The New York Knicks were not shy this summer about remaking their team.
After years of gathering assets and patiently biding their time to make a blockbuster trade for a star, the Knicks identified Mikal Bridges as the perfect fit and emptied most of the war chest to acquire him from the Brooklyn Nets. Then, with a major need at center after Isaiah Hartenstein walked in free agency and Mitchell Robinson was declared out for half of the season, they made a second mega-trade, sending out Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to gain Karl-Anthony Towns.
In making those two moves, the Knicks appeared to be setting their core in stone for the next couple of years. At one point they had been linked to an MVP-level star like Giannis Antetokounmpo, but with their assets now spent that appears to be a dream of the past.
What if it isn't?
As the Milwaukee Bucks continue their death spiral to start the season, a 2-8 start despite having their two stars largely available, the specter of a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade request looms large over the franchise. The roster around Giannis is old, injury-prone and slow, and they don't appear to be getting the coaching boost needed to overcome those challenges.
If Antetokounmpo does hit the trade market as early as the next few weeks, which teams would be in the running for his services? NBA Insider Marc Stein reported that four teams would be at the front of the line: the Miami Heat, the Golden State Warriors, the Brooklyn Nets...and the New York Knicks.
Stein explains that, far from a wish dream, a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade or something like it was actually in view of the Knicks when they made the Karl-Anthony
Could the Knicks trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo?
The first step in the New York Knicks trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo is a desire from the Knicks to move on from Karl-Anthony Towns. If they truly did have a future trade in mind when they traded for Towns, then it is much more likely they would be ready to pivot away from him. If they targeted him specifically, it would be a tough pill to swallow to flip him before he's had a chance to make his mark.
Assuming that they are on board, what does it look like to put a trade package together? It is certainly not an easy task, but there are a few pathways to do it.
Let's explore one such path and build out a trade to bring two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo to New York. Pairing two players who finished last season Top-5 in MVP is the kind of super-team "Avengers Assemble" moment you only see once a decade, and it usually leads to a title.
Let's dig deeper and see how the Knicks could bring such a moment to life.
Laying out a Trade to bring Giannis to New York
If anyone is paying attention to life in the NBA's new Collective Bargaining Agreement, then they know what the No. 1 impediment to a trade for the New York Knicks is going to be: money.
Not cash-on-hand, but rather the reality that the Knicks are hard-capped under the second luxury tax apron and have no margin to spare with their team salary. For them to take part in a trade, they will need to send out more money than they take back.
At the same time, the Milwaukee Bucks are currently over the second luxury tax apron, so they have to send out more money than they take back as well, and can only send out players one-at-a-time in a trade.
The Knicks solved that problem in the Karl-Anthony Towns trade by bringing in a third team and rerouting some of the salary from the deal to the Charlotte Hornets. That won't work in this situation for a myriad of reasons.
First, because the season has begun, teams can no longer sign-and-trade players, which is the trick the Knicks used to make both of their blockbuster trades this offseason happen. What's more, the Knicks can't trade their handful of young players to a third team, because they are needed to send to the Bucks as value for Antetokounmpo, because the Knicks are very nearly out of tradeable draft capital.
Keeping up so far? Here is where it gets even more complicated. The final reason this trade would be so difficult to figure out is that Karl-Anthony Towns actually makes more in salary that Giannis Antetokounmpo, $49.2 million for Towns vs $48.8 million for Antetokounmpo.
That means that the only way for the Knicks to build a trade involving Towns for Antetokounmpo is to get Milwaukee all of the way under the second luxury tax apron. That would mean the Bucks are allowed to send out multiple players in a deal, and can shed enough salary to make a trade legal.
Milwaukee is roughly $6.5 million over the second apron, so the Knicks would have to find a taker for $6.5 million plus whatever other salary the Knicks send to the Bucks as value in the trade. Including young players such as Tyler Kolek or Jericho Sims adds to that salary bill.
Ideally one team could just take on all of the needed salary in the deal, but the Knicks don't have much to incentivize other teams and they used up one potential trade partner when Charlotte helped out with the first Towns trade.
Is it possible? Yes, but it involves making this a four-team trade, and the Knicks squeezing every last drop out of their asset pool. Here is the deal, as first published on our sister site Hoops Habit, drawing in the Toronto Raptors and Chicago Bulls to build a deal that is legal and in the realm of possibility:
The Trade Details
Knicks receive: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Delon Wright
Bucks receive: Karl-Anthony Towns, Jericho Sims, Tyler Kolek, Pacome Dadiet, 1 first-round pick, four seconds
Raptors receive: Pat Connaughton, 2 seconds (from NYK)
Bulls receive: Marjon Beauchamp
The Bucks would restock the cupboards with young talent and begin building a new chapter of basketball around Karl-Anthony Towns, likely moving on from Brook Lopez and Khris Middleton in subsequent deals. The Knicks add another superstar in Giannis Antetokounmpo and take on Delon Wright to fill a roster slot and provide needed backcourt depth. The Toronto Raptors get a pair of seconds to take on Pat Connaughton's two remaining years of salary, while the Chicago Bulls take a flier on MarJon Beauchamp.
