A pathway for the Celtics to trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst made every Celtics fan turn their head when he said that Boston could enter the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes on ESPN’s Get Up today.

“The move for Giannis if he has control is to go to the East,” Windhorst said. He later continued, “You have to look at the teams that could make a trade for Giannis that the Bucks would accept and on the other side of the trade would have a contending team. So, Boston would be on that list.”

It is tricky for the Celtics to be able to complete a move for Antetokounmpo because of where they are in the salary aprons. The only player they can trade for Giannis without being under the 2nd apron is Jayson Tatum because he is the only Celtic due to make more than Giannis is next season.

When a team is over the 2nd apron, they cannot acquire more salary in a trade than they are sending out and they also cannot put two or more salaries together in any trade.

Therefore, in order to make a Giannis trade, they would need to get under the second apron first.

That leads us to Kristaps Porzingis. If you remember in 2023, when the Celtics traded for Porzingis, the Utah Jazz had interest.

If Utah has interest again, there could be a deal where Boston could send Porzingis to the Jazz who send John Collins to the Hornets who send Grant Williams and Josh Okogie to the Celtics. That deal would save the Celtics $9 million and get them to $10 million over the 2nd apron.

Another issue could be Milwaukee wants more assets than Boston is willing to offer.

As a result, the Celtics could trade Derrick White to the Golden State Warriors for Buddy Hield, Moses Moody and first round picks in 2028, 2030 and 2032 (the 2030 pick is owed to the Wizards if it is 21-30 due to the Jordan Poole for Chris Paul trade).

That saves the Celtics $7 million, so they would be just about $3 million over the 2nd apron.

They then could take Hield and Okogie, attach the worst of their own, the Spurs and the Warriors 2028 first round pick to trade those guys to a team like the Wizards who could send a top-55 protected 2nd round pick in return — like what Boston got when they traded Jaden Springer to the Houston Rockets.

The Wizards are able to make this trade because they have the over $14 million non-tax payer mid-level exception plus a $9 million traded player exception they got in the Jonas Valančiūnas trade they made with the Sacramento Kings.

If the Celtics and Wizards did do a trade like that, maybe they work something out to make the 2030 Golden State pick fully unprotected by Boston sending extra 2nd rounders in the deal to Washington.

That saves the Celtics $16 million and gets them well under the 2nd apron so they would be able to fill out their roster after the hypothetical Antetokoumpo trade.

Since the Celtics would remain over the first apron, they would not be able to acquire more salary in any trade than they are sending out. Thus, Jaylen Brown for Antetokoumpo would not be a legal trade because Brown makes $1 million less than Antetokoumpo.

The Celtics could just attach one of Jordan Walsh or Xavier Tillman and their $2 million salary, pending on what the Bucks think of Walsh. If the Bucks like Walsh, they could take him and if not, Tillman works just the same.

A deal could be Antetokoumpo for Brown, Walsh, the Celtics 2026 or 2027 first round pick, the Warriors 2030 first round pick (only conveys if it is 1-20), the Warriors 2032 first round pick and a 2031 pick swap via the Celtics. The 2026 or 2027 pick would be a choice of what Milwaukee wants, similar to what we saw in the Anthony Davis to the Lakers trade and the James Harden to the 76ers trade.

Is the difference between Jaylen and Giannis three first round picks and a swap? I think it is around there. I love Jaylen, but Antetokounmpo is a top-5 player in the league. Pairing him with Tatum would be incredible.

It isn’t like you’d be gutting the Celtics entirely either. Players like Jrue Holiday, Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard would still be on the roster, they could re-sign Al Horford and Luke Kornet with the new found wiggle room under the 2nd apron and they added Moses Moody and Grant Williams as well.

It would be an awesome team with so much lineup flexibility.

Of course, then you have to consider the fact that Tatum is out for if not all of next season, most of next season.

Horford and Holiday aren’t getting any young and Antetokounmpo has played a lot of basketball. This team would have a very small window and it would very possibly be closed by the time Tatum gets back.

For that reason, I don’t think I would go down this path if I was running the Celtics.

The window for that specific team would be so short — one, maybe two years — and without Tatum, it is very unlikely the Celtics would be able to compete for a championship next season.

I don’t think that the juice is worth the squeeze for the Celtics were to make a move like this.

Any deal for Antetokounmpo would be very confusing, very complicated and is very unlikely. That does not mean it is impossible.