Should the Boston Celtics pursue a trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo?
As the C’s await the return of their injured superstar, Jayson Tatum, they are likely to endure a gap year in the 2025-26 season. While Jaylen Brown and Derrick White are expected to keep them competitive, the Celtics won’t be competing for Banner No. 19 at least until the 2026-27 campaign.
As such, the Celtics may have a window of opportunity to make a blockbuster trade. Fansided’s Matt Moore has encouraged the Brad Stevens-led Celtics to swing for the fences and go after Antetokounmpo, who could be available for the right price.
Moore argued that the Celtics could vastly improve their roster while waiting for Tatum, but only by making the bold call to trade Brown, whom they drafted in 2016.
Celtics would receive: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Myles Turner, Bobby Portis
Bucks would receive: Jaylen Brown, Anfernee Simons, Sam Hauser, Xavier Tillman and two first-round picks
Bucks Get a Do Over
The trade would make the Celtics the outright favorites to win the East, but the Bucks could still be a respectable playoff team led by Brown, reckons Moore.
“For the Bucks, you have a guy [in Brown],” Moore wrote. “Maybe you move him in a year if you realize you have to re-start, but you can move him for a lot with better leverage than they have with Giannis. Simons is tricky; if you do this deal, you want to do it before the deadline so you can move him again. Simons and Kevin Porter Jr. together sounds like a nightmare.
“Hauser is a really good value contract at $10 million per year for a quality shooter. That’s a good long-term trade chip.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo Committed — For Now
As for the Celtics, they nearly traded Jaylen Brown for Kevin Durant in 2022, so it’s not out of the realm for them to explore the idea again.
“It would be painful for the Celtics to make this trade, to the point where it’s unlikely they do because of how much they value him.
“But Boston gets to instantly reorganize their future. It’s now Tatum coming back from the Achilles with Derrick White and Giannis. That’s your core for the next four years.”
Any and all Celtics trade packages in a potential move for Antetokounmpo would likely have to wait until the 2026 offseason, as the “Greek Freak” is committed to the Bucks for the 2025-26 season. In the lead-up to his team’s season-opener, he spoke very positively about his team and their chances to remain competitive.
“We’re not the favorites,” Antetokounmpo said, via The Athletic. “But we’re going to be a problem and dangerous. The team is set up in a way that is very, very dangerous.”
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