NBA 2026-27 offseason trades, signings & rumors

[Who]

Otherwise, I can also see why Milwaukee may be enticed by that stash of draft picks. But Herro, Jacquez, Ware etc to build around with...is this the Milwaukee Heat? Giannis and Bam being a duo with nothing else around them? It's a lose/lose trade for both teams.

Trying to think what the Bucks would look like post-trade:

G: T Herro, K Porter Jr
G: R Rollins, AJ Green
F: Kyle Kuzma
F: B Portis, J Jaquez
C: M Turner, K Ware

It is not that bad of a team. That is 9 legit NBA rotation caliber players.

Hardest part of that squad would be getting them to play together on offense. Not much passing. None of the 3 bigs are passers. Not even average passers but non-passers. Kuzma isn't much of passer. Jaquez is their only frontcourt player who can pass. Two ball-handling guards which is good but both are average passers. T Herro the only guy who can consistently create his own offense.

With the exception of Herro, the other 4 members of that starting 5 are capable defenders. The bench gets weaker though. Jaquez. The bench guards. Ware at times plays D.

[Celtics2021]

So the issue with Jaylen being a part of the Giannis deal is that:

I'm not 100% sure Jaylen IS more valuable than the heat package, depending on what the Heat package is. On draft nice the Heat could in theory trade #13, 29', 31, 33' first rounders along with swaps in 28', 30', 32' plus Hero, Jaku, Jaquez and Ware*. Now obviously we don't know if all of that is on the table, but if I'm the Bucks I might prefer the pick heavy package from a team that will be locked into Giannis/Bam at Giannis' age 33-38 seasons over Jaylen.

Now, it depends on what you can spin Jaylen off for. If you can get back your own picks from Portland then that exceeds any MIA offer, but it's not obvious Portland would do that. I can see a scenario where they'd rather just keep those picks with the Bucks imploding. There's no other pick-based offer out there that is so obviously better than a bunch of Mia future draft capital. It would be a bit of a bet, but not a bad one.

Which leads to the whole problem with a Jaylen based offer: He'd the best individual piece the Bucks could get, but he's not the KIND of piece they want. Sure, Boston could blow away the MIA offer by doing Jaylen and a bunch of their own picks but they you get into the conversation of why you'd trade BOTH JAYLEN AND ALL YOUR PICKS. That's too much.

This is why 3 team teams are hard. You need to find a team that wants Jaylen at a 35% max, has the assets to offer a similar price to what Giannis would go for, and wouldn't simply pay that price for Giannis directly.

Couple things.  One, the Heat can not offer a first until 2030, because of protections on a pick that do not expire until 2028.  So it is three picks max.  #13, 2030, and 2032, or #13, 2031, 2033 if they wait until post draft.

Two, are they adding in a bunch of swaps?  Have not heard that.  If they do, the Celtics should let the Heat win the battle.  Not totally sure they can add all the swaps, either, because the Bucks are missing 1sts to swap some of those seasons.

The Heat would need to get Charlotte to remove the 1-14 protection for 2027, not sure how much Charlotte would require to do so.  But even if they don't Miami could still use "first allowable" language to conditionally give them picks in 29, 31, 33 with the downside of if Miami is in the lottery in 2027 the Bucks would essentially lose one of those picks.

As for the swaps the Bucks have picks in 2028, 2030, 2032. The 2028 one is swapped to hell, but that actually makes an incoming swap somewhat more valuable in that year. They own 2030 and 2032 outrtight.

Charlotte would definitely have them over a barrel for the protection removal.  If Charlotte agrees to remove it, the Heat get Giannis and so the pick is likely to be not great in a not great draft.  If they keep the Heat from getting Giannis, the pick is more likely to convey in 2028 to a worse Heat team than would give them a pick in 2027.

Meanwhile, the first allowable language would be really risky for the Bucks.  If the Heat retain their 2027 pick (unlikely but certainly not impossible given the new lottery odds) they cannot swap with Milwaukee because Milwaukee has no picks.  They would not get a pick in 2028 because it goes to Charlotte.  They could not get a pick in 2029 because of Stepian, nor swap because they do not have a first that year.  So the first pick they could get would be in 2030, allowing them picks in 2030 and 2032 and swaps in 2031 and 2033.  That is a very delayed compensation for Giannis, given they presumably do not like most of the players that would also come along.