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NBA rumors: Insiders wonder if Knicks missed Giannis trade amid Jrue Holiday, Blazers talks
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- NBA rumors: Insiders wonder if Knicks missed Giannis trade amid Jrue Holiday, Blazers talks
NBA rumors: Insiders wonder if Knicks missed Giannis trade amid Jrue Holiday, Blazers talks appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
Amid Milwaukee Bucks trade rumors surrounding All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo , the New York Knicks have been linked to the making a potential deal for him, with rumblings about making a move for Portland Blazers' Jrue Holiday . However, as we inch closer to the trade deadline, there's growing skepticism on whether the Knicks acquire Holiday , as NBA fans wonder if Antetokounmpo could be headed to New York.
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If so, the Knicks will most likely need a third team to help facilitate a trade for Antetokounmpo, according to NBA insider Marc Stein.
"Is there a multi-team deal that the Knicks could assemble with Portland — which controls Milwaukee's drafts from 2028 to 2030 thanks to the original Lillard trade — to land Antetokounmpo (and maybe even Jrue Holiday as well) so they can furnish the Bucks with the sort of draft compensation that Milwaukee would be seeking? It's been a popular discussion topic among various league insiders since the weekend," Stein reports.
However, as things have evolved between Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, others wonder whether the Knicks' opportunity to trade for the Greek Freak has passed.
"There are likewise some well-placed observers who wonder if the Knicks might have missed their window for acquiring Antetokounmpo … since a complicated multi-team trade is realistically their only pathway to a workable deal," Stein added.
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"The Knicks don't have a first-round pick of their own to trade as we speak and share Minnesota 's luxury tax apron complications, so they would undoubtedly be rooting for Milwaukee to take its time from here and wait until the offseason."
Knicks need a third team to facilitate Giannis trade
Brad Penner-Imagn Images
The bright lights of Madison Square Garden and the Knicks are enticing to Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo . For a team that reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 25 years, the Knicks are hoping to build off last year's run, with potentially Antetokounmpo for the remaining 2025-26 regular season.
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However, the Knicks will have to give up two of their core players, including All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns , as NBA insider Marc Stein noted.
"If the Bucks ultimately decide that they want to do this in the next week, that multi-team transaction New York needs would almost certainly require them to trade away Towns and either Mikal Bridges or OG Anunoby in a matter of days," Stein said. "Which would represent a dramatic on-the-fly restructuring of a roster that New York has painstakingly assembled."
Still, the Knicks could have one advantage over other potential suitors for the Bucks' Antetokounmpo: their arena, Madison Square Garden.
"Antetokounmpo has long been assumed to have a strong interest in playing at Madison Square Garden in front of the NBA's most fervent fanbases and taking on the challenge, as he did as a Buck, of leading the franchise to its first championship after a wait of more than 50 years," Stein adds. "Yet it's unclear whether the Knicks and everything that comes with playing in Gotham appeals to him today in the same manner it was reputed to tempt Antetokounmpo in August."
The NBA trade deadline is February 5.
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