The Milwaukee Bucks are 11-18 and sitting 11th in the East, and that’s the kind of record that turns every conversation into a fork in the road.
They just blew a 16-point lead and lost 103-100 to the Timberwolves, and it felt like the perfect snapshot of where they are without Giannis Antetokounmpo: enough talent to build a cushion, not enough stability to survive the moment the game gets chaotic.
That’s why the “Giannis decision” isn’t just some talk-show topic. He’s out with what he clarified is a soleus strain, and he said he’s thinking 4-6 weeks, not the earlier short timeline.
And while he’s recovering, the Bucks are doing the thing teams do right before a trade deadline panic move: they’re sniffing around upgrades and doing background work on bigger names.
The Zach LaVine angle is the cleanest example. Sam Amick reported the Bucks have done “recent due diligence” on LaVine, and that’s not language you use if you’re sitting on your hands.
This is a franchise stuck between two modes, star-hunting to save the season, and bracing for the possibility that the biggest domino in the league could actually wobble.
1. Giannis Antetokounmpo
If Giannis moves, the NBA turns into a demolition derby overnight.
And the reason it’s even a conversation right now isn’t that people forgot how good he is. It’s because the Bucks’ season has drifted into the zone where “we’ll be fine when he’s back” starts sounding like wishful thinking instead of a plan.
Start with the basics. The Bucks are sitting 11th in the East. That’s brutal for a team built to win now. They’re not one tweak away from a top seed. They’re currently fighting just to look like a play-in team.
Then you look at what’s happened since he went down. The Bucks dropped another close one to the Timberwolves this week after leading by 16, and once again, the second half turned into mistakes, turnovers, and possessions that didn’t have a superstar answer button. That’s the part people don’t want to say out loud: when Giannis isn’t there, the Bucks don’t just lose points. They lose certainty.
This could still end with a return and a run. But the longer he sits, the more the standings harden, and the more pressure lands on the front office to pick a direction.
On the court, Giannis is still Giannis. He’s averaging 28.9 points, 10.1 rebounds, and 6.1 assists, shooting 63.9% from the field. That’s not “still good,” that’s “still a title cheat code.” The money matches the status too. He’s on a salary north of $54 million, which means any trade talks would instantly become a league-wide bidding war built around real star-level contracts and a mountain of picks.
The Bucks have started getting connected to “big game hunting” behavior even while Giannis is hurt. The Bucks have done background work on LaVine and kept tabs on other potential names like Anfernee Simons, which is exactly what a desperate team does when it knows the current roster isn’t enough.
That matters for one reason: it tells you the Bucks are still trying to build the “we’re upgrading around Giannis” path, not accepting the “we’re trading Giannis” path.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth. Those paths can collide.
If the Bucks pull off a star upgrade and it doesn’t immediately change the trajectory, the Giannis situation gets louder, not quieter. And if Giannis ever truly becomes available, the rest of the roster gets thrown into the fire instantly.
Because if Giannis goes, the Bucks don’t keep their veteran layer intact. Kyle Kuzma becomes a contract they flip for picks or younger pieces. Bobby Portis becomes a plug-and-play scoring big that contenders fight over. Myles Turner becomes the biggest “help a contender or jumpstart a rebuild” piece on the board. That’s what “it’s over” looks like in the modern NBA. The star leaves, and the veterans become liquidation items.
The league knows this, which is why the Giannis chatter never fully dies. Even when he tries to stamp it out.
And yes, he has pushed back. Giannis said he hasn’t personally had trade conversations and that he’s locked in, with his focus on recovery and winning. That’s important, and I’m not ignoring it.
But I’m also not pretending it ends the story, because the standings and the timeline don’t care about quotes. If his return lines up with another losing stretch, the pressure spikes again. And if the Bucks go star hunting, miss, and keep bleeding, that’s when you get the league’s favorite phrase: “monitoring the situation.”
