The Bucks are off to a slow start this season and NBA executives are quietly hoping that the 2022 champs will crash and burn, because it may mean that Giannis Antetokounmpo will be up for grabs.
“Teams are circling — and hopeful,” one Western Conference team executive told CBS Sports.
A top executive of a team that could be in the mix for the Greek Freak said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened by the trade deadline.”
An Eastern Conference executive has been listening to the whispers and says Giannis’ preferred destinations would be the Nets and the Heat.
The Thunder is a team that is also possibility, given the amount of draft capital the franchise would be able to provide the Bucks with.
“I haven’t heard them mentioned, but yeah, if you’re Milwaukee you might just go, ‘I don’t give a f— what you want. If you want out, we’re getting the best deal we can.’ And Oklahoma City could definitely offer a good one,” the Eastern Conference executive said.
Another drama that may cause Giannis to exit stage left is how much pull Doc Rivers is gaining at the franchise, so much so that he’s “already won over the owner enough that he’s now the key voice in basketball decisions,” CBS says.
“They tell me it’s up to Doc now, that they’re going to wait 20 games and then see what Doc wants,” said one person familiar with the Bucks’ front-office inner-workings. “It sounds like it’s a mess.”
Antetokounmpo himself has even helped fuel the rumors. A couple of weeks back he alluded to being traded if this year goes belly up.
“If we don’t win this year, would you get fired?” the Bucks star asked a staffer, via The Athletic. “Do you have it in the back of your mind, like, ‘(What) if this year doesn’t go well?’ Yeah, if we don’t win a championship, I might get traded. Yeah, this is the job we live. This is the world we’re living in. It’s everybody.”
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