The Milwaukee Bucks have been in a holding pattern all summer. Since the moment ESPN’s Shams Charania shook the boat and hinted at a fractured relationship with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the franchise, there’s been uneasiness. Milwaukee’s brain trust stretching and waiving Damian Lillard to sign Myles Turner to a multi-year deal reportedly didn’t go over well.
One blockbuster proposal from Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley would settle things once and for all and send Antetokounmpo to a world-class organization: the Miami Heat.
Buckley’s proposal would send Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis to South Beach in exchange for Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Terry Rozier, a 2030 first-round pick, a 2032 first-round pick, and a 2031 first-round pick swap.
Buckley’s explanation treats Ware like a franchise player. Ware was deemed Miami’s best trade asset for Buckley’s exercise.
“After keeping Ware out of the Kevin Durant trade talks, the Heat would clearly need a superstar to let their second-year center go. Since they also have a clear (and longstanding) fascination with Antetokounmpo—which, to be fair, most teams do—it might take a megatrade with Milwaukee to get Ware out of Miami,” Buckley wrote.
“Is that overrating Ware? Maybe. It certainly wasn’t encouraging to hear him getting called out this summer. Then again, he opened his rookie season out of the rotation and finished it as a starter for a playoff team. And he happens to be a 7-footer who seems wholly capable of blocking shots and spacing the floor, which might be the single most impactful combo a modern center can have.
“Ware looks like a legitimate building block, Jaquez would’ve been considered as such as recently as last summer and Herro just booked his first All-Star season as a 25-year-old. Add the draft picks here, and that feels like enough for the Heat to at least entertain dreams of adding Antetokounmpo, whose resume features a couple of MVP awards, a Defensive Player of the Year honor and a Finals MVP.”
Buckley’s colleague, Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes, believes it’s only a matter of time before Antetokounmpo asks out after the front office’s moves, which include signing Turner, Cole Anthony, Kevin Porter Jr., Taurean Prince, and Jericho Sims, and trading Pat Connaughton to the Charlotte Hornets for Vasa Micic.
“Though Giannis Antetokounmpo has typically applied pressure to the Bucks in the offseason, which he did again this year by leaving his future plans undefined, he’s going to see the writing on the wall during the 2025-26 campaign and conclude there’s only one correct reaction,” Hughes wrote.
Just as the Boston Celtics tore apart the 2023-24 NBA Championship roster around Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the Bucks have done the same around Antetokounmpo.
Buckley’s trade would simply clear out the remaining two players from Milwaukee’s 2020-21 title team.
