This post was originally published on this site.
The 2026 NBA trade deadline is one day away, and while there’s been a flurry of deals, everyone is still waiting to see if the Milwaukee Bucks trade Giannis Antetokounmpo. There’s been a constant wave of intel surrounding his trade status (follow live updates here). Antetokounmpo personally appears torn. He says he loves Milwaukee and wants to finish his career with the Bucks, but he also wants to compete for more championships.
The Bucks are surveying the trade market, and the Heat, Knicks, Timberwolves, Warriors and Cavaliers are among the interested teams.Will Giannis actually be traded before Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET deadline? Or will the Bucks keep their franchise star and sort this out in the summer?
For now we’re reading the tea leaves and making educated guesses about what will actually happen. So let’s take the pulse of our CBS Sports NBA staff and ask our experts the biggest question of the trade deadline.
Will the Bucks trade Giannis Antetokounmpo this week?
Brad Botkin: No. It’s not what the chaos agent in us all wants, but I think Giannis stays in Milwaukee for the remainder of the season and … lord help us … beyond that. The Bucks could very well end up with a high lottery pick that they could use in a trade package to bring in another star to pair with Giannis, who, in turn, may actually still be looking for reasons to stay if we take him at his word. I’m not saying I agree with this. Personally, I think you have to know when to cut the cord. That time was before they signed up to pay Damian Lillard $113 million to play for someone else so they could sign up to pay Myles Turner $100 million to play for them. But hell, if you keep doubling your blackjack bet for long enough, eventually you’re going to win a hand and get back to even.
And that’s just a plausible scenario for Giannis staying long term. Even if he is still destined to leave, the summer is probably a better time for the Bucks. If someone overwhelms them this week, sure. But more likely, there will be better offers in the summer when all teams that own a 2032 first-round pick will also have a 2033 pick to offer in trades. Plus, the mere threat of that scenario I just painted above paying out can serve as the leverage Milwaukee needs to squeeze the best deal possible from a bunch of suitors that right now might think they can get a little bit over on a front office caught between a rock and a hard place. If we learned nothing else from the Luka Dončić trade, don’t limit your market. Bring every feasible team to the table for the biggest bidding war you can possibly drum up. That will be easier to do in the summer, after the postseason, when teams that are out of the Giannis sweepstakes right now (the Spurs, the Rockets, the Pistons) might suddenly jump in after a first-round flame out.
John Gonzalez: No. With an lol. This thing keeps changing and if Bucks fans have whiplash from the nonstop back and forth who can blame them? Giannis gave an emotional interview to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on Tuesday where the main question was what he wanted deep down in his heart. He replied that he wanted to finish his career with the Bucks. He also mentioned his father being buried in Milwaukee and his kids being born there. Pass the tissues. On a more pragmatic front, the Bucks can likely get more if they just wait until the summer and evaluate a full field of offers. So he’s staying put. But ask me again in an hour and he’s probably on the move.
James Herbert: Yes. This prediction is less about Milwaukee’s appetite to trade Giannis now than about his suitors’ aggressiveness — and, for the ones without tradable draft picks, creativity — in going after him. Between now and 3 p.m. ET on Thursday, there just has to be one team that comes to the table with the kind of offer the Bucks would accept. Sure, there are sensible reasons to wait, but it’d be nice to end this mess, wouldn’t it?
Robby Kalland: No. I must say I am terrified we’re all about to end up on a graphic looking foolish like when almost everyone on a pregame show picks the wrong team to win. That said, the best offers the Bucks are going to get for Giannis will come in the summer, which has always been the case. Since he refuses to make an outright trade demand, Milwaukee’s smartest path is to field offers now, set an incredibly high bar for their asking price and then see what happens in the lottery. Perhaps the Bucks get lucky and capture a top-five pick and are able to retool with Antetokounmpo still in town. Perhaps some potential suitors flame out of the playoffs spectacularly and are given a greater reason to push all their chips in for Antetokounmpo. Right now, the Bucks would be selecting offers from a limited field, which just doesn’t make basketball or business sense.
Jack Maloney: No. There is plenty of uncertainty surrounding Antetokounmpo’s future, but there are three things we know to be true:
- The Bucks don’t want to trade their franchise player
- Antetokounmpo loves Milwaukee and will not request a trade
- Potential suitors will have more flexibility in the summer.
The Bucks have no incentive to trade Antetokounmpo by Thursday afternoon, especially when it’s possible that, with a little lottery luck, they receive a top-five pick in tbe 2026 NBA Draft, which would completely transform their future.
It’s unlikely Antetokounmpo will be in Milwaukee when next season tips off, but I expect he will still be here on Friday.
Sam Quinn: No. If there were a viable offer on the table, I might feel differently, but right now, we have a hodgepodge of teams Giannis doesn’t want, teams that don’t have enough and teams that would have to rope in half of the league to build something acceptable. Maybe the Bucks get lucky on lottery night and convince Giannis to stay. More likely, they field better offers from a wider variety of teams and reassess the market from there.
Jasmyn Wimbish: No. Giannis is giving classic millennial in that he cares way too much about how he’s perceived or if he’s saying the wrong thing, even though it’s clear he’d rather be in a situation where he can compete for championships. The Bucks don’t really want to trade him, and Giannis has already said he’d never ask for a trade outright. How honorable. So until one of those two things changes, here we are stuck in this endless will they/won’t they conversation where every day brings a new emotional interview from the Bucks superstar about how much he loves Milwaukee.