At long last, the Giannis Antetokounmpo saga is over … on paper, at least. On Monday, the day before the 2026 NBA Draft, news broke that a deal had been struck to send the two-time MVP to the Miami Heat. While the trade can’t be made official until July 6, it was hashed out long in advance of that date to ensure that the draft picks were handled before selection day (the Heat are sending the No. 13 overall pick to the Milwaukee Bucks).
And with that, we can fully end any hope of the Golden State Warriors
acquiring the 31-year old superstar. The Dubs made a strong push at this year’s trade deadline, only for Antetokounmpo to stay put in Milwaukee. By the time the season ended, any momentum the Warriors had towards an acquisition had been drained. For weeks now, we’ve heard that the Warriors were no longer heavily involved in any Giannis discussions. And now it’s pretty easy to see why.
Golden State never had a chance at competing for Antetokounmpo, now that we can see what the winning bid was. The Warriors could match the pick haul that the Heat gave up (unprotected first-rounders in 2026, 2031, and 2023, a pick swap in 2030, and a second-rounder in 2033). They could compete with the intriguing, but unproven young talent that Miami is sending to Wisconsin (Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., and Kasparas Jakučionis).
But there were two things that the Dubs simply could not compete with: Tyler Herro, and Giannis’ desires. Any trade for Antetokounmpo was going to involve a player on a large contract to make salaries work. For the Warriors, that would have meant Draymond Green or Jimmy Butler III — aging players entering the final years of their deals. Herro, on the other hand, is an extension-eligible 26-year old All-Star, who the Bucks can either build around, or flip at the deadline to signal a full-on rebuild.
And then, of course, there’s the case of what Antetokounmpo wanted. While there had been speculation that Antetokounmpo would be excited at the possibility of pairing up with Steph Curry, reports had surfaced that there was a limited number of teams that he would be willing to sign an extension with. The Heat were one of those teams; the Warriors were not. And so it seems that Golden State would not have been willing to risk a trade for Antetokounmpo, even if they possessed the pieces necessary to get it done.
In the end, it’s just good news for the Dubs that he is staying in the Eastern Conference. Whatever hopes Golden State has of contending in the coming years are benefitted from Antetokounmpo not making his way to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
