It wasn't too long ago that it seemed the Boston Celtics were out of the Giannis Antetokounmpo. Now, not only are they back in, but the latest intel suggests they just might be the favorites. Whether they come out the victor remains to be seen (and we probably won't get a resolution until after the NBA Finals are over), but it's clear why they're in it: Milwaukee has more to gain from them than from Miami.
The Heat have also been in the thick of the Greek Freak race. To the point that it felt as though his move to South Beach was a matter of when, not if, but when you look at Miami's offer, it's... not great. You know it's bad when the most proven player in their offer is Tyler Herro, who Portland didn't think twice to turn down for Damian Lillard three years ago.
Now granted, that's not the Heat's fault. The Bucks letting the situation play out this way has left them with few better options than Miami's (further hurting them is that Giannis' player option next year allows him to control his destiny). For that same reason, that's why they want Boston to come to their rescue.
Jaylen Brown by himself is leagues better than anything the Heat have among their expendable assets. The Bucks have no use for him, but can get more value for him. In fact, despite Giannis being the better player, Brown has more trade value at the moment because he's not a flight risk.
Snagging Brown would allow Milwaukee to potentially get better assets than the ones the Heat would offer. One could argue that it doesn't end there.
Celtics can also give the Bucks cap relief
When a team like Milwaukee is about to start over by trading their franchise player, they want assets and cap relief to truly start a new chapter. Boston sending them Jaylen Brown who they can then re-route for more assets helps, but they could also take money off Milwaukee's hands by taking Turner off their hands.
I've talked about this ad nauseam, but the Bucks could take further advantage of this situation by having the Celtics take the center off their hands. Turner is coming off a terrible season with the Bucks, and his contract only get worse. However, if he comes with the Antetokounmpo deluxe package, Boston could talk themselves into him.
Now taking his contract isn't so simple, but it is doable. Boston can't straight-up absorb him into their $27.7 million Ant Simons TPE, but they can orchestrate a hypothetical sign-and-trade sending, say, Nikola Vucevic ($15 million), and Sam Hauser ($11 million) for Turner.
Hauser is cheaper while Vucevic's hypothetical new deal would be shorter, thus bailing the Bucks out of paying Turner. It's not great, but the Celtics can justify it saying "Prime Giannis and Prime Tatum = championships" no matter who comes with him.
The Celtics want Giannis for obvious reasons: he's Giannis. The Bucks also want the Celtics to want Giannis because they could give them the clean slate Milwaukee's needed for over a year now.
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