The Toronto Raptors are a good team without an undeniable star player. Trading for Giannis Antetokounmpo seems like a longshot, but new hope has been granted after a group of experts showed the trade package that will get it done.
Trading for a star player is always a difficult exercise. Spend too much, and you end up with a team unable to compete around that superstar -- think Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks, or Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns. Offer too little, and you either get outbid -- the Miami Heat lost out on Damian Lillard, and the Knicks lost out on Donovan Mitchell -- or the team refuses to trade their star.
The Milwaukee Bucks are a team that does not want to give up Giannis Antetokounmpo, but he continues to put the writing on the wall in sharpie -- just without that official, harsh-sounding trade request. While the Bucks held on through this year's trade deadline, if Antetokounmpo refuses to sign an extension this offseason they may finally be forced to trade him.
Can Toronto trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo?
Could the Raptors pull off an Antetokounmpo trade? The odds are certainly long. Half of the league will be interested in trading for the Greek star and two-time MVP despite his recent injury issues and the bizarre saga of his yes/no trade desires.
Some of those teams will have elite prospects to offer that the Raptors cannot. Others have treasure chests overflowing with draft capital. Glamour markets such as Miami and Los Angeles could try to entice Antetokounmpo to put his finger on the scale. And his preferred team, the Knicks, could be desperate if they fall short in the playoffs once again.
Yet the Raptors have a shot. They don't owe any future draft picks to another team, they have a variety of options for matching salaries, and they are courageous enough to make a trade without knowing for sure he will re-sign in Toronto. That boldness could give them an edge in negotiations.
What package is the right one to offer? Trading Scottie Barnes seems unthinkable; he is worse than Giannis, certainly, but also much younger and much healthier. Home-grown All-Stars are rarely flipped for aging veteran stars, especially when they are the current franchise cornerstone.
Toronto therefore has to add together their veteran contracts with the right mixture of prospects and draft picks. Which combination is best? The front office was just given a road map from an unlikely source: law students.
The perfect Giannis trade package was just revealed
The Tulane Professional Basketball Negotiation Competition took place last weekend, hosted annually by the Tulane Sports Law Society, which welcomes teams of law students from around the country. They compete in a series of negotiation challenges simulating the very real negotiations held by player agents and NBA front offices every year.
This year, the competition's final round was a uique challenge: stand in for the Toronto Raptors' front office and negotiate with the Milwaukee Bucks a trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Success wasn't making a trade at all costs; it was coming away with Antetokounmpo without sacrificing too much in the process.
Only one of the teams pulled off the feat, convincing the "Bucks" to trade Antetokounmpo. And the trade offer that won the day can show Toronto how to get a deal done in real life.
The offer: Giannis and Bobby Portis to the Raptors in exchange for Brandon Ingram, RJ Barrett, Colin Murray-Boyles, first-round picks in 2026, '31 and '33, as well as first-round swaps in 2030 and '32 and second-round picks in 2029 and '30.
That's a lot of components, but it also maintains a single first-round pick for the Raptors, trading away three firsts and two swaps. They lose Barrett and Ingram but keep Immanuel Quickley, Jamal Shead and their collection of young shooting guards. The frontcourt becomes Antetokounmpo and Barnes, with either Jakob Poeltl at center or a small look with Barnes as the smallball 5.
Is that too much to give up? Perhaps. It doesn't give up everything, however, and this type of package is likely necessary to get Milwaukee to pull the trigger. The cost is high, but the upside is high as well. And this deal landed Toronto an all-time superstar -- in theory, at least.