Stephen A. Smith urges Bucks to trade Giannis in latest rant

The Milwaukee Bucks have been on the struggle bus of late, losing in blowout fashion to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday evening at home. The Bucks currently sit below the play-in line in the Eastern Conference, and with the NBA trade deadline coming up, many are encouraging the team to finally face reality and end the Giannis Antetokounmpo era.

One of those people is ESPN sports media personality Stephen A. Smith, who recently took to First Take to relay his thoughts.

“The Milwaukee Bucks need to wake the hell up and trade [Giannis]. You’re not going anywhere. … They’re not good! Period! You have no shot!” said Smith, per First Take on X, formerly Twitter.

Indeed, the Bucks are currently well below the .500 mark on the 2025-26 NBA season despite playing in the decidedly weaker of the two conferences.

While Antetokounmpo is continuing to put up Herculean stat lines seemingly on a nightly basis, he isn’t getting anywhere near enough support from his Bucks teammates so far this season.

Many expect that the Bucks’ front office, instead of finally looking for trade suitors for Antetokounmpo and embracing a rebuild, might instead look to swing a trade for another win-now piece that could theoretically help them get better in the short term. Some names that have come up on that front include Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, who recently reiterated his desire to stay in Memphis.

Meanwhile, the Bucks already pulled off a similar move this past offseason by stretching and waiving Damian Lillard’s contract in order to bring in free agent big man Myles Turner, but that has not yielded many positive results up to this point.

In any case, the NBA trade deadline is set for February 5. Meanwhile, the Bucks will next take the court on Friday evening at home against the Denver Nuggets.

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