Giannis Rumors Reveal Possible Tension for Injury Return Timeline If Bucks Don't Trade Star

If the Milwaukee Bucks don't trade Giannis Antetokounmpo ahead of Thursday's deadline, the team may prefer him to remain sidelined as long as possible with his current calf injury in an effort to prevent another injury and to essentially tank for a better draft pick.

But that could cause "tension" between the parties, as ESPN's Ramona Shelburne reported Monday.

"Giannis doesn't want to sit out," a source close to the superstar told ESPN. "He always wants to play, and if he plays, he wants to win."

The Bucks will either keep their own pick or have the New Orleans Pelicans' first-round selection in the 2026 draft, depending on which is lower. Given that the Pelicans currently have the second-worst record in the sport, it's very possible their selection could end up being a top-five pick.

That makes it likely the Bucks will keep their own selection, and the worse they are, the better the pick. Given that the team is currently 18-29 and four games back of the Atlanta Hawks for the final Play-In Tournament berth—and with Giannis out for at least a few weeks, that gap likely will only grow—the Bucks are very likely going to be a lottery team.

With a very strong draft class incoming, it's easy enough to see why the Bucks might be perfectly content punting on the remainder of the 2025-26 season. The Dallas Mavericks went into the 2025 NBA draft lottery with just a 1.8 percent chance to land the top overall pick and came away with Cooper Flagg, and even just landing in the top three this year could mean selecting a potential superstar like Darryn Peterson, AJ Dybantsa or Cameron Boozer.

All of this is a moot point, of course, if the Bucks trade Giannis this week. And if they don't trade him and decide not to play him down the stretch for tanking purposes, trading him in the summer would go from being a likelihood to basically a guarantee.

Milwaukee finds itself at an interesting crossroads, in other words. At this point, the least dramatic outcome is probably trading him before Thursday.