{"id":431103,"date":"2026-01-26T17:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T17:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/431103\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T17:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T17:00:07","slug":"knicks-giannis-antetokounmpo-dream-might-require-them-to-part-with-heart-and-soul-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/431103\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo dream might require them to part with ‘heart and soul’ player"},"content":{"rendered":"

Knicks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo dream might require them to part with ‘heart and soul’ player<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last summer, the New York Knicks<\/a> engaged the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> in trade talks for Giannis Antetokounmpo. No deal came together at the time, but as an injured Antetokounmpo continues to weigh his future in Milwaukee, contenders reportedly continue to circle and explore the possibility of acquiring the two-time NBA MVP.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

ESPN’s salary cap expert Bobby Marks wrote Monday about 10 franchises that would have the most to offer the Bucks<\/a> if Antetokounmpo asks out of Milwaukee before the Feb. 5 trade deadline or during the offseason. The Knicks make the cut again — but the franchise, squarely in a contention window, would have to transform their roster midseason to pull off a trade of this magnitude.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Raptors look set up to trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a><\/p>\n

Marks grades the Knicks’ difficulty in acquiring Antetokounmpo as an eight out of 10. New York is “light on draft assets” and has significant financial limitations as a team in the second apron — meaning the Knicks are hard-capped.<\/p>\n

“Because it is over the first apron, New York is not allowed to take on more salary than it sends out in a trade,” Marks writes. “That would leave the front office with the option of swapping\u00a0Karl-Anthony Towns\u00a0straight up or packaging a combination of\u00a0OG Anunoby,\u00a0Josh Hart\u00a0and\u00a0Mikal Bridges.”<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Parting with a package that includes Hart would be painful for the Knicks and their fans. The 30-year-old is one of New York’s most valuable players, and a real fan favorite; he is an efficient shooter and arguably the NBA’s top rebounding guard. He is also on an incredibly team-friendly contract<\/a> that runs through next season and contains a team option for the 2027\/28 season.<\/p>\n

If the Knicks want to take a big swing, they could make an Antetokounmpo trade work. But the cost would be tremendous.<\/p>\n

More NBA news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Knicks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo dream might require them to part with ‘heart and soul’ player originally appeared on The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[42235,359,61628,36782,360,355,2005,361,19560,99],"class_list":["post-431103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-bobby-marks","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-josh-hart","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-og-anunoby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}