The Giannis rumors will only continue to heat up with each passing day. The Milwaukee Bucks have put this off long enough, and the Boston Celtics are apparently among the teams willing to get into the inevitable Giannis bidding contest.
The only problem? There's absolutely no way Boston would risk trading either Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown in a trade for Antetokounmpo. As delusional as it may sound, they want Giannis with their two best players, not break up a duo that's proven to be top-notch since Day 1 together.
But how would they get that done? The best player they would offer is Derrick White, but next season, he makes $30.3 million compared to Giannis $58.5 million, so they will have to include more contracts than that.
Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard combined would help make up the difference (and Boston's cap space this summer will help their flexibility), but that's a lot of depth for Giannis. We've seen NBA teams realize it wasn't worth gutting their rotation for one star, and Boston would be at risk of doing the same.
Luckily, the Celtics have an ace in the hole: the Anfernee Simons $27.7 million TPE. Boston can absorb contracts that can be added alongside White to match Antetokounmpo's contracts. The one caveat is that they would have to wait 60 days to make that happen.
For Brad Stevens, that might be a challenge he'd be willing to accept.
If the Celtics utilize the TPE ASAP, it's confirmation that they're going all in on Giannis
If Boston utilizes the Simons TPE immediately, it means not only do they want Giannis, but they strongly believe they can get him without having to trade Brown.
For years, there's always been misunderstandings about trade exceptions, like technically, a team can't trade a player with a TPE. However, something that fans should know that's not from a technical standpoint is that teams don't get typically get good players from TPEs.
For reference, the Celtics got Evan Fournier from Orlando in 2021 in part because the Magic stunk and weren't planning to keep him anyway. Boston then acquired Josh Richardson after he had a disastrous season in Dallas.
If Boston utilizes the TPE, they'd be looking at someone with similar value. One player who would fit that bill is Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who's in line to make $21 million next season should he opt in for a team that doesn't need him in Memphis.
He'd take a good chunk of that TPE. Combined with White and who else the Celtics acquire using the Simons TPE, and they wouldn't have to worry about adding Hauser or Pritchard into the deal. They could use that, plus dangle young players like Hugo Gonzalez, Jordan Walsh, and/or Baylor Scheierman to go with a surplus of first-round picks, and suddenly Boston has a deal.
There's no telling if the Bucks would get a better offer, as Antetokounmpo is now a flight risk. That might not be a problem from Boston because, lest we forget, Giannis recently singled out Joe Mazzulla, and it could make Antetokounmpo harder for the Bucks to trade.
But this all goes back to whether Boston utilizes the TPE immediately. If they don't, it means they're not confident they can get the Greek Freak. If they do, it means we're in for one hell of an offseason.