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Beyond the rather obvious answer of, “Probably not, man,” to this article’s title, we should at least explore the topic, right?
It feels like Giannis Antetokounmpo, the 31-year-old multiple-time MVP who’s already solidified himself as one of the greats the sport has seen, may have played his last game with the Milwaukee Bucks. Trade talks are stirring and the basketball community is throwing out its best ideas to get Antetokounmpo to a better environment in the hopes of seeing him win another championship.
Do the Sixers have a package that could entice Milwaukee to part with their best player since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar?
Unfortunately, I can’t see it.
The Sixers, naturally, aren’t going to trade 25-year-old Tyrese Maxey, who’s on the cusp of a First-Team All-NBA nod, for Antetokounmpo. The overarching goal for this franchise needs to be surrounding Maxey with as much ascending or in-prime talent as possible to maximize their elite scoring guard’s future. That’s off the table.
To make salaries work, the Sixers would then otherwise need to ship out Paul George or Joel Embiid. If this was a handful of years ago, perhaps that could be in the cards. Given each player’s age, health and related decline, however, their contracts have to ultimately be viewed as negatives in the NBA landscape right now. No one’s trading away a guy who’s received First-Team All-NBA honors the last seven straight years for a post-prime George or Embiid when his health is dicier than ever.
Teams like Atlanta and New York and Golden State, or sheesh, even Oklahoma City, could blow away a potential offer from the Sixers.
It all goes to showcase that windows in the NBA are so finite. When the Sixers had been in a position to swing trades for big-name stars during this era, none were ever at Antetokounmpo’s level even if they previously possessed the assets to nab a player of his caliber. Jimmy Butler was a great player, but not enough to truly swing the Sixers’ title hopes. Tobias Harris was a pseudo-star. James Harden was on the downside of his historic peak when he came to Philadelphia. Now the Sixers have a budding superstar, but his two “co-stars” are never going to supply him with the on-court value he ultimately needs.
It’s a shame, but that’s the fickle nature of star-hunting and championship contention in modern basketball.