After weeks of rumors linking Giannis Antetokounmpo to Boston, the two-time NBA MVP is taking his talents to South Beach instead.
The Bucks reached an agreement late Monday night to trade Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis to the Miami Heat, according to a report from ESPN’s Shams Charania.
In return, the Bucks reportedly will receive Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, the 13th overall pick in this week’s NBA Draft, additional unprotected first-rounders in 2031 and 2033, a pick swap in 2030 and a 2033 second-rounder. The trade cannot be finalized until the new league year opens on July 6.
The Celtics were the other finalist in the Antetokounmpo sweepstakes. Boston “aggressively pursued” the 10-time All-Star, Charania reported, offering a package that included Jaylen Brown and two first-round picks. Antetokounmpo would have been willing to sign a contract extension with the Celtics, according to multiple reports.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported earlier Monday that the Celtics were “all-in” on Antetokounmpo and willing to trade Brown, their longest-tenured player, to land him. Ultimately, Milwaukee chose Miami’s offer, which included a higher volume of players and picks but none of the caliber of Brown, who earned second-team All-NBA honors and finished sixth in NBA MVP voting during a career-best 2025-26 season.
“The Bucks chose the Heat’s offer,” Charania wrote, “in order to bring more flexibility and big-picture approach with controlled contracts and long-term competitiveness for new coach Taylor Jenkins to imagine the next generation of Milwaukee — versus a veteran, win-now superstar player-led package that places the immediate focus on the present.”
Concerns over whether Brown, who has three years remaining on his supermax contract, would want to play in Milwaukee also helped push Miami’s bid over the line, according to a report from The Athletic’s Sam Amick and Eric Nehm.
“According to league sources, the Bucks were very intrigued with the idea of making Brown their new franchise centerpiece but also had serious concerns about whether history might repeat itself if he came to town,” they wrote. “… (If Brown) didn’t want to be in Milwaukee, as some signs suggested in recent weeks, then the Bucks might have been faced with the reality that they needed to trade him under duress in order to salvage a sensitive situation.”
The Celtics seemingly did not include rookie Hugo Gonzalez, whom Milwaukee reportedly coveted, in their offer for Antetokounmpo. Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens raved about Gonzalez in his end-of-season news conference, calling the 20-year-old wing “a critical part of us moving forward.”
Stevens now must pivot as he looks to improve a roster that, by his own admission, did not measure up against the NBA’s best this season. Boston won 56 games and earned the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference but bowed out in the first round of the playoffs, blowing a 3-1 series lead against the seventh-seeded Philadelphia 76ers.
The biggest question: With a deal for Antetokounmpo now off the table, will the Celtics keep their superstar duo of Jayson Tatum and Brown intact and acquire players to complement them? Or will they consider moving Brown in an unrelated trade? The team “has not actively shopped Brown in trade talks,” per Charania’s report, but it will need to deal with the off-the-court fallout of including one of its central stars in a highly publicized offer.
Brown, who previously was dangled in a failed 2022 trade proposal for Kevin Durant, has spent his entire career in Boston and ranks 10th on the franchise’s all-time scoring list.
Though Antetokounmpo has been the primary focus of Celtics-related trade speculation, they also have been linked to a handful of other notable veterans this offseason. Various reports have suggested they have interest in New Orleans Pelicans wing Trey Murphy III and Detroit Pistons big man Isaiah Stewart, among others.
Celtics guard Derrick White, meanwhile, reportedly has garnered “strong interest” from the Minnesota Timberwolves.