Milwaukee Bucks Giannis Trade Options: Deadline Paths Explained
- When Giannis Antetokounmpo returned to the visitor's locker room at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Jan.
- "Oh yeah," said Kevin Porter Jr., stopping in the middle of his postgame interview.
- Kyle Kuzma shook his head at antetokounmpo's antics from across the room.
When Giannis Antetokounmpo returned to the visitor’s locker room at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Jan. 9, he beamed at what he saw waiting for him: a signed purple No. 23 LeBron James jersey.
“Oh s—,” Antetokounmpo said,holding it in the air.
He put the jersey on and flexed.
“Oh yeah,” said Kevin Porter Jr., stopping in the middle of his postgame interview. “That’s a nice one.”
Kyle Kuzma shook his head at antetokounmpo’s antics from across the room.
“This is greatness,” Antetokounmpo said.
He turned to his longtime teammate Bobby Portis. “The best part,” he told him, “Look in my brother’s locker.” Inside Thanasis Antetokounmpo’s locker was a signed purple No.9 jersey from Bronny James, matching the one Giannis got from the younger James last year.
It was a light moment for a Bucks team trying to salvage what has frequently enough been a morose season.
“We cannot be pleasant. We can’t be complacent right now,” Antetokounmpo said after the game. “We got to keep on pushing, pushing [the] envelope, put our foot on the pedal and keep on moving forward. We haven’t done anything, right? So, this is the time before the break, in January, that you got to stock up wins.”
Less than a week later, back home in Milwaukee, the locker room was noticeably more somber.
The Bucks had followed up a motivational win at Los Angeles with losses in back-to-back games, including an embarrassing 33-point defeat to a
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Milwaukee crafted a team that was designed to maximize the strengths of their 31-year-old superstar, spreading the floor with 3-point shooting (the Bucks are second in the NBA in 3-point percentage) with a rim-protecting, stretch center to take advantage of Antetokounmpo’s dominance inside the paint.
With Antetokounmpo in the lineup, the Bucks are 14-13, a .518 winning percentage that would bump them up to eighth in the East.
So, it was no surprise to Rivers that they won four of their first five games following his return.
“Well yeah, Giannis is back,” Rivers said. “We’re starting to run our stuff better. guys are understanding their roles better.”
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The Milwaukee Bucks are exploring trade options to bolster their roster around Giannis Antetokounmpo, with a focus on acquiring players who can contribute when he’s off the court, team sources told ESPN.Potential targets include Miami‘s Andrew Wiggins, who owns a $30 million player option for next season, or Charlotte‘s Miles Bridges, who will make $22.8 million in the 2026-27 season, team and league sources told ESPN.
ESPN also reported last month some of the players the Bucks have discussed who could fit this direction, including Sacramento‘s Zach LaVine and Malik monk and also Portland‘s Jerami Grant.