The Milwaukee Bucks appear committed to keeping Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, but what if the Phoenix Suns come along and offer a ridiculous trade package?
If the Bucks front office is wise, it realizes that Milwaukee is not a true contender as currently constructed. It’s sad but true: the Giannis-Dame duo isn’t good enough to compete with the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference.
If the Bucks front office is wise, it realizes that Milwaukee is not a true contender as currently constructed. It’s sad but true: the Giannis-Dame duo isn’t good enough to compete with the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference.
Milwaukee needs to get younger. They need to move on from the Giannis and Dame era and turn over a new leaf.
Enter the Phoenix Suns, who are off to a hot 9-3 start under new head coach Mike Budenholzer but still face a roster imbalance.
Phoenix would be silly to trade Kevin Durant, but they might want to do something about the redundancy of having both Devin Booker and Bradley Beal in the same core.
If the Suns could easily move Beal, they would, but his contract makes him pretty untradeable at this point, not that he’s a bad player by any means. When healthy, Beal can still operate as a viable second or third option on a contender, which is all Phoenix needs him to be.
What if Phoenix started thinking way outside the box and contrived to package Booker and its three unprotected first-round picks (2026, 2030, 2031) for another superstar who is a better fit alongside Durant and Beal?
How about … Giannis Antetokounmpo?
Giannis won a title in 2021 with Budenholzer. A Giannis-KD pairing with Beal as a third option would be scarier than the current trio in Phoenix, with all due respect to Devin Booker, a four-time All-Star and one of the best scorers in the world.
You might say, why would Milwaukee do this?
Fair enough, but if the Bucks are honest with themselves about the state of their franchise, they’ll realize that a rebuild is going to be necessary soon, with or without Giannis.
With that in mind, Milwaukee would understand that receiving a package of a superstar in his prime (Booker is 28) along with three first-round picks is about as good a start to the post-Giannis era as anyone could imagine.
Phoenix would hate to lose Booker, but acquiring Giannis would be the smartest way to maximize the rest of Durant’s career in terms of title contention over the next two years.
Milwaukee isn’t going anywhere with Giannis and Dame. Trading for Booker and using their new draft capital to rebuild the franchise around Book would be an exciting pivot for a franchise headed in the wrong direction at present.