Inside Warriors’ all-in Giannis Antetokounmpo trade pursuit before deadline

Ever since reports surfaced about the Milwaukee Bucks actually fielding calls for two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and expressing a level of openness they’ve never shown before to trading him, the NBA trade landscape has been put on hold.

Teams around the league have been calling the Bucks to see if it’s possible to acquire Giannis before Thursday’s trade deadline, resulting in much of the trade intel around the NBA circulating around the superstar big man.

Over the last week, nothing has changed on the Bucks’ front. Executive Jon Horst and his front office are hearing out every team that presents a compelling offer, and the Bucks still haven’t signaled one way or another whether they will truly be willing to part ways with Antetokounmpo before the Feb. 5 deadline.

Well, it’s time for Milwaukee to make a decision, as the next few days will not only change their immediate future but the NBA landscape as a whole. With the league as a whole split on their belief whether Giannis will be on the move before Thursday’s deadline, several teams have already made firm offers and/or have engaged in trade conversations with the Bucks regarding Antetokounmpo.

The Miami Heat, New York Knicks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Toronto Raptors, and Brooklyn Nets are among the teams that have already called about Giannis. Then we have the Golden State Warriors, who have been waiting for this moment ever since Kevin Durant departed the franchise in 2019.

Warriors owner Joe Lacob has long dreamed of having Giannis next to Stephen Curry, which is why Golden State has been the most aggressive team pursuing The Greek Freak leading up to this year’s trade deadline.

As the Warriors continue to discuss several scenarios with the Bucks, offering a plethora of draft assets and young talent, the easiest path to a Giannis trade taking place over the next few days involves this Dubs team. Can they actually pull off a trade for the future Hall of Famer in order to make one last title push at the end of Curry’s career?

Detailing Warriors’ all-in pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo

Last season, the Dallas Mavericks sent shockwaves across the NBA when they traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis. As a matter of fact, it was one year ago yesterday that the infamous trade took place. This year, it could be the Bucks that completely alter the NBA trade landscape should they actually trade Giannis.

This was the biggest question being asked among league personnel over the weekend. Even with the trade deadline closing in on being 72 hours away, there is still no sense of whether Milwaukee will take the best offer for Giannis right now or wait until the offseason to explore the matter further.

Despite the Bucks still signaling that they will be buyers at the trade deadline, the overwhelming belief around the NBA is that he will be on a new team to begin the 2026-27 season. From Milwaukee’s perspective, the idea of obtaining a high draft pick, making some small upgrades at the trade deadline, and offering Giannis his four-year, $275 million supermax extension in the summer could possibly be enough to sway him.

The future is unknown, but the present is not. Right now, the Warriors have been the most aggressive team pursuing Giannis, as the two organizations have talked at length about the idea of a Giannis trade, league sources briefed on the matter told ClutchPoints. Antetokounmpo is the one player Golden State is locked in on before the trade deadline, with Lacob and GM Mike Dunleavy Jr. on the same page about no player other than Curry being truly off-limits in talks with the Bucks.

Unlike last year, when the Warriors were heavily pursuing Kevin Durant and pivoted to Jimmy Butler once talks for Durant fell through, this appears to be the Warriors’ only option to add a star-level talent. If Giannis isn’t traded and remains with the Bucks, sources say the Warriors will retain their valuable assets and again revisit talks with the Bucks in the summer.

This is an opportunity Lacob and Dunleavy won’t turn away from until it’s over.

To this point, the Bucks have not declined the Warriors’ offer, sources said. Horst and Milwaukee’s front office were fascinated with the idea of acquiring all of Golden State’s future assets, but they are also taking their time with coming to a decision, which is not expected to happen until sometime within the 24-hour mark until the trade deadline.

So, what does this mean for the Warriors’ immediate future and their plan for the trade deadline? Well, their plan, and dream scenario, is to acquire Giannis. Should he remain with the Bucks, the likelihood of Jonathan Kuminga remaining with the Warriors increases drastically, as he has a $24.3 million team option for the 2026-27 season.

Both Brooklyn Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. and New Orleans Pelicans wing Trey Murphy III are trade targets the Warriors expressed interest in, yet deals with either player won’t be happening before the trade deadline. In fact, it’s unlikely either player is traded over the next few days.

The Warriors are all-in on pursuing Giannis and attempting to finalize a trade before Thursday with the Bucks, which has led to a lot of speculation among rival front-office personnel about Lacob and Dunleavy exploring the idea of trading Draymond Green over Jimmy Butler.

Over the weekend, ClutchPoints checked in with sources close to the matter and the team to try and get a sense of where Giannis trade talks with the Warriors were at. Although not much has changed since last week, for the first time all year, there hasn’t been an emphatic “no” when asking if Green was completely off the table in trade talks for the Bucks superstar.

