Late Monday night, the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade request saga finally came to an end, with the Milwaukee Bucks star taking his talents to South Beach.
In a vacuum, I’m glad this is finally over so
that we don’t have to hear any more reports about how Giannis wants to “do things the hard way” or is a “Buck for life” even though we all know he’s engaging in the most passive-aggressive trade demand in league history. Moreover, from a Sixers perspective, this ordeal turned out pretty well.
Rather than trade Giannis at the trade deadline for the Heat pu pu platter, Milwaukee let things stretch out into the offseason, at which point Boston entered the fray with Jaylen Brown reportedly on the table. The Celtics’ putting a legitimate blue chipper into the mix forced the Heat to up their asset offer; Kasparas Jakucionis appeared to be the final sticking point where Miami had to budge.
So let’s look at the involved parties and whether or not the Sixers should be more or less worried as an Eastern Conference rival. Milwaukee is in a full-on rebuild, but they didn’t find some interested party out West or something willing to hand over a promising young talent like back when the Thunder got Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the Clippers. There are murmurs that the Bucks might find Tyler Herro another home, but I doubt his return will be anything earth-shattering. The best draft asset Milwaukee received might very well be this year’s 13th overall pick, a solid selection to be sure in a loaded draft, but not something likely to shift the franchise’s fortunes. The Bucks are probably not going to be an issue for the Sixers for quite some time.
Then, we have Miami, now with the Greek Freak aboard. The ceiling for the Heat is certainly higher now than the Play-In Tournament stasis they were stuck in since Jimmy Butler departed. But a Giannis-Bam Adebayo partnership is not the smoothest of fits, plus Miami had to give up a lot of rotation pieces to make this deal happen, thanks to Milwaukee being patient with the whole process. The Heat will have to find valuable floor spacers on cheap contracts to fill out the roster. Miami is undoubtedly better, but I don’t think we’re looking at anything close to a juggernaut in the East making the Sixers and others shake in their boots, and there are ways this could go pretty wrong.
Finally, did the Sixers beating the Celtics in the first round break them? The Jay squad looks heading for a split with Jaylen Brown being shopped and reporting seemingly coming from Brown’s camp about how he’s looking forward to an opportunity to have his “own” team. Regardless, I don’t see how things could go back to the status quo after this Giannis courting. So a Boston group that was the clear favorite in the Eastern Conference is possibly heading for a major shake-up. Brad Stevens deserves the benefit of the doubt, as he has been fairly lights out since joining the front office, but from the Sixers’ perspective being in the Celtics’ division, you have to like where things stand with Boston much more than in the spring.
All in all, then, a very positive outcome for the Sixers. Hopefully, the good tidings keep rolling with tonight’s NBA draft.
