Since the moment the Milwaukee Bucks were discarded by the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs, Giannis Antetokounmpo has been the league’s most prominent name in trade talks.
For the third straight year, the Bucks were eliminated in the first round. As their second-best player, Damian Lillard, was set to miss all of 2025-26 with a torn Achilles, the Bucks seem destined to extended that streak to four years.
Antetokounmpo is a top-three player on the planet. As this postseason showed us, nothing is guaranteed — evidenced by season-long injuries to the Boston Celtics’ and Indiana Pacers’ franchise stars — so he can’t afford to waste precious years of his prime. Conventional wisdom says Antetokounmpo should request a trade from the only franchise he’s ever known.
But after a whirlwind of offseason transactions, it’s apparent staying in Milwaukee is the two-time MVP’s best bet. Here are three reasons why.
No. 1: Nowhere To Go
For Antetokounmpo to seek a trade that would allow him to further his quest for more titles, he needs a suitor which can give the Bucks the draft capital they desire while still fielding a championship-caliber roster once the deal is complete. Looking down the list of potential candidates, that team doesn’t really exist.
Even after trading for Kevin Durant, the Houston Rockets could still put together a strong offer. But even with Durant and Antetokounmpo the Rockets would have their hands full in a loaded Western Conference. Pretty much every other team with excess draft capital would face the same hurdle. The Oklahoma City Thunder would be clear favorites if they added Antetokounmpo, but they won’t want to break up the core that just won them the NBA title.
In the Eastern Conference, all the teams that could put together savory packages, such as the Toronto Raptors and Brooklyn Nets, don’t have the infrastructure to give Antetokounmpo a true title contender — even amid a depleted East. And the teams which do have that infrastructure, such as the New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers, don’t have the assets to make a trade worthwhile for the Bucks.
No. 2: This Bucks Team Could Be Good
I really hate typing this, especially considering how hard he worked to return from a blood clot after what many thought would be a season-ending absence, only for an even more tragic injury to end his Milwaukee tenure. But the Bucks were quietly better without Lillard last season.
Over their final 14 games of the regular season without Lillard, they were 10-4 with the fifth-best offensive rating and 10th-best net rating overall, including two wins against a Detroit Pistons team fighting for playoff seeding and a fully healthy Minnesota Timberwolves unit.
This isn’t to say Lillard is a bad player. Rather, I don’t think his play-style ever really meshed with Antetokounmpo’s. This goes back to an important team-building lesson: fit is more important than pure talent. It’s a lesson we learned in 2023-24, when the Atlanta Hawks improved while Trae Young missed time toward the end of the season, leaving Dejounte Murray to play point guard.
Milwaukee’s projected 2025-26 roster doesn’t have a player near the caliber of Lillard, but the Bucks do have a rotation chock full of players who work well alongside Antetokounmpo.
Myles Turner, brought in as a younger, more agile Brook Lopez replacement, allows Antetokounmpo to continue playing power forward without sacrificing defense or spacing. AJ Green, Gary Trent Jr., Ryan Rollins, Taurean Prince, Gary Harris and Andre Jackson Jr. are wings who can play off of Antetokounmpo while also offering varying degrees of defensive utility.
Cole Anthony and Kevin Porter Jr. are table-setters who can throw lobs to Antetokounmpo in ball-screens and occasionally create their own offense. Bobby Portis and Kyle Kuzma add size and scoring to the front-court. Jericho Sims is a viable backup big man.
Tally that all up and the Bucks have 13 players who could log regular season minutes for them on any given night. Notable depth, synergistic fits and an MVP-caliber player is typically a recipe for a pretty solid team — especially in the 2025-26 Eastern Conference.
Pretty fantastic guard room considering no one here is making over $6M a year 💪 pic.twitter.com/xl3JtEA1Db
— Bucks Lead (@BucksLead) July 13, 2025
No. 3: His Legacy Will Grow Even Larger
I hardly ever focus on anecdotal information when discussing the greatest players of all-time. But remember, I’m not the only one who discusses basketball. Many people knock Kevin Durant for leaving the Thunder to form a Super Team with the Golden State Warriors or praise Dirk Nowitzki for staying with the Dallas Mavericks his entire career.
Here, Antetokounmpo has a perfect chance to further cement his all-time legacy. The 2025-26 Bucks are composed very similarly to the 2016-17 Thunder. Antetokounmpo is obviously Russell Westbrook — the noble soldier who chose to stay with the only franchise he’s ever known and willed them on his lonesome to relevancy, en route to an impressive statistical season and an MVP nomination. Now, would that not make for an incredible career achievement?
Even if Antetokounmpo does eventually leave, if he guts out this year, helps the Bucks flirt with 50 wins and earns his third MVP, he will immediately catapult up many folks’ all-time rankings. This possibility, and all the other arguments outlined above, point to the conclusion Antetokounmpo is exactly where he needs to be right about now.
