The New York Knicks’ single biggest hurdle to acquiring Giannis Antetokounmpo is a dearth of trade assets coveted by teams about to enter rebuilding mode. There is only one way for them to go about changing that: using the assets they do have to land first-round picks (or prospects) from other teams that can be sent to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Sounds easy enough, right? Well, it’s not.
This idea that the Knicks can cobble together picks and prospects from other squads is predicated upon the cooperation of those other squads. That is far from assured.
Other teams may not want to cooperate with the Knicks
Fellow competitors may not want to facilitate New York’s acquisition of a top-five player. After all, if you’re going to give up a bunch of first-round picks for OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges (trade-eligible Feb. 1), or Karl-Anthony Towns, why not just…make an offer for Giannis yourself?
“Because those teams could be on a different timeline” isn’t a good enough answer. Anunoby is the youngest of this Knicks trio. If you’re shelling out a king’s ransom for his services, you’re good enough to eye a (soon-to-be) 31-year-old Antetokounmpo.
Now, the calculus changes if New York is the only team on Giannis’ wish list. That was the case this past summer. But it won’t be the case anymore. ESPN’s Shams Charania wrote as much when reporting that Giannis and the Bucks are re-evaluating their future together.
This puts the Knicks in a position where they must piece together an offer that rivals those from prospective suitors like the San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, and others—all of whom already have multiple firsts to offer, and youngsters to dangle. And this says nothing of the Atlanta Hawks getting involved. They can offer Milwaukee back its own first-round pick this year, and potentially next season, too.
New York’s best trade assets may not be worth much to other teams
For argument’s sake, let’s go ahead and remove the competition from the equation. Perhaps Giannis wants to suit up in orange and blue that badly. The Knicks may still be hard-pressed to prowl the league for assets befitting the Bucks’ likely teardown.
Letting Milwaukee figure that out on its own sounds good in theory. It’s thornier in practice. The Bucks would almost certainly want the Knicks to do the legwork for them. And once you start to scour the league for teams who might give up a ton for one of New York’s current players, you begin to appreciate just how difficult it will be.
Nobody’s conceding a draft-pick jackpot for the right to pay KAT around 35 percent of the salary cap. Bridges is playing well enough to have tons of value, but he can’t be dealt until four days prior to the trade deadline. Even if the Bucks wait that long to strike a Giannis trade, the market for someone who can’t be a No. 1 option and ranks a cut just below All-Star status is opaque.
It will be a similar story with Anunoby. He might be among the most sought after complementary archetypes in the league, but he can’t be one of your top-two offensive cornerstones. A checkered injury history also stands to warp how much other teams are willing to give up for him.
This obstacle isn’t one being talked about nearly enough. More people gravitate toward the salary-matching math, and the possibility, if not essentiality, of Giannis conveying a steadfast desire to join the Knicks.
Both factors matter. They are also meaningless if New York can’t figure out how to rework its best package to more clearly fit the direction in which Milwaukee will be headed without Giannis.