If the Knicks want Giannis Antetokounmpo, they’re going to have to make some uncomfortable sacrifices

The Milwaukee Bucks, like most teams that give away superstars, reportedly want young players and draft picks in exchange for Giannis Antetokounmpo, whom they are seemingly finally open to trading. The New York Knicks have neither young players nor draft picks. Yet ask their fans and they’re not only set to acquire Antetokounmpo, but will get him at a favorable price. 

There’s a real argument to be made that Karl-Anthony Towns, 30 and on a supermax contract, is a negative asset. Yet most mock deals that send Antetokounmpo to New York include Towns as a centerpiece. Deuce McBride is the best young player the Knicks have. His name is rarely coming up in these rumors because, hey, the Knicks need to retain some depth here, right? OG Anunoby is the superior Knicks wing. Mikal Bridges is the one most frequently assumed to be headed out here.

This confidence isn’t entirely unfounded. When Antetokounmpo first explored the idea of a trade last offseason, New York was the team he reportedly targeted. Stars very often get what they want in these situations. Antetokounmpo has some leverage here as well. He’s set to become a free agent in 2027. In theory, he has the capacity to scare off some suitors by telling them he would not re-sign with them when that time comes.

That affords him some leverage. It does not mean the Knicks can get him for pennies on the dollar. Every trade request comes with its own unique set of circumstances. Here are the ones complicating New York’s pursuit of Antetokounmpo:

• The Knicks will not have the cap space to sign Antetokounmpo outright in 2027, as, say, the Lakers did with Anthony Davis when they pursued him in 2019. Antetokounmpo can tell opposing teams he wouldn’t re-sign with them, but it’s not as though the league sees a clear path for him to go to New York of his own volition. He needs Milwaukee’s cooperation to get there.
• There is no indication, at least as of yet, that Antetokounmpo has signaled that he is only willing to go to the Knicks. That has not been reported. The idea is based on last summer’s reported interest, which did not include a firm trade request at the time.
• Any offer the Knicks make will almost certainly be on the table in the offseason. At that point, the Knicks will also have access to their 2033 first-round pick to trade, and Milwaukee will have clarity on its draft situation and any other roster-building plans it might want to pursue. In other words, there’s no incentive for the Bucks to act now. Antetokounmpo is injured. He won’t impact their tanking plans. The Knicks already don’t have enough to offer here. They’re not going to have less over the summer.
• Even if Antetokounmpo says he’s willing to play for the Knicks and only the Knicks, the Bucks don’t have to listen. Even if Antetokounmpo scares off most other suitors, the Bucks only need one team willing to take the risk, and if the bar is a bad New York offer, well, it’s not hard to imagine another team topping it. You think Pat Riley is getting scared off by the Knicks? You think Golden State would pass up the chance to pair Antetokounmpo with Stephen Curry just because of some behind-the-scenes blustering? The Raptors traded for Kawhi Leonard. The Thunder traded for Paul George. Antetokounmpo knows this well. The Bucks traded for Damian Lillard when his agent made it perfectly clear he only wanted to play for Miami. A star pushing for a certain team can grease the wheels. It can’t push a bad trade across the finish line.

This doesn’t necessarily preclude the Knicks from getting Antetokounmpo. It just means they’re probably not getting this thing done by foisting Towns on the Bucks, throwing in one of their valuable wings with a few pick swaps and calling it a day. If the Knicks are going to get Antetokounmpo, they’re going to have to generate enough value to, at the very least, top the sort of offers Miami and Golden State are equipped to make in the next week.

The cold, heartless way to do that would be to trade Jalen Brunson. We can stop right here and say that will not happen. Brunson has earned his way onto the very exclusive list of franchise players Curry occupies who are so beloved by their fanbases, so intrinsically and intangibly valuable to their organization, that their teams would rather lose with them than win without them. The basketball argument here is pretty straightforward. Let Antetokounmpo play point guard as he prefers. Pair him with those stellar defensive wings and a shooting big man in Towns and he’d be unstoppable. But this isn’t on the table. It’s just not how the NBA works, and Knicks fans wouldn’t want it to be.

