The Milwaukee Bucks trail there first-round series against the Indiana Pacers 3-1. Game 5 of this series will be on Tuesday night with tip-off scheduled for 5 p.m. CT.
If the Bucks were to lose this matchup, the season would be over for Milwaukee. This would be the third consecutive season that they will have lost in the first round of the NBA postseason. With Damian Lillard already tearing his Achillies, there is a chance that this could be the last game that Giannis Antetokounmpo plays in a Bucks uniform on Tuesday night.
NBA Insider Suggests That the Milwaukee Bucks Trade Giannis Antetokounmpo To the Houston Rockets In the Offseason
Michael Pina of the ringer thinks that the Lillard injury is going to spell the end of Antetokounmpo’s time with the Bucks after the 2024-2025 season. Antetokounmpo will still have several years left on his contract, but Milwaukee doesn’t own any first-round draft picks until 2031. This maybe the time for Milwaukee to begin a massive rebuild.
Antetokounmpo helped this franchise win a title in 2021 against the Phoenix Suns in six games, but the superstar maybe suited off elsewhere to win another ring in his NBA career. Pina said about the Bucks needing to move off of Antetokounmpo in the NBA offseason,
“Sometimes you have to let go of the ones you love the most, then watch them be happy from afar. It’s time to give Giannis an opportunity to win another championship elsewhere and for the Bucks to start over with an exceptional haul of draft picks and young talent. This era is over. An admirable run that included the franchise’s first championship in 50 years has come to an end.
Last week, I called this the last series Giannis would play in a Bucks jersey. Today, the ramifications of Lillard’s injury have made that claim undeniable. It’s fair to say that Bucks general manager Jon Horst, who recently (oddly?) signed a contract extension,will have a busy couple of months ahead of him. It’s a fork-in-the-road moment, and one option immediately leads to a brick wall.
If the Bucks don’t trade Giannis, there’s a chance they’ll still make the playoffs next year because it’s the Eastern Conference, but they would get pounded in the first round. That’s the best-case scenario for the short term. There is no best-case scenario for the long term, though. There’s no way back to the Finals. Keep Giannis, and you’re looking at a sad, ugly, irrelevant existence.
Trade Giannis, and there’s hope for a brighter tomorrow. Can you get any combination of Amen Thompson, Alperen Sengun, Jalen Green, Tari Eason, Reed Sheppard, and a ton of picks from the Houston Rockets?”
The Houston Rockets and the Bucks would make sense for both parties. Houston needs a go-two scorer when the game is on the line. The Rockets have been missing that big time and it is one of the reasons why they trail 3-1 in the series against the Golden State Warriors.
Houston would also be able to give the Bucks draft picks and also young players in a trade to start a major rebuild of the franchise. The Rockets will also try and acquire Kevin Durant from the Phoenix Suns in the NBA offseason.
The 30-year-old averaged 30.4 PPG, 11.9 RPG, and 6.5 APG, along with shooting 60.1% from the field with Milwaukee during the regular season. He was second in points per game and sixth in field goal percentage in the NBA during the regular season. Antetokounmpo would be the go-two scorer that the Rockets desperately need and Bucks would be able to acquire some very good young talent and draft capital from Houston also.
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