Bucks trading Giannis Antetokounmpo to Heat for haul of players, picks

The Milwaukee Bucks are trading franchise icon Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis to the Miami Heat for Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, three first-round picks (including No. 13 in Tuesday’s NBA draft), one pick swap and one second-round pick, sources told ESPN.

The Heat are sending to Milwaukee unprotected first-rounders in 2031 and 2033 along with No. 13, a pick swap in 2030 and a 2033 second-rounder, according to sources.

The trade does not include any additional teams — it is a one-to-one move, sources said — but both the Heat and the Bucks will execute the deal July 6, which leaves the framework open to see whether there are opportunities to expand. Last June, the Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets agreed to a deal that ultimately increased to a historic seven-team trade.

Heat president Pat Riley now makes his long-anticipated new landmark acquisition, with Antetokounmpo joining elite Miami pickups such as LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Bosh, Alonzo Mourning and Jimmy Butler over the past 30-plus years. Riley will pair the two-time NBA MVP and 2021 Finals MVP with Bam Adebayo to lead contention in the Eastern Conference.

The Heat’s title odds went from 30-1 (ninth shortest) Monday morning to 18-1 (fifth shortest) at DraftKings Sportsbook after news of the trade broke Monday night.

The Bucks are acquiring four players in their 20s in the deal. Herro, who grew up just outside Milwaukee and attended Whitnall High School in Greenfield, Wisconsin, made the All-Star team in 2025 and averaged 19.5 points per game over seven seasons with the Heat. The 26-year-old played just 33 games last season after undergoing surgery on his left foot in September.

Jaquez, 25, finished second on the Sixth Man of the Year ballot last season, after he averaged 15.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.7 assists over 75 games. Ware, 22, averaged 11.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per game, but the 7-footer was in and out of coach Erik Spoelstra’s rotation. The 20-year-old Jakucionis was the No. 20 pick in last year’s draft and averaged 6.2 points in 17.8 minutes per game.

After informing teams that the Bucks were open for business at the NBA draft combine in May, general manager Jon Horst landed a haul with the Heat’s offer that brings high-level starting/rotation players and young talent as well as surplus draft capital.

The Bucks seriously negotiated with two finalists in recent weeks: the Heat and the Boston Celtics, who were both on Antetokounmpo’s list of preferred destinations. The Celtics registered interest in Antetokounmpo at the trade deadline in February, and they aggressively pursued him this time around, offering Milwaukee a package featuring 2024 Finals MVP Jaylen Brown and two first-round picks, according to sources.

The Bucks chose the Heat’s offer to bring more flexibility and a big-picture approach with controlled contracts and long-term competitiveness for new coach Taylor Jenkins to imagine the next generation of Milwaukee — versus a veteran, win-now, superstar-player-led package that places the immediate focus on the present. Horst and Heat general manager Andy Elisburg finalized the agreement Monday night.

Celtics president Brad Stevens has not actively shopped Brown in trade talks, sources said, but the franchise has now offered Brown twice for future Hall of Famers over the past four offseasons. In 2022, Brown was the centerpiece of Boston’s proposal to the Brooklyn Nets for Kevin Durant.

For the Bucks and teams interested in Antetokounmpo, his ability to influence talks played a role. He has one guaranteed year left on his contract ahead of a 2027 player option. It gave him power in dictating which team he was willing to give a long-term commitment, because any team trading for Antetokounmpo in the second-apron era of a parity-driven collective bargaining agreement wanted to know whether he would sign a new extension.

According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, Antetokounmpo will be eligible starting Jan. 6 to sign an extension for four years and $275 million if he opts out or three years and $214 million if he opts in.

Antetokounmpo spent 13 seasons in Milwaukee, growing from a lanky, unheralded first-round pick to racking up accolades. He was a 10-time All-Star, a two-time MVP and a Defensive Player of the Year (2020).

He led Milwaukee to its first championship in 50 years when the Bucks took the 2021 title, winning Finals MVP while averaging 35.2 points, 13.2 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.8 blocks in the series. In doing so, he became the only player in NBA history with five All-Star selections, five All-NBA selections, multiple MVPs, a Finals MVP and a DPOY before his 27th birthday.

