What did Milwaukee get for trading away Giannis Antetokounmpo? The Bucks sent Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis to the Miami Heat in a blockbuster deal announced on June 23, 2026. The trade was made official on July 6, once the NBA’s moratorium period ended.
Why did the Bucks move on from Giannis?
Antetokounmpo played only 36 games in 2025-26, a career low, after hyperextending his left knee in March.
The Bucks missed the playoffs that season. The trade closed out more than a year of speculation about his future in Milwaukee.
What exactly landed in Milwaukee?
The return package broke down into three parts.
- Players: Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kasparas Jakucionis.
- First-round picks: the 13th pick in the 2026 draft, plus future first-rounders in 2031 and 2033.
- Extras: a 2030 pick swap right and a 2033 second-round pick.
Who is Giannis playing alongside in Miami?
In Miami, Giannis will play alongside center Bam Adebayo under coach Erik Spoelstra.
What did Giannis say about leaving Milwaukee?
Antetokounmpo posted a farewell message to Bucks fans after the deal. “The city of Milwaukee will always be in my heart,” he wrote. “This is my home… It made me the man that I am today. That will never, ever change.”
How did Jon Horst explain the return?
Two days after the trade, Bucks general manager Jon Horst addressed the deal directly. He said the team chose Miami’s offer for the flexibility the draft assets and player ages give the rebuild.
“There is a sense of excitement because it’s a different challenge. It’s something new. I get excited about trying to put pieces together. We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Horst said.
What does Giannis leave behind in the record book?
Antetokounmpo left Milwaukee as the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, with 21,531 points in a Bucks uniform.
He is also the franchise’s all-time leading rebounder, a mark he took from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in December 2023.
That combination makes him only the fourth player in NBA history to lead a single franchise in points, rebounds and assists. The others are LeBron James with the Cavaliers, Michael Jordan with the Bulls and Kevin Garnett with the Timberwolves.
How long was Giannis with the Bucks?
Antetokounmpo, 31, was Milwaukee’s pick in the 2013 draft. He spent 13 full seasons with the franchise before the trade, a span some coverage rounds up to 14 years by counting from the draft year to the year of the trade.
He led the Bucks to the 2021 championship, the franchise’s first title since 1971. He also won two MVP awards during his time in Milwaukee.
What’s next for both teams?
Milwaukee begins a rebuild under coach Taylor Jenkins. The Bucks are leaning on point guard Ryan Rollins and the draft capital acquired in the trade.
The move adds to a busy stretch for basketball overall, coming in the same year women’s basketball just posted its biggest attendance boom in league history. It also lands amid broader shifts in how teams build rosters, a topic covered in our look at how analytics changed shot selection in basketball.
The trade was confirmed by the NBA, closing the book on Antetokounmpo’s run with the only franchise he had ever known. The Bucks now carry three first-round picks, a pick swap and a second-rounder into the next several drafts as the foundation of what comes after Giannis.
