The Milwaukee Bucks have insisted that they are not trading Giannis Antetokounmpo, but that hasn’t stopped fans and media from making their dream trades anyway, some of which have included the Detroit Pistons.
Given that the Pistons have a bunch of young players, short-term veteran contracts and control of all of their draft picks, it does make some sense, as that’s the kind of package Milwaukee might be looking for if they do decide to trade the face of their franchise.
But there is no indication that is going to happen, and in fact, the Bucks have said the exact opposite.
According to insider Marc Stein on a recent episode of the All NBA Podcast, “As trade season draws close, everyone is talking about Giannis. Even though — and I want to underline this — the Bucks continue to tell teams: 'He’s not available. We don’t want your trade pitches.' So, it’s this weird deal where the Bucks keep shouting into the wind: 'Listen to us! We don’t want to talk trades with you about Giannis Antetokounmpo!' And the rest of the league just ignores it and obsesses about him.”
Yep, that sounds about right, as I’m still seeing the Giannis pipe dream trades involving the Pistons. It’s fun to speculate and argue about, but in the end, it doesn’t appear Giannis is going anywhere, and if he does, it won’t be to Detroit.
Giannis to the Pistons trade is not happening
Let’s assume that the Bucks are lying, and they do want to trade the only thing that makes their franchise relevant.
As I’ve outlined before, the Pistons don’t have the best trade package, and there are several teams ahead of them in the pecking order if Giannis were to be traded.
Detroit doesn’t want to give up Ausar Thompson or Jalen Duren, which would be an immediate non-starter for Milwaukee. Given their explicit stated desire to keep him, the Bucks are not giving up Giannis for anything less than your best trade assets, which would include at least one more of the young players and all of the Pistons' picks.
The Pistons don’t have any extra picks, only their own, which won’t be good ones, another thing that would hold back any Giannis trade. Atlanta, for just one example, has that Pelicans’ pick to dangle, which will be better than anything the Pistons have by far.
The Bucks (who don’t want to trade him anyway) surely don’t want to move Giannis to a team in their division, so they have to play him four times a year, yet another ref flag against this fever dream.
I get it, players like Giannis don’t come around often, but the Bucks are going to do everything in their power to keep him, and the Pistons don’t likely have what it takes to get him anyway.
The Giannis dream is dead and that’s fine, as it was never realistic to begin with.