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Three Sixers-ish Takeaways From Giannis Antetokounmpo Being Traded to the Heat

Matt Schultz

By Matt Schultz

Published:

Mar 12, 2026; Miami, Florida, USA; Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) looks on after the game against the Miami Heat at Kaseya Center.
Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

After years of speculation, rumors, and trade machine brainstorming, it’s finally happened: The Milwaukee Bucks traded Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat. There’s a lot to get into. Let’s begin…

The Official Trade, per Shams

The Milwaukee Bucks are trading franchise icon Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis to the Miami Heat for Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, three first-round picks (including No. 13 in Tuesday’s NBA Draft), one pick swap, and one second-round pick, sources told ESPN.

Three Sixers-Adjacent Thoughts on the Trade

1) thank goodness this is over

We should all be glad this is over. Every trade demand situation in the NBA gets annoying by the end, but this one has to be among the most irritating in league history (and maybe American sports history). Giannis trade rumors have been consistent internet and podcast fodder since at least 2020, with Giannis himself adding fuel to the fire over and over again during the last two years. Remember when Giannis said he wanted to be a Buck for the rest of his career? Remember when he flip-flopped on that multiple times? Remember when he announced himself medically unable to play through half of last season without confirmation from doctors? Remember when he said it’s “not in his nature” to ask for a trade, but pretty much did?

This guy sucks. Having him in the news every day has been not good. Glad we can move on from this part. This part is a win for everyone. 

2) the Heat didn’t get that much better

I don’t see the Heat suddenly becoming major contenders in the East with Davion Mitchell, Norm Powell, Andrew Wiggins, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Bam Adebayo as their starting five. This will be a very Heat Culture team – they’ll be gritty and tough defensively, but my guess is they’ll have a tough time scoring the ball at a high enough clip to keep pace with teams like New York, Detroit, and Indiana.

Giannis on the Celtics actually made more sense to me. Boston infamously relies on the three-point shot to buoy its offense, and when those shots aren’t falling, they’ve been vulnerable (ex: a humiliating first-round loss to the Sixers after being up 3-1 in the series). Adding Giannis inside to balance that three-point-heavy approach would’ve made them way more dynamic offensively; in my opinion, this move would’ve made the Celtics the far and away favorites to come out of the East for the next two years, at least.  

The Heat are in a very different spot. They’re not an elite three-point shooting team, and Giannis playing next to Bam with Norm Powell handling a lot of the offense feels pretty clunky on paper.

All that being said, I’m not sure this Heat team is all that much better than the Bucks team Giannis just left, which is pretty good news for the Sixers. The playing field in the East didn’t get that much tougher. Things feel pretty much the same.

And that leads us to the third, and most important, Sixers-ish takeaway from the Giannis trade:

3) The Celtics lost out on Giannis, which is incredible

For the record, ever since the Celtics were rumored to be involved in the two-team Giannis sweepstakes, I’ve been prepared to spin any outcome as a bad one for Boston.

If the Celtics had landed the two-time MVP, I would’ve logged onto this website and said, “What a blunder. The Celtics just completely spazzed and traded away Jaylen Brown – who just finished sixth in MVP voting and is younger and healthier than Giannis – to get a big man who’s perennially hurt, on the wrong side of 30, and is owed a ton of money. What dumbasses.”

And I would’ve right. I would’ve stood by that. 

But this outcome might be even better for Celtics haters everywhere. The Celtics were all-in on Giannis. If he stays healthy, there’s no doubt he would’ve made their team way better. They were right there, about to close this deal… An undeniable championship window was about to fly wide open… 

But the Celtics didn’t get what they wanted, and now their fans have to take the L:

The reported reason for the deal falling apart is that the Celtics didn’t want to include Hugo González and Baylor Scheierman in the trade, which is so damn funny:

And by publicly trying and failing to make this trade, the front office just telegraphed to the rest of the NBA that its relationship with Jaylen has become untenable. The Celtics are stuck now. They can’t bring him back like nothing happened. They have to trade him, they have to trade him now, and the entire NBA knows it. Boston’s leverage is shot. It’s beautiful.

And to think… it was the Sixers coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the first round of the playoffs that started this entire Boston downfall. If Joel Embiid never owned the Celtics so brutally, so thoroughly, so humiliatingly, Jaylen Brown may never have lost his mind on Twitch, the Celtics may never have turned on him, and this entire disaster may never have happened…

The Celtics are in hell today, and it’s not because of the Bucks or the Heat…

It’s because of the Sixers… 

Yes… This is the narrative. I will not back down from this…

Matt Schultz
Matt Schultz

Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com

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