You can guarantee that every NBA team whose season is already over has had discussions about whether they can get in on the bidding in the event that Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo becomes available via trade. It would be madness not to.
With the Bucks having fallen steadily backwards since their 2021 title victory, with no draft capital, no trade assets, no youth, a sticky salary cap picture and a severe injury to Damian Lillard, Giannis – who never before has been available – may be now. And when a top five player is on the market. teams owe it to themselves to have that chat.
The Detroit Pistons, therefore, should do the same. Having lost in the first round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs to the New York Knicks in six games, they are now looking to the offseason and how they can retool further. After all, the vibes are good right now.
Time For The Pistons To Kick On
For the Pistons, it has been an excellent year. Finishing above .500 for the first time since, they set an all-time NBA record for the biggest single-season turnaround , becoming the first team to ever triple its previous season’s win total, before going on to win their first playoff games in seventeen years .
Led by Cade Cunningham – who ascended to All-Star level for the first time – and flanked by other quality young pieces in Javier Duren, Jaden Ivey, Isaiah Stewart, Ron Holland and Ausar Thompson, the Pistons acquired solid veterans in the forms of Malik Beasley, Tim Hardaway and Tobias Harris in a successful bid to get out of the basement. They improved throughout the season, and once they added the highly impactful Dennis Schröder at the trade deadline, they became a dark horse in the Eastern Conference.
The question for the Pistons brain trust, then, becomes one of timelines.
Pistons Could Mirror The Path Of The Rockets
A team recently in a comparable situation were the Houston Rockets . While they initially bottomed out after the end of the James Harden era, finishing high in the lottery for three consecutive seasons, they then decided they had enough to move forward with, and consciously changed gear. They acquired Fred VanVleet, Dillon Brooks, Steven Adams and others, and decided to move on up, creating a winning culture and environment in order to better develop those youngsters.
It worked, too. Having won 52 games in the regular season, Houston finished second in the West this season, and still have their young core with which to develop further. They changed gears at the right time, and are already reaping the benefits, with plenty more still to come.
If they are able to get in on the Antetokounmpo bidding war, the Pistons could do a similar paradigm shift. And with all due respect to VanVleet, getting Giannis would be much more of a needle-mover.
Plenty Of Competition For Giannis
Of course, if Giannis really does request a trade, 29 teams will be bidding for him.
While he has entered the back nine of his career, Antetokounmpo is still at the height of his powers, a transcendent player who cannot be stopped from getting to where he wants to go. Every team will want him because every team would be massively improved by him. And as a result, all prospective trade packages will have to be lucrative.
If they are willing to part with some of the youth and assets they have acquired, though, the Pistons could make theirs very competitive indeed. Cunningham would be off the table, but if they in theory make everyone else available if the overall package is right, they could outbid much of the competition.
In a round-up of Giannis trades they would like to see , the staff at The Ringer compiled a package they thought would make sense. Duren, Ivey, Holland, Harris, a 2026 first-round pick, a 2028 first-round pick and a 2031 first-round pick is, in their estimation, enough of a haul of future assets and talent for the Bucks to justify trading Antetokounmpo within the same division, while leaving the Pistons with enough – particularly Cunningham and Thompson – to be able to do what the Rockets did and move up another level.
Changing timelines, of course, is not mandatory. Enough is going right in Detroit right now that a decision to keep going down the current path would be entirely justified. The hope is real; the urgency need not be forced.
Then again, there need only be one explicit trade request from Giannis, and everything could change in a flash. And the Pistons would be remiss not to explore the possibility. How often in NBA history has a top-five player been available in a trade? And how often have the Pistons been in a realistic position to land them?
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