With the Brooklyn Nets off to a surprisingly decent start, the rumor mill has been churning about whether they will be buyers on the trade market — and that Giannis Antetokounmpo could be on their radar.
To the shock of many, the Nets, who many believed would be at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings this season, have played better than preseason expectations through the first 10 games of the 2024-25 campaign. Although they only hold a 5-7 record, that is good enough for eighth in a very weak Eastern Conference, and questions around the Nets are changing from, “How bad will they be?” to “How good are they?”
Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, Antetokounmpo and the Bucks are struggling out of the gate. 11 games into the season, they are 3-8 and question marks around head coach Doc Rivers and his future with the team continue to swirl. The Bucks fired head coach Adrian Griffin midway through last season despite coaching Milwaukee to a 30-13 record. Doc Rivers replaced Griffin, and has since amassed a 20-27 record in his first 47 games with the team.
While things could always change with a team as talented as Milwaukee, the Bucks could move to break things down if their season gets any worse. Without question, Antetokounmpo would be their most valuable trade asset.
But are the Nets ready to make such a blockbuster move?
Brooklyn fans remember the 2018-19 Nets, who exceeded all expectations en route to a six-seed in the 2019 NBA playoffs. That summer, they hit the jackpot, signing Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, and in January 2021, trading for James Harden. Although the Nets didn’t get the result they wanted with that group, they were able to land on their feet. Acquiring pieces and draft capital in all three of the big three trades, and now sit with a plethora of draft picks, and young talent many doubted they had.
But the Big 3 of Durant, Irving and Harden never clicked, and championship aspirations went unfulfilled. The team was broken up, and the Nets have been in rebuild mode for the last two seasons — punctuated this past offseason by trading Mikal Bridges to the Knicks for five first-round picks.
Still, the Nets now have a war chest of draft picks that they can use to make a big deal for a franchise-changing superstar like Antetokounmpo. Ironically, that war chest includes the Bucks’ first-round pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
By potentially trading for Antetokounmpo, the Nets could potentially bring another superstar to Brooklyn and once again make the franchise a destination for other stars to join. Pairing rising star Cam Thomas with Antetokounmpo creates a strong foundation for a team with plenty of young talent and could once again put Brooklyn back on the map.
However, the question remains. Should the Nets short-circuit their rebuild to get one of the NBA’s biggest stars at the expense of their future – or see the rebuild all the way through?
