Would Celtics Really Trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo? Breaking Down Pros and Cons of Possible Blockbuster

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The Giannis Antetokounmpo trade sweepstakes seem to be nearing a conclusion, and two teams appear to be left standing in pursuit of the former MVP’s services: the Heat and Celtics.

The reasoning behind the Heat’s interest is clear, as is the underwhelming quality of their trade package. Miami is stuck in no-man’s land as a good team built around an elite defender in Bam Adebayo but must upgrade to compete for titles. Antetokounmpo is the biggest upgrade Pat Riley could dream of, but without offering up Adebayo the Heat can’t really outbid competitors with a mediocre trade package that features the No. 13 pick as the centerpiece and a variety of interesting, cost-controlled talents that lack star potential.

The Celtics are a much different and therefore more interesting possibility. What’s more, the last 24 hours have brought more and more reports linking Boston to Giannis. Early in the morning on Sunday, NBA insider Marc Stein reported the C’s have a “real shot” of landing Antetokounmpo, which was followed by a Brian Windhorst report on ESPN that they were willing to put Jaylen Brown in a deal and were “all in” on pursuing the Bucks’ superstar. To put a bow on the rumor mill, Shams Charania reported Boston and Miami were the two finalists, the final deal would only include two teams rather than a mega-transaction involving three or four teams (as had been rumored previously), and the expectation is that the trade will be done by Tuesday night’s draft.

That’s quite a bit of smoke when it comes to the Celtics’ interest in Antetokounmpo and willingness to include Brown, coming off an All-NBA season. Would team president Brad Stevens really break up the championship duo of Jayson Tatum and Brown to get it done? It’s a fascinating decision, and one that will come with significant ramifications.

To fully grasp them, let’s break down the pros and cons of this possible blockbuster for Boston.

Pro: Giannis is a two-time MVP

The biggest and most obvious pro is also the simplest: Giannis is really, really good. It’s easy to forget just how good after he was limited to 36 games due to injury this past season and significantly more attention was paid to his off-court spats with the Bucks franchise than any of his on-court skill. But no one would contest that he is a top-five player in the NBA when healthy. Antetokounmpo isn’t quite the same player he was when he won his last MVP in 2020, but he still averaged 27.6 points and 9.8 rebounds per game last year while operating as one of the league’s most versatile big man defenders.

To put it in basic terms: Antetokounmpo is still good enough to be the best player on a championship team when he’s at full strength. Few players in the league can tip the scales of contention like he can, and they only become available on the trade market once every five or so years. This is an exceptionally rare opportunity for the Celtics and is guaranteed to make the team better on paper no matter the context.

Con: An extremely physical playstyle makes recent injury history even more concerning

On paper is the key phrase in that final sentence of the above paragraph. Because Antetokounmpo is not guaranteed to be on the floor. Far from it.

The two-time MVP has made a great career out of being the new-age Shaq. His primary plan of attack (as well as his second and third options) is to bulldoze whatever defenders sit between him and the rim. It has obviously brought him great success, but even someone nicknamed the “Greek Freak” can only take so much punishment before the body starts to rebel. Antetokounmpo appears to be at that point. He’s missed 61 games in the last two seasons combined. More worrying: he was sidelined for eight of Milwaukee’s 16 playoff games over the team’s last three playoff appearances.

Antetokounmpo is obviously an excellent player but is showing signs of wear and tear at 31 years old. And while matters might not get worse in that arena, they probably won’t get much better given the nature of his minutes on the court. The Celtics could try to limit how often he plays to manage any possible injury risk, but when he’s active, Antetokounmpo is going to be slamming into people all over the place. A tiger cannot change its stripes, so all Boston can really do is hope he doesn’t get hurt again. Which did not work out for Milwaukee over the last four years.

Pro: Giannis and Tatum would be the best star duo in the NBA

Back to presuming Antetokounmpo is healthy—he and Tatum would automatically become the best duo in the NBA in terms of sheer talent level. Not a single other roster boasts two automatic first-team All-NBA talents when they’re healthy. Obviously, there are some question marks with Giannis in that regard, as mentioned above, but also with Tatum too; we don’t know how close he’ll be to the top-10 (at worst) player he was before tearing his Achilles.

But even if Tatum is only 90% of the guy he once was, that’s an absurdly talented pair of players with perfectly complementary skillsets. Tatum is a top-tier ballhandler at this stage in his career and a genuinely elite passer who cannot be left alone when defenses try to build a wall in front of Antetokounmpo. It makes for an impossible choice—opponents can’t leave either player on an island because they’re talented enough to score on any defender, but they can’t put the full focus of the defense on one without giving the other an advantage. Defensively, they’re a dangerous frontcourt pairing even if neither is a true “stopper,” as both players boast great instincts and elite wingspans to hinder any opponent in their airspace.

This is a duo not only good enough to win a championship, but good enough to be seen as the biggest threat to the Knicks’ throne before even stepping foot on the floor together. That’s how dangerous this pairing would be.

Con: The Tatum-Brown duo is already one of the best in the NBA

But the Celtics already have a championship-caliber duo, and that’s what makes this trade wildly risky for Boston.

Tatum and Brown work in every way possible. The franchise knows that. They have different personalities, but have meshed in their nine seasons together anyway both on and off the court. Their skillsets overlap more than would be considered ideal, but two-way superstar wings still rule this NBA and the Celtics have two of those, neither of whom have turned 30 yet. They won one championship together, hundreds of regular-season games and dozens of playoff games while racking up enough stats to individually rank quite highly on the decorated organization’s all-time leaderboards. Taking the emotion of breaking them up out of the equation, the Brown-Tatum combo is talented enough to serve as the foundation for contending Boston teams for the next five years.

But they wouldn’t be favorites. The Celtics with Antetokounmpo would be favorites. Does Boston want to sleep soundly knowing Tatum and Brown will give the team a chance to win a title every year, no matter how slim? Or are the theoretical highs of bringing in an Antetokounmpo-sized talent too enticing, even with the risks inherent?

Brown is a Celtics legend at this point after 10 years and a Finals MVP. He gets along with Tatum and proved last year he is a No. 1 option as a scoring talent, nearly to the same level as his superstar teammate. His only flaw in this conversation is that he isn’t as good as Antetokounmpo.

It isn’t an easy choice for Stevens and that’s why the deal isn’t done yet. He must decide whether he wants to try to stack the deck in the Celtics’ favor by trading for Antetokounmpo. The alternative is to trust the known, high-floor quantity of the Tatum-Brown duo and keep tinkering with the roster around them to give Boston the ceiling necessary to annually compete for championships.

It’s a good problem to have at large. Stevens is essentially choosing between a second-team All-NBA talent in Brown or an MVP talent in Antetokounmpo. But the wrong choice could kill the Celtics’ championship hopes during Tatum’s prime.

No pressure, Brad.

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Published Jun 22, 2026 | Modified Jun 22, 2026LIAM MCKEONE

Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.

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