Shams Charania cleared the air about a possible Antetokounmpo trade.
The NBA Draft is almost here and with that comes increased pressure around the most talked about trade prospect in recent memory: Giannis Antetokounmpo.
For months now, there have been endless discussions about what exactly will happen with Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks as their relationship looks increasingly fractured and a trade for the two-time MVP looks increasingly likely.
How exactly that possible trade will transpire is less certain. There has been no shortage of suitors for Antetokounmpo and several teams have been involved in in talks and have offered packages to try and snag Antetokounmpo, but as the offseason moves forward, two teams have emerged as the most likely destinations.
Antetokounmpo's Suitors
Those teams are the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat, who have been mentioned more as trade options in recent weeks. When the regular season ended, Bucks ownership stated that they wanted to have a clear picture of Antetokounmpo's future before the draft, and with the draft nearly here the pressure is on to have that clarity.
According to recent comments from ESPN's Shams Charania, the one thing that he believes is certain is that the Bucks' future trader partner will have to be either the Celtics and Heat and despite some other speculation, any trade for Antetokounmpo will only be between two teams and not a larger, multi-team deal.
Narrowing the Field
“I want to make this clear, whichever deal occurs, it’s going to be a one-for-one deal. It’s going to consist of Milwaukee and one of these two teams. There’s no 3rd and 4th teams… Giannis from my understanding is ready to be traded," Charania said (via HeatCulture13).
It's seemed like Antetokounmpo has been ready to be traded for a while now, even with his sometimes confusing statements about his love and loyalty to Milwaukee basketball, and the only real holdup to making a trade happen has been the Bucks finding an appropriate return package for their franchise star.
Charania's report that it won't be a multi-team deal is especially interesting because of the kind of return that the Bucks expect.
Their high demand in return for Antetokounmpo has reportedly been the reason that teams have been turned off of pursuing a deal for Antetokounmpo, and a multi-team deal seemed to be a way to make that cost more realistically attainable.
Nothing will be certain about the kind of return that the Bucks will receive for Antetokounmpo if it is a direct trade until a trade actually occurs, but Charania's report does shed a certain light on the state of the trade market around one of the NBA's biggest stars.
