The Boston Celtics may or may not win the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes, but it goes without saying that their offer would be tough to top. Jaylen Brown is coming off his best season as a pro, which will earn him All-NBA second team honors at minimum. Not many teams can top that, and if there's one that certainly can't, it's the Los Angeles Lakers.
Even so, that understandably won't stop the Lakers from throwing their hat into the ring. ESPN's Shams Charania revealed on The Rich Eisen Show what the Lakers are willing to offer, including three first-round picks and cap space. Charania added that he believes the Bucks can do better than that.
Multiple first-round picks and cap space... seriously?!
Honestly, it's a pretty lousy offer for someone like Antetokounmpo. At the same time, because he's technically a flight risk next season, other teams may be hesitant to offer that much. If it hasn't been laid out, the Bucks brought this situation on themselves and have no one to blame if they are forced to accept 50 cents on the dollar for Antetokounmpo.
But the only viable reason to send Giannis to the Lakers is to get him out of the East, and even then, that's not a good reason. Even if, by chance, this offer is better than the others the Bucks get, it's still a pretty crummy offer. Those picks the Lakers would send them would project to be downright terrible.
But the Lakers have every reason to have confidence to pull this off after they benefited from the absolute worst trade ever made in NBA history last year: the Luka Doncic trade, so why not think the same can happen with Antetokounmpo?
The Celtics can easily top it even without Jaylen Brown
Boston could hypothetically offer Derrick White as the main ingredient to a Giannis trade instead of Brown, and that would still be way better than what the Lakers would offer. White doesn't fit the mold of a traditional star like Brown does, but even after a down season, he still is one of the NBA's most impactful players.
Who on the Lakers' current roster or among their free agents has White's level of impact outside of Doncic, Austin Reaves, and LeBron James? Old friend Marcus Smart proved he's still got some juice left, but you're lying to yourself if you think he and White are on the same level these days.
Milwaukee would likely reroute White, as they would with Brown, if they and the Celtics reached a deal, and it would still fetch them a much better haul than anything the Lakers could offer.
Add us as a preferred source on Google