New rumors regarding the Boston Celtics’ potential pursuit of Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antokounmpo keep trickling out by the hour, it seems.
The Athletic’s Sam Amick gave us all the latest update on Thursday’s episode of The Athletic NBA Daily podcast. Amidst speculation that Boston and Milwaukee would have to find a third team to facilitate a trade and take Jaylen Brown, Amick shared that it’s possible that the Bucks would like to keep the 2024 NBA Finals MVP.
“There’s definitely a thought that if it was the Celtics, that Jaylen would stay and that he would be [Milwaukee’s] centerpiece,” Amick explained. “There’s also a thought on the Celtics side that they obviously think incredibly highly of Jaylen Brown. So, I think part of the issue right now in that particular negotiation is that they’re not particularly interested in putting anything else in the deal besides Jaylen Brown. [They think] he’s just that good of a player.”
Amick prefaced this intel by pointing to the league’s reformed lottery system, which will go into place next season, as potential motivation for the Bucks to avoid bottoming out. Said system will punish the worst three teams by giving them decreased odds at landing the No. 1 pick as a response to the “tanking epidemic.”
He also noted that he hasn’t heard anything directly from either Boston or Milwaukee on this situation, both of which have been tight-lipped throughout.
Milwaukee wanting to retain JB in a trade is a new one, right?
Throughout this entire process we've all heard third team this, and third team that -- a framework that makes sense. The Bucks don't currently own any of their draft picks in the coming seasons. The notion that they'd look to reroute Brown to the Portland Trail Blazers in an effort to reacquire said picks felt logical.
There is no reason for the Celtics to overextend themselves in Giannis negotiations
If the Miami Heat truly are the only other team that Giannis would extend with outside of Boston, then the Cs are taking the right approach in the case that Amick’s intel is accurate. Miami’s offer of Tyler Herro, the 13th overall pick, and other rotation pieces is not a better trade package than Brown alone.
The Celtics shouldn’t feel any pressure to include draft capital or mortgage any key future building blocks here.
Now, based on what ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported on Thursday’s edition of Get Up, it doesn’t sound like Boston is overly desperate to overextend themselves.
“So far, from what I’m told, the Bucks have yet to receive an offer that they’re willing to accept for Giannis Antetokounmpo," Windhorst said. “Which is somewhat mirroring what happened at the trade deadline last February, where they had the market open, didn’t agree to a deal, and wound up keeping Giannis.”
Milwaukee technically doesn’t have to accept any offer that they don’t love. They could, once again, elect to keep Giannis and just have him play out the final season of his contract. The reality there is that they risk letting him walk next summer for absolutely nothing.
Even if the Bucks feel like Miami’s package, or even Brown coming over from Boston, isn’t a fair return, both situations would be better than getting absolutely nothing back for the two-time MVP.
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