Grading a rumored blockbuster trade to bring East superstar to the Warriors

Laying out the details of the trade

Giannis Antetokounmpo is 30 years old and the young buck (pardon the pun) of the Milwaukee core. Starting center Brook Lopez is 36 years old this season, Khris Middleton is 34, and Antetokounmpo's relatively new co-star Damian Lillard is 34.

The role players don't inject much youth into the equation, either. Pat Connaughton and Bobby Portis are longtime rotation players and are 32 and 29 years old, respectively. The team signed 32-year-old Delon Wright and 30-year-old Taurean Prince to step into back-end rotation roles this season. The youth movement for the Bucks was signing Gary Trent Jr., bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 26 years old.

The best-case scenario for the Bucks is that all of those players are healthy, and their combination of talent and experience propels them to a deep playoff run. Once you factor in that they are extremely unlikely to be healthy, that players like Lillard and Lopez seem primed to take a step back, and head coach Doc Rivers seeming to not want the job and not to have been particularly good at it last season, you get a house of cards waiting to fall.

Let's explore the scenario where things fall apart, the Bucks start 11-30, and Antetokounmpo sees the writing on the wall and asks out. If it doesn't get better this season, it's not going to be better. How can the Warriors put together a trade package for the Greek superstar?

There are enormous salary cap difficulties to be overcome right from the start. The Milwaukee Bucks are over the second luxury tax apron, which means they cannot aggregate salaries; that is, they can only trade players one at a time. Additionally, they have to send out more money than they receive.

For the Warriors, they are pressed up against the first tax apron, so they can't take back money either; they are hard-capped at that apron, which means they can't exceed it for any reason. If they need to take back less money, and the Bucks need to take back less money, a third team is essentially required (technically the teams could use a minimum salary going to Milwaukee to make a 1-for-1 deal work if the money is essentially break-even, but the Warriors don't have the right salaries to make that happen).

Therefore, here is a deal where the Toronto Raptors step in as a third team to help facilitate the deal:

Golden State Warriors Receive: Giannis Antetokounmpo

Milwaukee Bucks Receive: Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, Kevon Looney, Trayce Jackson-Davis, Bruce Brown, 3x First-Round Picks, 2x First-Round Pick Swaps

Toronto Raptors Receive: Andrew Wiggins, Lindy Waters III, 2026 Second-Round Pick (ATL)

The Toronto Raptors step in and send Bruce Brown's expiring contract to the Milwaukee Bucks, and their flexibility under the luxury tax allows them to take back more salary than that; they add Andrew Wiggins' contract and the minimum deal of Lindy Waters III. Wiggins rehabilitating his value in his hometown of Toronto makes a lot of sense, and they get a valuable second-round pick for their troubles.

What about Milwaukee and Golden State - is this deal enough for them?