ESPN’s Shams Charania predicts that the upcoming NBA offseason will be a historically wild one. His colleague Brian Windhorst appears to agree, and has a sense of how things could play out, starting with the future of Milwaukee Bucks star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo.
It isn’t yet clear whether Antetokounmpo will return to the Bucks or request a trade after the team’s recent repeated playoff flameouts. His NBA future will hold up that of another former MVP likely to be traded this offseason—the Phoenix Suns’ Kevin Durant—and the rest of the league, Windhorst said on Wednesday’s episode of Get Up.
“First up will be Giannis, whether or not he leaves Milwaukee, that will be a big thing,” Windhorst said. “And then, I really do think Kevin Durant’s going to have to wait for Giannis, because there’s going to be some teams who are interested in both, so then KD.
The NBA free agency class is expected to be weak, so teams looking to make big splashes this offseason will take to the trade market. As a result, the potential Giannis and KD deals could set the tone for the rest of the league.
“So what I think you’re going to see is a number of teams looking to aggressively either upgrade their rosters or offload money, and the series of ripple effects from what could be a Giannis trade and then a KD trade could be wide-ranging,” Windhorst said. “You could have a number of teams reacting to that, with star players becoming available.”
The Get Up NBA analysts floated New York and Golden State as potential Antetokounmpo destinations, with Jay Williams and Mike Greenberg mentioning the Bucks star’s recent family trips to those cities, though neither the Knicks nor the Warriors can create an obvious trade package for Milwaukee. (The Brooklyn Nets have a ton of draft capital, but it is unclear whether Giannis wants to be the centerpiece of a full roster overhaul.)
With trades taking centerstage, much of the action will likely take place between the end of the upcoming NBA Finals and the start of the NBA draft on June 25. The 2024–25 season isn’t over yet, but the clock is already ticking on at least two of the NBA’s biggest stars.