With Portis included in the deal and Thanasis Antetokounmpo a free agent, no players from the Bucks’ 2021 title team remain in Milwaukee.

The move ends an awkward saga between Antetokounmpo and the Bucks that had dragged on for more than a year.

Sources told ESPN that Antetokounmpo and his agent, Alex Saratsis, consistently informed the Bucks from May 2025 through last month that the franchise legend wanted a trade from the organization because he believed it was best for both sides to part ways. Antetokounmpo’s representatives informed the Bucks several times over the past 13 months — including before, during and after the season — that he would not sign another long-term extension with the team, according to sources. The Bucks made the decision to hold on to Antetokounmpo at every turn over the past year — before beginning to listen to aggressive offers at the February trade deadline.

Antetokounmpo and Saratsis stuck to their stance, trying to handle the trade as privately as possible, and received their wish of landing in one of Antetokounmpo’s preferred destinations.

In 2021, Antetokounmpo brought Milwaukee its first NBA title since 1971, but his frustration with the team began to grow with the Bucks’ repeated failures in the playoffs ever since.

The team has won one playoff series (2022) since the championship and crashed out of the playoffs with three straight first-round exits before missing the playoffs entirely this past season at 32-50. Since winning a title, Antetokounmpo has often repeated his desire to compete for a second championship.

Last summer, in the wake of a third consecutive first-round exit and a dwindling chance of competing in the East, Horst attempted to sell Antetokounmpo on a roster that could still contend. Milwaukee made an unprecedented move to waive and stretch the remaining $113 million on Damian Lillard’s contract over five seasons in order to sign center Myles Turner for four years and $108 million. During a meeting in Greece with Antetokounmpo in July, Horst continued his sales pitch and told Antetokounmpo that he believed the team would contend in the East.

Still, Antetokounmpo pushed for a trade, with his reps making it clear that the New York Knicks were his preferred destination. The Bucks and the Knicks briefly engaged in discussions last summer, but New York never believed Milwaukee seriously considered trading its superstar. The Bucks, on the other hand, believed the Knicks’ offers were never serious enough.

Antetokounmpo began the season pledging his loyalty to the Bucks, while also acknowledging that “if in six, seven months I change my mind, I think that’s human too.”

It didn’t take that long, as Milwaukee’s season quickly spiraled. The Bucks were under .500 by the start of December, when Antetokounmpo and his agent reiterated to Horst a message they had delivered since May 2025: The franchise was not in position to compete, and the time had come to part ways. Although Antetokounmpo restated his stance to the team privately, he never did so publicly.

But as Antetokounmpo battled several injuries throughout the season, the Bucks leaned on the idea that his return would catapult them back into the playoff picture. The losses continued to pile up ahead of the trade deadline in February, however, forcing the Bucks to engage in trade talks.

When talks stalled, the Bucks chose to hold on to him, and Antetokounmpo rallied Bucks fans by posting a clip from “The Wolf of Wall Street” in which Leonardo DiCaprio’s character says, along with some expletives, that he’s not leaving his job.

But Antetokounmpo played in just six more games for the Bucks after the deadline before hyperextending his left knee during a game on March 15, which led to deeper discord between the organization and its superstar.

With the Bucks eliminated from playoff contention and Antetokounmpo still dealing with injuries, the team urged him to shut down for the final month. He rebuked such requests and remained adamant about returning to the court through the final weeks of the season, leading to an NBA investigation over his shutdown. (The league concluded no further action was warranted.)

In early May, as the Bucks were introducing Jenkins, co-owner Jimmy Haslam set a clock on Antetokounmpo’s future, stating the team wanted a decision by the NBA draft on June 23 for him to either sign an extension in October or be traded.

Antetokounmpo, 31, now heads to the Heat coming off a contentious feud with the only organization he has ever known, after playing in a career-low 36 games last season. When he was healthy, he still dominated, averaging 27.6 points, 9.8 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game on 62% shooting.

The Heat went 43-39 last season and finished 10th in the East. They lost in the 9-10 play-in game to the Charlotte Hornets, missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2018-19 season.

ESPN’s Jamal Collier and ESPN Research contributed to this report.