Giannis Antetokounmpo would be the one player who could put the New York Knicks right at the top of the NBA heap. They are among the best teams in the Eastern Conference, with the conference wide open.
However, while he would fit like a glove, there seems to be a problem.
What Would Prevent the Knicks From Acquiring Giannis Antetokounmpo?
Marc Stein and Jake Fischer outlined how difficult it would be for the Knicks to put together a trade for Antetokounmpo. A trade between them and the Milwaukee Bucks is downright impossible, but even if they tried to orchestrate a multi-team trade that would help the Bucks rebuild, it would still be difficult on their end.
“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?” Stein and Fischer asked. “It’s been a popular discussion topic among various league insiders since the weekend.
“Yet 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. 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.”
Unfortunately, with that mindset, the Bucks may want to address the Antetokounmpo situation sooner rather than later, which is a problem for the Knicks.
“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. Which would represent a dramatic on-the-fly restructuring of a roster that New York has painstakingly assembled.
“One more tricky variable: Antetokounmpo has long been assumed to have strong interest in playing at Madison Square Garden in front of the NBA’s most fervent fanbases and taking on the challenge, like he did as a Buck, of leading the franchise to its first championship after a wait of more than 50 years. 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 Giannis Antetokounmpo Trade Landscape in the greatest possible team-by-team detail … just posted from @JakeLFischer and me: https://t.co/dLEhkn2BEf
📷: @bucks pic.twitter.com/yy3IEKgAlD
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) January 29, 2026
In the Knicks’ defense, trading for someone like Antetokounmpo would require a lot of salary matching. The Knicks don’t have expendable big salaries, but they do have lesser players (than Giannis) they could use to match; however, the Bucks probably wouldn’t want that.
In hindsight, this situation would have been easier if the Knicks hadn’t used their assets on Bridges and Towns back in 2024. Had they kept them, they would have arguably been in a prime position to bring in Antetokounmpo.
