With trading a player like Giannis Antetokounmpo, it may seem like the Bucks hold all the cards, but Brian Windhorst has explained why that’s not the case.
Shams started the Giannis to New York rumors back up again just in time for the season tip-off.
And Giannis sure did a good job of stoking the fire as well.
“I’ve said this many times, I want to be in a situation that I can win and now I’m here,” he told The Athletic. “I believe in this team…Now, if in six, seven months, I change my mind I think that’s human too,” he said. “You’re allowed to make any decision you want, but I’m locked in. I’m locked into this team. I’m locked into these guys, to this group and to this coaching staff and to myself.”
Windy says the Bucks star made it very clear to everyone how long he has left on the Bucks.
“Giannis gave you all the answer– 6, 7 months,” the ESPN reporter said. “He didn’t pull that out of thin air… the league is preparing for the end of his tenure in Milwaukee.”
Windhorst went on to explain how the Knicks are in a ‘decent position’ to trade for the two-time MVP.
“I actually think the Knicks are in decent position here, let me tell you why, because the Bucks do not control their draft,” Windhorst said. “For the next five years, they’re still paying off the debt from building that championship team and those championship contenders. If the Bucks ever reach a position where they feel like they have to trade Giannis, they can’t tank, they don’t control their draft.
“So if you’re going to make a Giannis trade, it’s probably going to be a player based trade.”
Windhorst shed further light on the situation, and how Giannis could have played things perfectly.
“Most importantly, after this season, Giannis only has one year on his contract, ” he said. “So whether you got into Giannis potentially wanting to revisit this in mid-season or whether you got into it in the six or seven-month timeline that he has given us so generously, you would have to look at a place where Giannis would want to be. This wouldn’t be an open bidding war. You wouldn’t have a situation like you had with Dame Lillard where you could have a market he doesn’t want you to come in. He would have some control. And part of me believes the reason he didn’t go full bore into the trade demand this summer — where he sort of sat around and didn’t make noise about it in June and July and didn’t make a move until the August — was because he knew that he would have much more control next year. And so if that happens, then you’re looking at a team like Golden State or a team like New York who could leverage Giannis’ desire to be in a big market — which I think is going to be a factor.”
READ MORE: Giannis Antetokounmpo Breaks Silence on Knicks Trade Rumors