Potential Giannis trade could give Celtics next KG, at an Isaiah Thomas-level cost

You’d have to be living under a rock to have avoided the sheer amount of smoke there’s been surrounding the Boston Celtics and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Just to bring you up to speed, it seems like after years of rumors the Milwaukee Bucks are finally willing to move on from their generational superstar.

Since Giannis only has one year left on his deal, he’s got a ton of leverage in deciding where he ends up. According to numerous reports, his top two destinations are the Miami Heat and Boston.

The idea of landing a two-time MVP who still has plenty left to give is exciting to say the very least. Unfortunately, the money math would tell you that landing Antetokounmpo comes with a cost; Jaylen Brown, who’s been a staple of the Celtics core for the past decade.

Brown won Finals MVP in 2024 and earned a spot on Second Team All-NBA this past season after putting together the best year of his career. He averaged career-highs in points per game (28.7) and assists per game (5.1), while tying his career-best in rebounds per game(6.9). Not to mention that his production helped the Celtics rise far above their preseason expectations and finish second in the Eastern Conference.

There’s no disputing that he’s a beloved figure in Boston and that the majority of the fanbase’s hearts would ache seeing him traded away.

This is a unique situation that the Celtics find themselves in -- a situation that combines two of the most notable trades in the franchise’s recent history. The absolute magnitude of star power they’d be getting if they actually land Antetokounmpo can only be compared to that of Kevin Garnett in the summer of 2007.

Giannis Antetokounmpo could make a Kevin Garnett-level impact with the Celtics

Garnett’s Minnesota Timberwolves teams had taken a serious step back since making the Western Conference Finals in 2004. The Big Ticket was sick of losing games and wasting some of his prime seasons on bad teams. At 31 years old, it wasn’t clear how many seasons of peak performance he had left to spare waiting for the Wolves to figure things out.

Giannis and the Bucks have been on a similar trajectory since the team’s 2021 NBA Championship. Milwaukee hasn’t returned to the Conference Finals, and hasn’t won a playoff series since 2022. They missed the playoffs altogether this year, with Antetokounmpo’s sporadic availability magnifying the roster’s shortcomings. Even so, he’d finished top five in MVP voting in every season since 2018-19 before this past campaign. Giannis is a special player, just like KG was nearly 20 years ago.

He could help the Celtics reach historic heights, just like KG did in 2008.

The difference between then and now is that the Celtics aren’t in the gutter. They’ve been mostly great for the past decade, making six Conference Finals, two NBA Finals, and of course winning the 2024 title. 

Their disappointing early playoff exit prompts discussions to whether or not they may need a shakeup to re-raise their ceiling to the heights needed to chase another championship -- a feeling similar to the one in the summer of 2017.

Jaylen Brown's exit could sting like Isaiah Thomas's did, even if it's the right decision

Boston had just reached the Conference Finals for the first time in seven seasons. Isaiah Thomas, the franchise’s first top five MVP finisher since Garnett in 2008, willed them to a first-place finish and captivated the fanbase on a nightly basis. He was awesome, everyone loved him, and they still do to this day -- which made it all the more painful when he was unexpectedly traded for Kyrie Irving that August.

Irving, at the time, wasn’t quite the player Garnett was or Giannis is, but he had superstar potential playing next to LeBron James in Cleveland. If he got out of James’ shadow and had his own team, there was a feeling that he could be special.

That’s not ultimately how it went, but even with how poorly Irving’s relationship with the city of Boston turned out, this is a trade that you’d do 10 times out of 10 in hindsight. It was objectively a smart, albeit cutthroat, basketball move by Danny Ainge.

Brown’s exit would sting in a similar fashion to Thomas’s. The five-time All-Star said as recently as last month that he hopes to be in Boston for the rest of his career.

Parting ways with a player of JB’s level, one whose jersey will likely hang in the TD Garden rafters someday, won’t be easy for Brad Stevens and the Celtics’ brass -- it may be necessary to give the team the firepower needed to compete for another title.

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