The Portland Trail Blazers shipped Damian Lillard to Milwaukee in 2023, with GM Joe Cronin prioritizing the Bucks trade package over Dame's preferred landing spot, the Miami Heat. That decision looks better than ever, as Cronin's bet against Milwaukee is paying off in ways nobody could've expected.
The headliner in Portland's return was a 2029 first-round pick, along with swaps in 2028 and 2030. Those have drastically increased in value on Monday, with the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade saga finally coming to an end.
Miami may not have won the Lillard sweepstakes, but they did manage to come away with the Greek Freak years later. Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis are headed to South Beach in exchange for Tyler Herro, Kel'el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, three first-round picks, one pick swap, and one second-round pick.
Blazers are set to benefit from Bucks' post-Giannis rebuild
While that's a lot of assets, it lacks a true headliner to emerge as Milwaukee's new face of the franchise. Sure, Herro has an All-Star appearance on his resume, but he's also going to force a team to overpay for his services with a $33 million contract that expires after this season. It could even be in Milwaukee's best interest to flip Herro to a team like the Detroit Pistons, coming away with more draft capital in hopes of landing a more impactful two-way star to raise its ceiling.
The Bucks were right to trade Giannis rather than dig themselves into an even deeper hole with desperate, myopic moves to keep their superstar around. It's still going to be a long rebuilding process for a team that has little to no building blocks and still has to pay for Lillard's contract after waiving and stretching him to sign Myles Turner.
The Blazers weren't expected to win the Giannis sweepstakes because they were hesitant to make an all-in move on what could potentially be a one-year rental should he decline his player option. But given their unique leverage, many pointed to Portland as a potential facilitator. While that made sense if Giannis landed in Boston and the Blazers were able to steal All-NBA Second Team forward Jaylen Brown, they were right to stay out of this scenario.
Simply put, aside from the untouchable Bam Adebayo, the Heat don't have anyone good enough to make Portland return those picks.
The NBA's drastic lottery changes in response to tanking likely hurt Portland's chances of these becoming top picks. Still, they should be absolutely thrilled that Giannis is finally out of the picture, as this is going to be a bad Bucks team for quite some time.
A patient rebuild, and a full-on roster teardown are likely the right approach, but it's much more challenging to accomplish without control over their own draft future. Fortunately, the Blazers are set to benefit from that predicament in a major way.
We may look back at this Giannis blockbuster as a key move in defining Portland's entire rebuild.
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