More like Giannis Antetokounmp-au revoir

The Bucks appear to finally be acknowledging how soon they might enter life after Giannis.

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ESPN's Shams Charania published a report on Wednesday meant to signal that Giannis Antetokounmpo is officially on the trade market without having Giannis request a trade or having the Bucks giving up on the experiment. This lede was massaged into the passive voice of all passive voices.

Two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo is ready for a new home ahead of the Feb. 5 trade deadline, as several teams have made aggressive offers to the Milwaukee Bucks, who are starting to listen, league sources told ESPN on Wednesday.

There's also that there's no rush from Milwaukee's side, though they really do need to lose out to the extent possible to salvage their best non-Giannis asset, which is their own 2026 first-round pick (assuming it is worse than the Pelicans' pick; Atlanta gets the better of those two picks and the Bucks get the lesser). Milwaukee doesn't control its next four firsts: 2027 is owed to New Orleans, 2028 and 2030 are swaps with Portland and 2029 is owed to Portland.

The Bucks have 18 wins with 37 games remaining. If he stays on the roster and returns six weeks after his latest injury, he'll miss 16 more games. Milwaukee is winning about a fifth of their games without Giannis and half with him. Let's say they go 3-13 by Antetokounmpo's return in early March, which puts them at a 21-40 record with 21 games left. Let's say he plays in 12 of the remaining games – the Bucks go 6-6 in those and 2-7 in the ones he skips. They finish 29-53. What teams are likely to be worse?