The real question, the one that probably determines whether a trade here is going to be feasible or not, is whether the Knicks would be willing to give up both of their star wings, Bridges and Anunoby, to secure Antetokounmpo. The instinctual answer here would be no. The whole point of landing Giannis would be to win now. Would that even be possible without their defense and shooting? Look at the Bucks. They rank second in the NBA in effective field goal percentage this season, but have struggled so much in part because they lack defense on the wings. The Knicks want Antetokounmpo to pair him with those defenders. That’s a reasonable position to take. It might also mean they can’t get this thing done.

The modern NBA is not kind to centers who don’t protect the basket, nor are teams eager to pay flawed players in their 30s supermax money. The argument that the Bucks would want Towns is centered not on their actual basketball prospects, which would be bleak, but on the vague notion that he’d be needed as a business proposition. You can put Towns on billboards, some have suggested. He can sell tickets. There’s just no indication that matters to the Bucks at this stage. If they’re going to be bad, they’d seemingly prefer to be bad in ways that might eventually make them better. Fans aren’t gonna pay to see a hopeless team.

If there’s a meaningful offer out there for Towns, that would obviously be the preferable path here. It’s just far more likely that if the Knicks are going to secure the picks and youth needed to convince the Bucks to make a trade, it will involve both Anunoby and Bridges going to other teams who want to win with them now. There’s always more 3-and-D demand than supply. Bridges and Anunoby are expensive, but not nearly as expensive as Towns. They fit on a wider variety of teams. Their markets are going to be bigger. In a perfect world, you’d swap one or both to Portland to help the Bucks get their picks back from the Lillard trade.

Such a move would leave the Knicks vulnerable. Defensive versatility is vital in the playoffs. The Knicks would lose it. They would also probably have the NBA’s most dangerous offensive trio. Towns may be an iffy trade proposition for most of the league, but he’d be a lethal front-court partner for Antetokounmpo. Giannis has thrived with shooting big men throughout his career. He’s never had one as good and multi-faceted offensively as Towns. Brunson and Antetokounmpo would have to work out the usage share, but stopping both seems almost impossible.

It’s not as though the Knicks would be devoid of defense entirely. Antetokounmpo, after all, is a former Defensive Player of the Year. McBride, Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart would still be on the team if that’s the trade. New York’s reported interest in Jrue Holiday may factor into all of this. Our own James Herbert suggested a permutation in which the Knicks acquire both Antetokounmpo and Holiday by sending out Bridges, Anunoby and Hart. That wouldn’t give the Knicks an elite defense, but it would give them someone to throw on opposing stars at least. This version of the trade would require Portland making an all-in play for both New York wings, but there could be other concepts in which the Knicks seek out perimeter defense elsewhere. There’s not a limit on deadline tinkering.

The Knicks may ultimately decide they aren’t willing to surrender both of their top wings to get Antetokounmpo. That wouldn’t be a crazy call. If you’re going to consolidate your talent in that fashion, you’d better be damn certain you can win a championship with what remains. If the Knicks don’t think they can win a title with Giannis if they can’t also keep one of their wings, well, that throws a wrench in the whole trade concept. The Knicks came six wins short of the crown last season. As bumpy as the past month has been, they may ultimately elect to roll with what they have. If Antetokounmpo were 25, you’d tear down your whole team to get him and figure out the rest later. At 31 with a number of recent calf injuries, well, that’s a trickier call.

But these are the sort of conversations the Knicks need to have. They may be able to get Antetokounmpo, but it almost certainly won’t be on their terms. It’s going to require giving up a painful amount off of this year’s roster. It’s going to create weaknesses that they’d have to either fill elsewhere or hope could be overcome through their strengths. There’s not an automatic championship trade here. Those rarely exist. Getting Antetokounmpo is going to require substantial risk. If they can even muster an offer the Bucks would accept, they’d then have to decide if the reward appears worth it.