottery system by then, there will be some extremely ugly basketball in 2030 as teams clamor to get him. In a perfect world, the Blazers won’t need to lift a finger to get him.