Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I know I just wrote about the Bucks in this newsletter a few days ago, but things just got even more worrisome for Milwaukee.
In today’s SI:AM:
🦌 Giannis on the market?
🤠 A new challenger for women's basketball's top spot
👋 Chris Paul’s ugly L.A. exit
If you’re reading this on SI.com, click here to subscribe and receive SI:AM directly in your inbox each morning.
Trade deadline season got started early
We might already know who the biggest target will be at this season’s NBA trade deadline.
Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo is “having conversations” with the franchise and “discussing whether his best fit is staying or a move elsewhere,” ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Wednesday.
While Antetokounmpo has not publicly requested a trade, leaking to ESPN that he’s begun entertaining the possibility seems like a way to grease the wheels for an eventual exit. Charania cited one source who believes a trade is “inevitable.”
Hours after the news broke, Antetokounmpo exited the Bucks’ game against the Pistons with a non-contact leg injury. He fell to the floor while jogging back on defense after dishing an assist to A.J. Green just three minutes into the first quarter and was seen walking gingerly to the locker room. The Bucks termed the injury a right calf strain and said he would undergo an MRI to determine the extent of the issue. Coach Doc Rivers told reporters that the team has ruled out an Achilles injury.
Giannis went down with a non-contact injury and has left the game...
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 4, 2025
Bucks say he's out for the rest of the game with a right calf strain. pic.twitter.com/garrhf69v1
Rivers also denied that Antetokounmpo has been discussing the possibility of a trade.
"I want to make it clear for the—I want to say one more time—for the 50th time, and clearly it’s not getting to one network, for sure, Giannis has never asked to be traded,” Rivers said. “Ever. I can’t make that more clear.”
Rivers also said “there’s been no conversations” between the Bucks and Antetokounmpo’s agent about a trade.
Giannis’s interest in moving on from Milwaukee is motivated by the Bucks’ losing record, Charania reported. The team is 10–13 after winning against the Pistons on Wednesday night, good for 10th place in the Eastern Conference. Rivers acknowledged that the team’s poor play is the reason Giannis’s future is under the microscope again.
“The reason that this is out is because we’re not playing well,” the coach said. “When we started out the season, I heard guys saying, ‘Man, they’re going to be really good.’ So, let’s just call a spade a spade. We’re not playing well. We had a tough loss the other night, and so now this is the subject matter. It’s no more true than it was this summer. Does it affect our team and our players? I hope not. I can tell you, after listening to our guys talk today, it doesn’t. But that doesn’t mean it won’t. I can’t answer that.”
Speculation about a potential Antetokounmpo trade first surfaced over the summer, when he was rumored to be interested in a move to the Knicks. Charania reported Wednesday that the Bucks granted New York a multi-week exclusive negotiating window in August, but the two sides were unable to reach an agreement. Should Giannis conclude that he wants to be dealt this time, Milwaukee will not put any restrictions on the bidding.
One thing to keep an eye on as this situation evolves is that any potential trade suddenly gets a lot easier to execute after Dec. 15, when players who signed contracts this offseason are eligible to be traded. Trade rumors could start flying in earnest after that date.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Seattle’s defense is channeling a familiar energy. While it’s no Legion of Boom reboot, Greg Bishop breaks down how this group is leading the way.
- He’s not the star he once was, but Chris Paul still deserved better than a midnight breakup talk. Chris Mannix details what really happened in L.A.
- Drake Maye and Matthew Stafford are neck and neck in the MVP race, but only one sits atop Matt Verderame’s latest QB rankings
- In his mailbag, Albert Breer discusses why Sean Payton deserves a harder look as a potential Coach of the Year candidate.
- After Texas rolled through UCLA and South Carolina, our latest SI women’s hoops roundtable breaks down whether it’s finally the Longhorns' year.
- Why did the U.S. stumble at Bethpage? Steve Stricker tells Bob Harig it was “a perfect storm” and reflects on what made his 2021 squad successful.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. Alex Ovechkin’s persistence while corraling a rebound for his 910th career goal.
4. A couple of nasty moves by the Capitals’ Ryan Leonard on a nice solo goal. (Although, I don’t know how hard the Sharks’ defense was playing since they were already down 6–0.)
3. A court storming in Minneapolis after Minnesota’s upset win over Indiana. It was the Golden Gophers’ first win in a conference opener since 2017 and first victory over the Hoosiers since ’19.
2. Myles Turner’s vicious dunk on Isaiah Stewart. (Stewart was ejected a few minutes later after picking up two technical fouls.)
1. Luke Kornet’s game-saving block at the buzzer.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Giannis’s Uncertain Future With the Bucks.
