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After repeatedly telling teams that Antetokounmpo is not available and that it is not interested in fielding trade offers for him, now Milwaukee is messaging that it wants to be buyers at this deadline to try to get Giannis more help. Even with no clear return-from-injury timetable yet in place for Antetokounmpo, Jon Horst’s front office continues to hold onto hope that assembling a puncher’s chance contender remains viable in the wide-open Eastern Conference.
One rival general manager I spoke to went so far as to say that the Bucks have convinced him that “they’re going big-game hunting”…
…another player who has been on Milwaukee’s radar under the same premise, both this season and in previous years, is Trail Blazers swingman Jerami Grant.
Grant has two seasons remaining on his deal after this one worth just over $70 million … and Portland already controls Milwaukee’s first-round pick in 2028, 2029 and 2030 as a vestige of the Damian Lillard trade. It’s a combination, incidentally, that has prompted several rival team strategists to point to Portland as a potential participant in an eventual multiteam Giannis trade structure if/when that actually materializes.
In the nearer term, though, it remains to be seen if the Bucks could even get traction on a Grant pursuit if they wanted to, since the 31-year-old has emerged as a favorite of Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin.