New Dark Horse Giannis Trade Destination Has Entered the Discussion

The Giannis Antetokounmpo trade sweepstakes is fully underway. Every day, we are getting more and more Giannis trade rumors in anticipation of the NBA trade deadline this week. The Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat have been the teams most linked to Giannis for an in-season trade, but recently, a new team has entered the discussion. 

Marc Stein of The Stein Line recently reported that the Portland Trail Blazers are also interested in landing the Greek Freak. 

“The Stein Line has learned that Portland has also expressed its own interest to the Bucks that it would like to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo ... even as the Blazers realistically understand that it would be an extreme longshot to convince Giannis to sign a contract extension that keeps him in the Pacific Northwest. The far more likely scenario remains Portland participating in such a deal as a facilitator to snag an impact veteran (or two) as part of a multi-team trade structure.”

The Trail Blazers aren’t the first team that comes to mind when you think of organizations that hunt for big stars. Over the last few decades, they’ve never traded for a major star, and no major star has signed with them in free agency. 

Unfortunately for the Blazers, if a team makes an in-season trade for Giannis, they kind of need some assurances that he will sign an extension with them. 

Giannis probably won’t agree to that in Portland. They don’t have the pieces that would allow him to compete for a championship immediately. They are a small market in the Western Conference. That also isn’t likely much of a selling point for Giannis. 

So, despite being interested, Stein is right, their involvement in any Giannis trade would likely be as a third team and not as the prize winner.