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The Milwaukee Bucks aren't pushing back on the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumors.
In fact, just the opposite -- the Bucks are open for business.
ESPN's Shams Charania reported on Monday that the Bucks are taking "trade calls and offers" for Antetokounmpo.
"There is expected to be a robust market for Antetokounmpo, and ownership and front-office officials expect to maintain their trade deadline asking price of a young blue-chip talent and/or a surplus of draft picks, sources said," Charania writes.
The Bucks had already signaled that this would probably be their plan by shopping Giannis before the league's February trade deadline. But at that time, no deal came to fruition.
It would make some sense for the Bucks to continue their Antetokounmpo sale before the NBA Draft, which begins on June 23. That way, Milwaukee would know exactly what pick would be coming its way in return in a trade.
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If you do the trade sometime after the draft and it just involves future picks, there's no way to know for sure at the time just how valuable those might end up being.
Antetokounmpo has played his entire NBA career with the Bucks, and they won a championship together, but they haven't won a playoff series since 2022.
This season, they went 32-50 and didn't even make the play-in tournament. Giannis missed time with injury, but the Bucks weren't good enough, anyway.
Antetokounmpo would instantly make any team that acquired him a championship contender, and if they're already a strong team, could push toward being a title favorite.
Overall, Giannis has been calm about not pushing for a trade. But it seems that at some point soon, a deal might be coming anyway.
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