The NBA season is officially over, and now a busy NBA offseason awaits. Giannis Antetokounmpo is the domino everyone is waiting to fall and one team is surging as the rumors swirl.
The Celtics had been lurking as a potential landing spot for the two-time NBA MVP and now they are slight favorites to trade for Antetokounmpo on the prediction market Kalshi.
The Heat were considered the favorites to trade for Antetokounmpo once they were eliminated from the NBA postseason in April after their play-in game against the Hornets. At the time, the Heat had an 18.1 percent chance of landing Antetokounmpo and only the Bucks had better odds of keeping him with a 19 percent chance at Kalshi.
New reporting has thrown some doubt into Antetokounmpo taking his talents to South Beach as the Celtics have surged up the board over the past week. As of Tuesday afternoon, the Celtics have nearly identical odds as the Heat with a 39.7 percent chance to trade for Antetokounmpo on a market that has attracted more than $2.5 million in volume.
Longtime NBA insider Mark Stein said Monday on The All NBA Podcast that the Heat are still in pursuit of the 2022 NBA Finals MVP, but no deal is imminent.
“Of all the teams that were after Giannis in February, really Miami is the only one still in that chase,” Stein said. “When it comes to Miami, we know the players, the bulk of the players on the table. It’s [Tyler] Hero, it’s [Kalel] Ware, it’s [Jaime] Jaquez, it’s the 13th pick on June 23rd in the first round of the draft. There’s other unspecified draft consideration that we haven’t confirmed that would presumably be in the deal.”
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst echoed some of those statements Monday, saying that Antetokounmpo’s preferred destination is Miami, but added that “the Heat and the Bucks have been talking for months and not agreed to a deal, because the Bucks don’t love the Heat’s offer.”
Windhorst elaborated on that point Tuesday, adding that the Celtics are a destination Antetokounmpo is interested in joining, but cautioned that the Celtics have some hurdles to overcome if they want to strike a deal. The biggest one is whether the Celtics would be willing to trade Jaylen Brown plus the assets needed top what the Heat can offer and if that would require more trade partners.
“The Bucks, if they ultimately make an Antetokounmpo move, might need to involve a third or fourth team to either flip players or asset(s) they acquire or to offload another of their player(s) who could be in the deal,” Windhorst reported. “All of this is painstaking and prone to falling apart.”
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Antetokounmpo is under contract this season and has a $62.7 million player option for the 2027-28 season. He is eligible to sign an extension in October, which gives him leverage but also means he could presumably return to the Bucks if both parties choose that unlikely road.
The Bucks are expected to make a decision on Antetokounmpo’s future before the NBA Draft on June 23, which means we could know the outcome sooner rather than later.
Why Trust New York Post Betting
Malik Smith has been immersed in the sports betting industry since 2017. He’s a data nerd with a particular focus on the NBA and combat sports. He spends his weeknights in the winter looking for edges on plus-money NBA player props.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
