After the Milwaukee Bucks’ first-round exit in the playoffs, rumors around Giannis Antetokounmpo started to circulate and fans of every team, including the Detroit Pistons, fantasized about what the 2-time MVP might look like on their roster.
Things are going to ramp up even more after Shams Charania of ESPN published a piece in which Giannis says he is open-minded to playing elsewhere for the first time in his career.
“The two-time NBA MVP has not made any firm decisions on his Bucks future after the franchise's third consecutive postseason exit in the first round, but for the first time in his career, Antetokounmpo is open-minded about exploring whether his best long-term fit is remaining in Milwaukee or playing elsewhere, league sources told ESPN.”
Given that Giannis hasn’t really talked this way before, this comes as a surprise even if there was a ton of speculation that he might eventually want out.
We are not to that point yet, and the threat of losing Giannis has drawn action from Milwaukee in the past, most of which has not gone their way, as the Damian Lillard experiment was a failure, as was their deadline acquisition of Kyle Kuzma.
It sounds as if there is more to this than just speculation this time and teams will definitely be sniffing around to see if the Bucks could do the unthinkable and trade Giannis.
This will be the drama of the summer, and the Detroit Pistons should be part of it.
Detroit Pistons: Trading for Giannis Antetokounmpo
I’ve written many times that I don’t think the Pistons should go all-in on a star, mostly because the ones we talked about had red flags in terms of cost, impact and injury history.
Giannis is the exception, the one superstar worth going all-in to get. Regardless of what they had to give up, pairing Giannis with Cade Cunningham would give Detroit a championship-level foundation.
If Giannis does hit the market (I still have my doubts) nearly every team in the league will be interested, so the Bucks would get a haul. Trading Giannis would be a hard reset given the age of Milwaukee’s roster, so they’d be looking for high-end young talent and draft picks, both of which they lack.
After their 2025 draft pick conveys to Minnesota, the Pistons will have four first-round picks and three swaps at their disposal. They also have young talent in Jaden Ivey, Ron Holland II and Jalen Duren to go with a big expiring contract in Tobias Harris. I'm trying to make Ausar Thompson untouchable in this hypothetical, but he's probably not.
They obviously can’t trade all of those players but some combination of Ivey, Holland, Harris and a bunch of picks may get them into the conversation. If a team like Houston or OKC gets in the mix, they can likely offer more than the Pistons, so to say this is a long shot is a vast understatement.
This revelation from Giannis will have the league’s attention and will likely be the talk of the summer.
The Pistons have preached patience and should stick to that mantra, but Trajan Langdon also said they’d explore all possibilities, so you can expect him to at least inquire about Giannis.