Does this trade work for all parties involved? Should the Knicks make this deal if it's available to them?
Why this trade works for the Bulls and Raptors
The Chicago Bulls are in a season of transition, adding young players to build out a new core as they move on from the old guard. DeMar DeRozan is gone, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic are prominently on the trade block, and players like Josh Giddey and Coby White are in place for the next chapter.
Where they are extremely thin is in the frontcourt, with Patrick Williams and little else in the way of young talent. MarJon Beauchamp had his team option declined by the Bucks and will hit free agency next summer, but the Bulls could give him some extended run this year and see if he can show signs of growth. Tossing a second-rounder into the deal in exchange for a long look at a recent first-round pick is a perfectly fine trade for them.
For the Toronto Raptors, the ask is a little higher. Pat Connaughton has fallen off a cliff as a productive player due to both age and injuries, and so the Raptors are being asked to not only take on his $9.4 million salary for this season, but the same amount again for 2025-26.
Given that the Raptors are almost certainly going to have a full cap sheet next summer and won't project to use cap space, they might be willing to entertain this deal for the payment of two second-rounders. They may hold out hope to rehabilitate Connaughton and flip him for value or as matching salary in a trade next summer.
Why this trade works for the Bucks
In essence, it probably does not.
That's not to say it isn't a decent offer from the New York Knicks - and ultimately, the best that they can do. They are trading nearly every young player they have left to the Bucks alongside a handful of second-round picks -- and of course, an All-Star center in Karl-Anthony Towns.
The reason this deal may work for the Bucks is that it gets them out of the second luxury tax apron, opening up their flexibility in moving on from the rest of the roster. They can better execute deals involving their other veteran players and maximizing the value of the return by shedding the trade restrictions of the second tax apron.
Tyler Kolek and Pacome Dadiet have both shown flashes even as rookies and would give Milwaukee two young guards to start building out a backcourt of the future. Jericho Sims could be developed as a future starter at center in the post-Brook-Lopez era. The first-round pick from Washington is protected and very likely to end up converting to two seconds, so it's somewhat like the Bucks are getting six second-rounders back in the deal.
The largest difficulty here is that the Bucks are essentially locking themselves into keeping Karl-Anthony Towns around as a foundational part of whatever retooling they are taking part in. Because they owe their own draft picks for the next half-decade, it doesn't behoove them to outright tank. Towns gives them a high floor to continue competing, but they won't have the flexibility of cap space or multiple players to pivot - they will almost certainly be a Towns team moving forward.
In the end, it just seems likely that someone else will beat this offer from the Knicks. Someone will offer a blue-chip young player or expiring money or truly valuable first-round picks, or likely a combination of all three. There may not be a player as accomplished as Towns, but the overall value will be higher.
The Bucks could say yes to this trade, but it's not likely that they do.
Grading this Giannis trade for the Knicks
Let's assume for the moment that the Milwaukee Bucks don't get a better offer, they really like Karl-Anthony Towns, and they are willing to make this trade. Should the New York Knicks pull the trigger?
On the surface, it obviously sounds like an amazing opportunity to pair Giannis Antetokounmpo with Jalen Brunson, giving the Knicks a pair of Top-10 players (at a minimum). One difficulty of building a championship team around Antetokounmpo has been his lack of floor-spacing, but that has never stopped Brunson before and he is a master of working his way into the cracks of a defense. Shift any attention to Brunson, and you have one of the best rim scorers in league history waiting.
Antetokounmpo would also juice the Knicks' transition game, as he is a freight train on the fast break and can grab-and-go to get things moving. Opposing defenses have to build a wall to protect the paint, and defending Brunson and stopping Antetokounmpo will mean a lot of open 3-pointers for the likes of Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby.
That brings up the true gem of this trade: the defense. If the Knicks have Bridges, Anunoby and Antetokounmpo all on the court, the potential to execute a number of defensive schemes at an elite level should have Tom Thibodeau writing love ballads. Antetokounmpo has taken a step back on defense from his athletic peak, but he is still a force on that end in a way that Karl-Anthony Towns -- or Julius Randle, for that matter -- simply wasn't.
The Knicks would still have a major problem at center; Antetokounmpo would almost certainly have to play some minutes at the 5, especially when closing games. That closing lineup would be fearsome, however: Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Precious Achiuwa, Miles McBride, Delon Wright and Matt Ryan would round out the bench, plus any veterans the Knicks sign with more salary flexibility under the second tax apron than they have before the deal.
The spacing will be cramped, and the Knicks will need to somehow get another center -- whether that is Mitchell Robinson getting healthy or nailing a buyout signing. But their defense and offense should both be top-10 units after this deal, and the star upside in the playoffs is immense.
This deal is a longshot to happen, but it's almost certainly because Milwaukee would have to be in love with this specific package and the options it opens up for them. From the Knicks' standpoint, despite their love for Towns and how recently they traded for him, this deal is a no-brainer. To get a talent like Antetokounmpo for this package is a slam dunk.
Now the Knicks just need Giannis to get an Empire State of Mind.