My take: the Bucks are going to try the star-upgrade route first, because that’s what teams do before they accept the nuclear option. But the injury timeline stretching to 4-6 weeks is the kind of detail that tightens the deadline talk.
And if that keeps tightening, Giannis doesn’t just shake the NBA. He rewrites the entire season.
2. Kyle Kuzma
Kyle Kuzma sits at No. 2 because he’s the cleanest mid-size contract on the roster that can actually bring something back.
He’s averaging 13.5 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.2 assists while shooting 51.5% from the field and 32.9% from three. He makes about $22.4 million, which matters because that’s the exact salary slot you need to do real business without touching Giannis-level money.
A Kuzma trade is viewed as more likely than a Turner deal, and that tells you how league people see him: movable, useful, and priced correctly.
This is also the classic contender logic. Wings who can score a bit, rebound a bit, and defend in a pinch always get calls close to the deadline because somebody convinces themselves they’re one move away. If the Bucks decide they need to chase a bigger name, Kuzma’s contract becomes the base layer of the construction.
He’s also the type of player the Bucks can move without admitting defeat. Trading Kuzma isn’t “we’re blowing it up.” It’s “we’re reshaping the roster around Giannis,” which is the political language every front office uses when it wants to keep the room calm.
3. Bobby Portis
Bobby Portis is third because his value is obvious, and his contract is easy to move.
He’s averaging 12.3 points and 5.9 rebounds while shooting 49.3% from the field and an outrageous 47.7% from three. That’s instant offense, and every team thinks it can plug that into a playoff rotation.
He makes about $13.4 million, which is basically the sweet spot for a deadline deal: big enough to matter, small enough to match in a million different ways.
And Portis has already been floated in the “package player” category in recent reporting chatter. Yahoo explained that the Bucks could build a trade package around Kuzma and Portis to chase an impact move that drives Giannis to stay put in Milwaukee.
The uncomfortable part for the Bucks is fit. Portis gives you scoring punch, but if you’re trying to build a defense that survives playoff targeting, you can talk yourself into flipping him for a more scheme-proof piece. That’s not hate, that’s playoff math.
If the Bucks stay aggressive, Portis is the type of name that keeps popping up because he can help a contender tomorrow, and he can also be the salary bridge to something bigger.
4. Myles Turner
Myles Turner being on this list doesn’t mean the Bucks want to dump him. It means he’s one of the few contracts on the roster that can legitimately anchor a blockbuster if the Bucks choose a hard pivot.
Turner is averaging 12.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 1.5 blocks while shooting 42.9% from the field and 37.8% from three. He makes about $25.3 million, which is massive for trade-building purposes because it opens doors that Portis’ money can’t.
There’s also reporting context that matters here. Hoops Rumors noted Turner and Kuzma are basically the only Bucks in that mid-to-large salary band below Giannis, while also suggesting Kuzma is the more likely trade chip.
That’s exactly why Turner lands fourth. You don’t casually trade that brand new contract he signed this past offseason unless the move is huge.
If Giannis stays and the Bucks try to retool, Turner makes sense as a keep. If Giannis’ situation gets messy, Turner becomes the type of contract that can bring back multiple players or help make a three-team deal actually work.
5. Cole Anthony
Cole Anthony is fifth because he’s not a “headline trade,” he’s a mechanism.
He’s averaging 6.9 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 4.0 assists in 16.0 minutes while shooting 42.4% from the field and 27.5% from three. He’s also on a small contract, about $2.7 million.
That profile screams one thing: filler in a multi-player deal, or a name included to balance numbers, not to headline the return.
He also became trade-eligible in the December 15 window, along with a bunch of the Bucks’ newer contracts, which is usually when role players start getting tossed into rumors, even if nothing is imminent.
If the Bucks make a real trade, Anthony is the kind of player who could get rerouted, waived, or moved as part of the transaction math. That’s why he’s on the list.
Bottom line: the Bucks can try to patch this. But with the standings looking like this, and Giannis’ future being openly discussed in major reporting, the clock is loud.
