Now that the 2025-26 NBA season is officially over, that means all 30 teams are open for business, and trade season has begun once again. That means we're likely to see some kind of resolution in the Milwaukee Bucks' trade saga with franchise star Giannis Antetokounmpo, and according to Bill Simmons, the Boston Celtics are wasting no time getting involved.
In a recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, he shared what he's hearing about the Celtics' supposed trade offer for Giannis: "From what I heard, they made an offer [for Giannis] in the past week — a couple days before I mentioned it on Thursday. I don’t know what the offer was or who was in it, but [their] hat was in the ring, which I was really surprised by, as I said on Thursday, because I thought they were sitting it out."
If this is true and the Celtics are indeed sniffing around on a Giannis trade, it means they're dead serious about their intentions. Boston isn't a franchise that gets involved in something unless they've really thought it over. It also means they've come to a harsh realization about what it would take to win a Giannis sweepstakes, and where that leaves their franchise stars.
It's nearly impossible for the Boston Celtics to trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo without breaking up Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
Simmons has a good track record of sources and rumors in his home area of New England over the years, so if he has intel that they made an offer, there's probably something to it. Unless they pulled off some salary cap gymnastics or involved a third team, it would almost certainly have to include Jaylen Brown and/or Jayson Tatum — the franchise's star duo that brought home a title in 2024.
The only other way they could trade for Giannis and his $58.5 million deal is by offloading Derrick White, Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard, and potentially other rotation pieces who wouldn't be of value to a Milwaukee franchise trying to rebuild.
While Brown is beloved in Boston, it's no secret that he's second-fiddle to Tatum when healthy. Even if it's a 1A/1B situation, Brown is firmly in the 1B spot, which doesn't always seem to sit right with him. Nonetheless, it would be unrealistic for the Bucks to run back their lineup from last year with Brown instead of Antetokounmpo and expect to make any noise. And it would be 'Luka Doncic to the Lakers' levels of unprecedented for the Celtics to trade Tatum.
So if Giannis were to team up with Tatum in Boston, it would mean the Bucks are either content to bring Brown back to Milwaukee or flip him to a third team to build a stockpile of young talent and draft capital. If push comes to shove and they need to trade Giannis this summer, trading with Boston is an option for Milwaukee to recoup some assets and remain flexible for future opportunities. This would be a similar approach to how Portland handled the Damian Lillard trade back in 2023.
It still feels far-fetched that a Giannis for Brown swap would ever take place, but if there's one thing we know about the NBA, it's that anything could happen... even the deal you least expected.
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