Unlike during the Anthony Davis trade rumors, when the Warriors were adamantly signaling Green would not be brought up in discussions, the same notion has not occurred as of late regarding Giannis. Could trading Green, a four-time NBA champion and nine-time All-Defensive star who has spent his entire career with the Warriors, be the key to getting a trade done in the next 72 hours?

One rival executive who has dealt with the Warriors before in trade talks spoke with ClutchPoints on Sunday and brought up the interesting scenario where Green himself could be on board with such a maneuver, where he could be traded and return next season alongside Curry, Butler, and Antetokounmpo, since he owns a $27.6 million player option.

“Look, without Jimmy, the Warriors aren’t getting to the NBA Finals, even if they added Giannis right now,” the executive told ClutchPoints. “If you leverage Draymond and get more assets, you can pull off the biggest blockbuster and leave these other teams wanting Giannis scrambling for answers. There is no doubt in my mind there are those who would immediately offer a first-round pick for Draymond to make a title push right now.

“I 100 percent believe there are teams who would essentially help the Warriors get Giannis if it meant they got Green for the next three or four months to pursue a title.”

This idea of trading Draymond now to get more assets for a trade with the Bucks, as the executive described it, could eventually lead to Green opting out of his contract in the summer and signing a more team-friendly deal, basically a 1+1 contract, with the Warriors as an unrestricted free agent. Such a move would keep the Warriors in good financial standing and allow Green to adjust his contract every year before retirement.

Again, this is simply something brought up by league personnel to ClutchPoints and not necessarily something actively being talked about between the Warriors, Green, and the Bucks. But at the same time, is it that hard to believe something like this could happen for Golden State if it meant acquiring Giannis?

The only way for the Warriors’ offer to change, other than including Butler, is to get a third team involved and move Green for extra assets to go to the Bucks with a slew of unprotected first-round picks, Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, and other assets. Outside of this hypothetical scenario, the Warriors’ offer is what it is and won’t change in the offseason.

That is why the Dubs want to seize their opportunity with the Bucks now and not let the door close.

Warriors’ other trade discussions before NBA trade deadline

Besides ongoing discussions about Giannis, the Warriors recently spoke with the Heat about Andrew Wiggins’ availability, sources said. These conversations were described by team sources as “exploratory,” with no real intention of a trade being completed in the moment. Many around the NBA have concluded that Golden State was seeing if acquiring Wiggins in addition to Giannis would be a possibility.

The Heat are not actively shopping Wiggins, and he is expected to remain in South Beach, especially with Miami also pursuing Antetokounmpo and holding onto every asset possible to maximize its trade offer to Milwaukee. Ongoing discussions have also been had between the Bucks and Heat regarding Antetokounmpo, yet league sources say Milwaukee wants all of Miami’s young assets, including Tyler Herro.

So far, it doesn’t seem like the Heat have made all of their assets readily available to trade at this deadline like the Warriors have, resulting in the Bucks’ counter-offers to this point.

Another team linked to Golden State throughout the season as a potential trade partner has been the Sacramento Kings, given their long-standing interest in Kuminga. After acquiring De’Andre Hunter from the Cleveland Cavaliers, it seems unlikely that the Kings would still want to desperately add Kuminga, but they have never truly had the chance to.

One Warriors source told ClutchPoints that talks with the Kings about Kuminga, both dating back to the offseason and before 2026 began, never went anywhere because Sacramento had “nothing worth sacrificing assets for.”

Malik Monk and DeMar DeRozan, two players the Kings constantly made available in talks for Kuminga, were of no interest to the Warriors, and now, with Keon Ellis gone (Golden State had interest), the chances of a trade between these two teams is essentially zero.

The Warriors want Giannis. Everyone around the NBA is aware of this, and the Bucks know that too. It will be a very interesting 72 hours to see whether Golden State can improve its offer for the Bucks superstar, as Milwaukee may very well be inclined to wait until the summer when every team’s best assets and draft picks are available.

Still, league personnel are on the edge of their seats, anticipating some sort of big trade happening fairly soon.

When playfully asking various agents, scouts, and front-office personnel their thoughts on Sunday about the trade market and who will follow up the Kings-Cavs-Bulls and Hawks-Blazers trades, expecting common names that have been floated around recently to be the talking points, almost every person hinted at something big being on the horizon.

The fact that no names or context was presented hints at something significant being discussed and making its rounds throughout front offices, so could this be early signs that Giannis will actually be traded? Is there something else brewing behind the scenes that we fully don’t know about yet?

Buckle up for the next few days, as things could get crazy if the Warriors or another team begin to close in on a trade for Giannis.

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