Draymond Green has never hesitated to weigh in on major NBA conversations, and the ongoing uncertainty around Giannis Antetokounmpo’s future in Milwaukee has already caught his attention.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and his agent, Alex Saratsis have begun speaking with the Bucks about the direction of the franchise, and according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the noise surrounding a possible departure has reached an entirely new level. Those rumors grew even louder once Antetokounmpo appeared to scrub his Instagram account of posts connected to Milwaukee. Green explained why trading a superstar of Giannis’ caliber is never a simple process.
“We all know that Giannis wants to compete at the highest level. A lot of people made a lot of noise about him deleting all Milwaukee Bucks references off of his Instagram account. If you’re Giannis and you’re trying to press the team to do something, those are the types of things that you would do in order to make the team realize, ‘I’m not happy … It’s going public now. Y’all better figure it out.’” the Warriors enforcer remarked during his show, The Draymond Green Show.
Draymond Green points out the financial side of the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade
Green pointed out that beyond appearances, the real challenge lies in the financial aspect.
“What I will say is, it’s not the easiest to trade someone that makes $50 million, because, in most cases, you usually have to depete your whole team, just to even make the salaries work; it limits the amount of teams that Giannis can go to. He’ll have a list of clubs that he’d be comfortable going to, that he’ll share with the team, and I think they’ll try to make it happen.”
Antetokounmpo is set to earn $54.13 million next season and is under contract through 2027, a figure that immediately complicates trade calculations for nearly every contender. Even the Golden State Warriors, whom Green called one of the “more intriguing” fits alongside Steph Curry, are already paying Curry and Jimmy Butler more than $50 million each.
With Milwaukee struggling in 11th place at 10-15 in the Eastern Conference and far from championship contention, Green suggested the team would likely “try” to accommodate Giannis if he officially requested a trade.
