Grade the Mock Trade: Giannis joins forces with Wembanyama on Spurs

The San Antonio Spurs have one of the brightest futures in the NBA. A generational prospect, a 7'5" shot-blocking fiend with the ball skills of a wing, is the foundation on which they can build the next great team. Victor Wembanyama immediately changes the trajectory of the Spurs' franchise.

If he is as good as expected, the Spurs have a chance to compete for championships. He looks like a future Defensive Player of the Year with the offensive floor to be an All-NBA nominee and the offensive upside to win MVP. The Spurs don't need to rush anything, but at some point they'll have the opportunity to win titles if they find the right runningmate for Wembanyama.

One wild idea that has crept into the NBA consciousness in recent days is the possibility of two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo leaving the Milwaukee Bucks to join another team and compete at a high level. For all that they did succeed in putting a championship team around him in 2021, the aging core in Milwaukee may not have enough left to win a second.

If the Bucks were to decide to move on from Antetokounmpo, which is unlikely this summer but increasingly likely as his free agency approaches, teams like the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks have been rumored as potential options. Neither can put together a package like the San Antonio Spurs, however, and one Western Conference executive said the Spurs would be a dark horse candidate to land the Greek Freak.

What would a trade offer for Antetokounmpo look like? Would the Spurs be putting together a future title-winning pairing, or accelerating their timeline too quickly? Let's look at a potential deal and see whether it makes sense for both sides.

Laying out an Antetokounmpo trade

Building a trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo depends in part on whether the Milwaukee Bucks are looking to rebuild or want to stay competitive. Given that they have a roster built to win now and owe a number of future draft picks, it's likely they want to get younger, restock their draft pick cupboard but not completely tear things down.

With that in mind, Keldon Johnson looks like the obvious choice to build a trade around. He makes the Bucks younger and gives them a replacement at power forward, and Johnson's $20 million contract helps to get the Spurs toward the necessary matching salary. From there the Spurs would need to add some more salary, at least one other young player, and a strong handful of draft picks.

Here's one potential form of that deal:

The elephant in the room is that the Bucks are highly unlikely to trade Antetokounmpo right now, but let's assume for the moment that they are open to moving him. If so, this deal checks a lot of boxes for Milwaukee. Keldon Johnson and Jeremy Sochan give them a frontcourt pairing for the future, Doug McDermott and Reggie Bullock can be rotation wings or trade chips down the line, and worst-case they're expiring money to help the Bucks get out of the tax next season.

It's possible that they prefer a package with fewer players and more picks, and the best construction may be a three-team deal to reroute someone like Bullock or McDermott immediately and relieve the Bucks' roster crunch. One of the Bucks' recent second-round picks could go back to the Spurs ahead of being waived.

As currently constructed, this deal would also save Milwaukee $2.4 million, an important factor for a team in the luxury tax. This deal allows them to keep multiple paths forward open for now.

If the Bucks are on board, does this trade work for the Spurs?

Do the Spurs say yes to this deal?

There are two big-picture questions to ask when evaluating a superstar trade for the Spurs, and one smaller-picture question. The first thing they need to do is look at their team, at the skill level of VIctor Wembanyama right now, and ask if he is ready to win now. If they believe Wembanyama will step into the league as an All-Star and the right additions could make them a playoff team, this kind of a deal makes more sense.

If they have hesitations in that area, waiting to let this young core grow organically - which appears to be their current path - makes more sense. Still, that's not a given to helping them build a better contender; their young players will get more expensive and make it more difficult to clear max cap space to sign a star in free agency. Waiting isn't always better.

The second big question is whether Giannis Antetokounmpo is the right player to target in a superstar trade. Would Joel Embiid be a better player to pursue? Would a smaller swing for Zach LaVine be better? Do they wait for the Suns to fall apart and go after Devin Booker?

Those are all major question marks, and while having an on-ball guard or wing makes positional sense, the frontcourt pairing of Giannis and Victor is tantalizing. Antetokounmpo is elite as a rover and weakside shot-blocker, putting Wembanyama at the rim. On offense, Wembanyama's jumpshot and handle would force defenders to guard him on the perimeter, opening up space inside for Giannis, and a France-Greece pick-and-roll could go either way and absolutely shred defenders trying to figure out how to slow them down.

The final question is whether this package makes sense. The core the Spurs would be building around would be Tre Jones and Devin Vassell alongside Victor Wembanyama and Giannis Antetokounmpo. That's the foundation of a top-5 defense, but they would need to have shooting they can trust to fill out the lineup.

Adding a top-5 player is a nearly impossible task in the NBA, so pushing chips in to add Antetokounmpo makes sense. On the other hand, the best years of Wembanyama's career are still a half-decade away, and the Spurs don't have a winning infrastructure in place. Making a move for Giannis does seem like rushing the timeline.

Given the way Antetokounmpo's game will likely decline as he ages, this probably isn't the right move to make to push the chips in. But it's intriguing, and the pairing of Giannis and Wemby would be phenomenal.

Grade: B-