The Celtics' season just came to a demoralizing end on Saturday, but it already feels like a lifetime has gone by. Press conferences are happening, hot takes are flying, and rumors about roster changes are swirling left and right.
Just a few days ago, Celtics Nation was focused on getting past the Knicks and their path to another championship in June, but now things have rapidly shifted to finding the best available trades and upgrading the roster this summer. And all of a sudden, it feels like the hottest ticket on the market, Giannis Antetokounmpo, may be more than a pipe dream for Boston.
The Greek Freak trade has been brewing for years now, but we’ve finally reached a boiling point, and it feels like this marriage is unfixable. Now, with the Celtics unexpectedly crashing out of the playoffs, they may be on the hunt for a Giannis-sized upgrade.
It’s tough to even grasp this possibility, but the Cs are under the tax with no trade restrictions or financial limitations, they have big contracts that seem a lot more tradeable than a week ago in Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, they’ve got TPEs to play with, and draft picks to throw around.
This has become a real question for Boston, and Brad Stevens only fanned the flames at his end-of-year presser on Wednesday, as he didn’t sugarcoat the situation, making it clear he believes the personnel isn’t good enough, and specifically emphasizing rim pressure on offense, and rim protection on defense; two things Giannis would certainly help with.
Bucks will make Giannis decision prior to NBA draft
While it feels like this gargantuan offseason question deserves countless hours to process and digest, it doesn’t seem like that much time will be available. In an interview on Wednesday, Bucks co-owner Jimmay Haslam stated the team wants to have the Giannis situation resolved before the draft, which starts on June 23rd.
Jimmy Haslam says they are going to make a decision on Giannis' future before the NBA Draft and stresses that communication has been good between them despite what some "ESPN" writers say. pic.twitter.com/yx0QMhPiLh
— Karley Marotta (@Karley_Marotta) May 6, 2026
That’s just over six weeks from now. But that’s how quickly the NBA moves nowadays. The Celtics' season came to a sudden, shocking end, but the Bucks have been dealing with this Giannis dilemma for over a year, and they need to restore direction to their franchise.
That likely means that the Milwaukee braintrust is going to start moving quickly, canvassing the league to find the best deal that they can. They’ll probably want to wait until the draft lottery takes place on Sunday. Then, they’ll know where they pick, and perhaps more importantly, where other teams pick.
Once that happens, there’s no reason the Bucks won’t start lining up offers before choosing the one that works best. If the Celtics don’t want to move at that speed, they don’t have to. But if they want to be a part of the sweepstakes for Antetokounmpo, they need to make that decision very quickly.
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