It feels like a lifetime ago when the Celtics, for a brief moment in time, felt like the favorites to land Giannis Antetokounmpo. Obviously, that trade never happened; Giannis went to Miami, Jaylen Brown went to Philly, and the rest is history.
But in the wake of Giannis’ trade to the Heat, there were a lot of rumors, reports, and speculation that came out about the Celtics’ involvement, or lack thereof, and why, ultimately, a trade between Boston and Milwaukee didn’t get done, despite it seeming like they had the best offer for the two-time MVP.
One interesting and notable tidbit that came out and caused a bit of a stir was a report from Bill Simmons, suggesting that the Celtics weren’t willing to give Giannis a full 35% of the cap, a supermax extension, which he would obviously be seeking.
Celtics' Giannis pursuit didn't break down due to contract extension
There was some pushback after the fact, but on Thursday, Shams Charania of ESPN came out and shot that one down more definitely than anything we’ve heard to date. On the Pat McAfee Show, Shams was asked about the extension rumor and basically scoffed, shaking his head and making it clear that there was no validity to that report.
“The breakdown with the Giannis, Boston conversations was very simple. The Celtics did not want to give up Hugo Gonzalez and/or Baylor Scheierman and another draft asset when the Bucks asked for that.”
And this makes much more sense. Brad Stevens and the Celtics aren’t dumb. They knew what a Giannis pursuit would mean, and if they engaged (which they did), they knew that they’d soon have to foot the bill for one of the best players of this generation. And they were willing to do that.
Celtics really did want optionality above all else
What they weren’t willing to do was gut the team. The Bucks wanted the Celtics’ two most recent first round picks in Gonzalez and Scheierman, plus at least two more first round picks, on top of Jaylen Brown, who just finished the season 6th in MVP voting. That’s an absurd package of players and assets to give up in this current NBA economy, even for a player as great as Giannis.
Now that the dust has settled, it’s pretty clear that the Celtics were apprehensive about having two players take up 70% of the cap, whether those two players were Brown and Tatum or Giannis and Tatum. They played around with the idea, and for the right price, they would have been willing to go all in on the two superstars.
But once the Bucks made these demands, they weren’t interested and chose to go down the path of optionality. They like their team and want to keep most of the roster together. They chose the best way to do that, by trading Brown for George and draft picks. Whether they chose the right path or not remains to be seen, but this was never about an unwillingness to meet Giannis’ contract demands.
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