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Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo looms as a central figure to watch as the Feb. 5 trade deadline nears.<\/p>\n
As the NBA trade deadline loomed last year, a star player reacted to the blockbuster trade<\/a> that sent Luka Don\u010di\u0107 to the Los Angeles Lakers and Anthony Davis to the Dallas Mavericks by saying the following:<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a business. You have to understand this. Nobody\u2019s safe. Nobody\u2019s safe.\u201d<\/p>\n The player who said those words: Milwaukee\u2019s Giannis Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n This season\u2019s deadline<\/a> is fast approaching, now less than a week away, and it\u2019s Antetokounmpo who is the epicenter of the NBA trade universe this time. Speculation about his future \u2014 will the Bucks trade him or not? \u2014 will continue until he either gets moved or until the deadline hits Thursday afternoon. And if he doesn\u2019t get moved now, the rumors will almost certainly resume in June around the draft and the start of free agency.<\/p>\n Going into Friday, there was just one trade of note this season:\u00a0Atlanta moving Trae Young<\/a> to Washington\u00a0earlier this month. There has been an average of 13 deals around the trade deadline every year for the last decade<\/a>, so it certainly seems like teams are waiting to see how the Antetokounmpo domino falls \u2014 if it happens at all \u2014 before figuring out what they want to do.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of dialogue going on around the league,\u201d Golden State general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. said last week. \u201cWe talk to all these teams, everybody\u2019s talking to each other, feeling each other out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know the answer,\u201d Bucks coach Doc Rivers said Thursday when asked about how to handle the noise. \u201cI\u2019ve never known that answer. Every year, it\u2019s a different thing. It\u2019s so much tougher now. I\u2019ve said that many times. When we played \u2026 you had to go and buy the paper to read the paper.\u201d<\/p>\n Is he obsessing over the thought of losing Antetokounmpo?<\/p>\n \u201cWhy think about something that hasn\u2019t happened and probably won\u2019t happen?\u201d Rivers asked.<\/p>\n Giannis Antetokounmpo stuffs stat sheet with 41 points, 15 rebounds & nine assists vs. Bulls in Emirates NBA Cup 2025 Group Play.<\/p>\n This much is certain: All 30 NBA teams have taken and made calls in the last few days and will continue doing so for the next few days, all to see what the market is and how everyone can improve their chances of winning now or improve their odds of contending in a couple years.<\/p>\n The Warriors are probably among the teams that want Antetokounmpo the most. Miami would be another. New York, too. Everybody \u2014 Milwaukee included \u2014 surely wants him on the roster, though most teams frankly don\u2019t have much of a shot.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a fun time of year, except for those who have to get asked about rumors every few hours.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t really give it any time,\u201d Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, speaking generally about trade rumors and not any specific one. \u201cThe veteran players, they understand that so much of it is just conjecture. It\u2019s just a bunch of BS. But it is part of our business. That\u2019s what we all sign up for.\u201d<\/p>\n The fact that teams have interest in Antetokounmpo is obviously no surprise; he remains one of the best players in the world. The question is whether the Bucks feel this is the time to let their longtime franchise cornerstone go, amid a disappointing season and with Antetokounmpo likely to be sidelined for the next several weeks with another instance of a calf injury.<\/p>\n And last week, Antetokounmpo may have sounded the alarm with these comments after the Bucks lost to Oklahoma City:<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not playing hard,\u201d Antetokounmpo said that night. \u201cWe aren\u2019t doing the right thing. We\u2019re not playing to win. We\u2019re not playing together. Our chemistry\u2019s not there. Guys are being selfish, trying to look for their own shots instead of looking for the right shot for the team. Guys trying to do it on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n The season is getting away from the Bucks, and some of their future draft capital is gone as well because of other moves they\u2019ve made in recent years. They landed Damian Lillard, then watched him tear his Achilles and wound up setting him free so he could return to Portland. They\u2019re 18-28, 12th in the Eastern Conference. It\u2019ll likely require somewhere around a .500 finish to get into the postseason mix this year and that means Milwaukee would have to go 23-13 the rest of the way.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t seem likely. So, now, the Bucks have a decision to make. It should also be noted that Antetokounmpo \u2014 who spent part of Thursday at a celebration for Peter Feigin, who is stepping down as Bucks president after a 12-year run \u2014 is a few months from entering the final year of his contract.<\/p>\n \u201cThe main thing,\u201d Dunleavy said, probably echoing the thoughts of 29 other GMs right now, \u201cis we do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo looms as a central figure to watch as the Feb. 5 trade deadline nears.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[139181,85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-265862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo-trade-deadline","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}