The Milwaukee Bucks have gotten off to a 1-6 start to the season, and the vultures are already circling. Giannis Antetokounmpo trade speculation has been going for a while now, ever since the Bucks’ disappointing 2023-2024 season which saw the addition of Damian Lillard and the departure of head coach Adrian Griffin, although at the time of his release, the Bucks were 17 games over .500 and in second place in the Eastern Conference

Since that time and after the hiring of Doc Rivers, the Milwaukee Bucks have been an unmitigated disaster. They finished last season third in the East at 49-33, and after losing Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo to injury, they lost in six games to the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs.

Let’s face it, the national media does not like when superstars are in small markets. They have been trying to produce some scenario that lands Giannis on the Lakers, Knicks, or Nets for a couple of years now. However, the reality is that there are very few teams in the league better positioned to give Milwaukee the assets they would want in a trade for Giannis than the Houston Rockets.

The Rockets have a stockpile of young talent and draft assets to go along with moveable contracts on some veterans and the security blanket of contract extensions for Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun, should one of them be involved in a move. These assets, no doubt would be very intriguing to Milwaukee if they decided that they were ready to start over and rebuild.

But you are currently reading The Dream Shake, who cares about what would be good for the Bucks. Should Rafael Stone and Tillman Fertitta have any interest in trying to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo? The answer is no, in my opinion.

Yes, Giannis is still a top 10-to-15 player in the NBA. He would be a significant talent upgrade at the forward position for this team. However, the idea of giving up young players who hold potential in return for someone who’s been in the league for 11 years now and still cannot shoot and surround that person with a bunch of other young players who can’t shoot, seems like a horrible idea. Especially since Giannis will be costing you not just most of the young talent you have, but also, you would be paying him somewhere between $60 million and $70 million a year, just to be in a situation not much better than the one he has in Milwaukee.

If you want to win with Giannis, you have to surround him with shooters, and the Rockets have no shooters. A trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo will no doubt have to include young Reed Sheppard, the only true shooter on the team. Adding a bad shooter to a team of more bad shooters, for the sake of Giannis’ soon to be waning athleticism and dominance honestly seems silly. If the Rockets were to acquire Giannis, does anyone think that they would be ready to compete for a championship? Because that is going to be the standard for Giannis If he is going to leave the only NBA home he’s ever known.

In order to get Giannis, you’re probably going to have to include either Alperen Sengun or Jalen Green as well. However, just one of those two will not be enough. We’ve already determined that Reed Shepherd will be included in the package and more than likely, you’d have to come off either Amen Thompson, Cam Whitmore or Tari Eason. Most, if not all of the draft picks you acquired from the Phoenix Suns would also have to be included. The only reason the Rockets should make a move like that is if they thought that it immediately made them championship contenders, and I regret to inform you all that Giannis is not good enough to carry what would be left of this team. Not in the Western Conference.

I’m not saying that the Houston Rockets should completely avoid any conversation of trading their assets for an established star player, I’m just saying that Giannis Antetokounmpo is not it. Not for this team. Outside of maybe Devin Booker if the Phoenix Suns collapse, I don’t know that there are many young stars who would be worth that hole that are currently available in a trade.

I believe the Rockets’ best move is to be patient with the young team they have right now and let them play another season together and learn each other and develop even more chemistry. I know patience is an exceedingly difficult thing to ask for in the world of sports, with salaries getting higher and higher, along with ticket prices getting higher, combined with the fact that we already live in a world that runs on instant gratification. I know it’s difficult. When we look at this young Rockets team over their first six games, it’s clear that they’re still struggling with consistency, but that is part of the process.

Can Rafael Stone, and more importantly Tillman Fertitta, who we all know desperately wants to win, resist the urge to disrupt the development of that chemistry and shove all of his chips in the center of the table for a 29, soon-to-be 30-year-old basketball player who largely relies on his enormous size and athleticism and heavily depends on the players around him to be good and efficient shooters?

I certainly hope so. I know Rockets fans would love to see their basketball team in all the headlines and get all of the attention that would come with this move, but to me, it makes very little basketball sense. I do think it’s a good thing that the Rockets have the assets. They need to make a move for a big time player. I just don’t think Giannis is the big-time player that the Rockets would need push the into the realm of championship contender.