Giannis Antetokounmpo And Toronto Raptors Share Mutual Interest

Giannis Antetokounmpo And Toronto Raptors Share Mutual Interest

Ah, June, one of the best basketball months of the NBA. We have the NBA Finals this year with the Thunder and Pacers, which should be electric. There’s the NBA Draft, which will be June 25-26 in Brooklyn. Then, less than a week after that, teams can start negotiating free agency deals on the last day of June, June 30th, to end June with a bang. (My birthday is also this month if anyone cares). Anyway, with free agency and the NBA draft, the rumors start heating up exponentially. The most polarizing name in rumors has been Giannis Antetokounmpo. He has been linked to the Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Trey has tried to link him to the Boston Celtics. Now, rumors say there is mutual interest between Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Toronto Raptors.

There is a few reports to attest to this. First, there have been local reports by Toronto Star’s Doug Smith. I personally don’t like to read or believe smoke by local reporters unless they have a proven and large sample size. However, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst says that teams are speculating that the Toronto Raptors land a “big fish” this NBA offseason. This information has been provided by The Score.

Without it getting too messy, I tried to find something that could be the base of the deal. Of course, Giannis Antetokounmpo would go to the Toronto Raptors, and really, it would be whoever the Bucks want in return. I have to imagine that Scottie Barnes would be a dealbreaker if the Bucks don’t get him. After that, the Raptors could attach Jakob Poeltl, Brandon Ingram, Immanuel Quickley, or RJ Barrett to match salaries. With some of those, you might have to attach Bobby Portis or Pat Connaughton to match salaries on the Bucks side. From there, there might be some guys like Gradey Dick and Ochai Agbaji that the Bucks might like too.

If a deal stays between these two teams, if I’m the Bucks, I’m asking for Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, Gradey Dick, and Ochai Agbaji, with #9 overall in 2025, 2027 first round pick and pick swaps in 2026, and 2028. To match, I would trade Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bobby Portis, and Pat Connaughton to the Toronto Raptors. Portis and Connaughton have player options too, so they can decide if they want to play in Toronto or not. This deal is successful on the Fanspo trade machine as well.

5 possible Giannis Antetokounmpo trade destinations if he asks out

I do think that the picks can be manipulated to where both teams agree, but I think that has to be the package or close to it. There’s always a possibility that a third team gets involved, especially because the Bucks don’t have a lot of movable pieces contract-wise.

What do you think? Is the smoke real, or is it just prop smoke? Do you think the deal is fair? Who’s getting fleeced? Let me know what you think in the comments.

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