Milwaukee Bucks Inform Teams They Will Not Trade Giannis Antetokounmpo Before Deadline

Giannis Antetokounmpo is going to remain a Milwaukee Buck.

At least through the end of the season. Then this summer, the entire soap opera starts up again.

The Milwaukee Bucks have formally told suitors they will not be trading Antetokounmpo at the trade deadline, something that clearly had been building for a couple of days but now has been formalized, reports Shams Charania of ESPN.

Things were clearly headed this direction when the two most aggressive suitors for Antetokounmpo — the Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves — pivoted in the last 12 hours and began making other trades. The Warriors traded Jonathan Kuminga to Atlanta, and the Timberwolves traded Rob Dillingham and others to Chicago for Ayo Dosunmu.

For years — and even up until about a month ago — Milwaukee brushed aside any team calling to check on Antetokounmpo's trade availability. However, the team's struggles and Antetokounmpo's frustration with that changed the dynamic.

After finally agreeing to listen to offers for Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee's front office spent the last couple of weeks taking calls and surveying the market. However, they gave other teams the impression that this was more of a fact-finding mission to gauge the market for Antetokounmpo, rather than a genuine desire to trade him, league sources told NBC Sports.

If maximizing their return was the Bucks' primary goal, waiting until the offseason to trade Antetokounmpo was always the logical play. However, these kinds of blockbuster deals gain their own momentum, and logic sometimes flies out the window.

It will be a little awkward in Milwaukee the rest of the season. Not because Antetokounmpo will be disruptive or a bad teammate, but because it's in the best interest of the organization to tank and get as high a draft pick as they can. Milwaukee will have the second-best pick among those owned by the Pelicans, Bucks, and Hawks — right now, the Pelicans have the second-worst record in the league, the Bucks the ninth, and Atlanta is 14th. Milwaukee should try to tank its way to improved lottery odds, but when Antetokounmpo's calf heals, he will want to play and win games, not sit out. Those could be interesting conversations.

The Antetokounmpo trade saga is not done. These conversations will resume in the offseason, when more teams — specifically the New York Knicks, Miami Heat, and Los Angeles Lakers — will have more draft assets to trade and greater flexibility to make moves.

For now, the Bucks have already moved on, trading Cole Anthony and Amir Coffey to the Phoenix Suns for Nick Richards and Nigel Hayes-Davis. This is a small trade of teams swapping expiring contracts, but it's a sign that the Bucks are done with Antetokounmpo trade talks.

For now.