The Milwaukee Bucks are actively weighing trade offers for Giannis Antetokounmpo and, per co-owner Jimmy Haslam’s comment in early May, expect to know by the June 23 NBA Draft whether he will be traded and where he will land.
Haslam has signaled both patience and openness: the franchise can wait as it evaluates proposals, but this week he publicly acknowledged a willingness to trade even franchise players if the price is right. That posture frames the clock ahead of the draft as the real deadline for whatever outcome the Bucks reach.
Interest around Antetokounmpo centers on a handful of clubs with differing capacities to make a competitive offer. League chatter continues to favor Miami — which was among the most dogged pursuers at the trade deadline and is widely believed by many around the league to be the likeliest landing spot — while the New York Knicks are remembered for showing legitimate interest last summer and now arrive as the Eastern Conference champions.
On the other side of the map, the Oklahoma City Thunder present a theoretically deep asset base but have not been expected to pursue Antetokounmpo. The Thunder hold Nos. 12 and 17 in this year’s draft and control a long catalogue of future picks: 12 first-round and 13 second-round selections between 2026 and 2033, assets that could matter in any multiyear, multilevel negotiation.
Antetokounmpo’s status as a two-time NBA MVP raises the price Milwaukee can demand and helps explain the Bucks’ willingness to be patient. The market is shifting as the postseason progresses, and every elimination changes what teams will offer and how aggressively they will do so; that makes the next three weeks a compressing timeline for a transaction of this scale.
There is a clear point of friction in the coverage: Portland has become a focal point in trade chatter despite being described by league sources as an unlikely destination. Those sources point to Antetokounmpo’s preference to play in the Eastern Conference as a key reason Portland is considered remote, even as talk about a Portland scenario continues to circulate among agents and front offices.
The competing messages — Haslam’s public patience, his openness to trades if the price is right, Miami’s persistent interest, the Knicks’ previous flirtation, and Oklahoma City’s deep draft capital — narrow the immediate question to one practical gap: which team, if any, will actually meet Milwaukee’s price for a two-time MVP?
The next confirmed milestone is the June 23 NBA Draft. By then the Bucks say they should know whether Antetokounmpo will be traded and where he will go; until a deal arrives, the league will be watching offers, posture and draft-day moves for signals of whether this sweepstakes resolves in Miami, New York, an unexpected suitor, or stays unresolved into the offseason.
