Giannis Antetokounmpo skipped Greece’s FIBA qualifiers this month to show up at an unofficial Heat minicamp. Training camp does not open until Sept. 29. That tells you how seriously he is taking year one in Miami.
The trade became official on July 6. Miami sent Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kasparas Jakucionis to Milwaukee, along with the No. 13 pick in the 2026 draft (Nate Ament), unprotected first-rounders in 2031 and 2033, a 2030 first-round swap and a 2033 second. Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis went to South Florida. Bam Adebayo was the one player Pat Riley would not include.
The contract clock is already running
Antetokounmpo is 31 and will earn $58.4 million this season. He becomes eligible on Jan. 6, 2027 to sign a four-year extension worth roughly $275 million. Miami did not surrender four players and three first-round picks to rent him, so assume that gets done.
The risk is what happened last season in Milwaukee. He averaged 27.6 points but missed four games with a left adductor strain in November, eight more with a right calf strain in December, reaggravated the calf in January, then hyperextended his left knee and suffered a bone bruise on a dunk against Indiana on March 15. He sat the final 15 games. He said he was healthy and wanted to play. The team held him out anyway, and the league office looked into the dispute.
Miami is betting that a 31-year-old with that kind of season behind him has three or four prime years left. It is a defensible bet. It is not a safe one.
What Miami still has to fix
Here is the uncomfortable truth about this roster: Antetokounmpo is a nightmare in transition and around the rim, and Miami does not have the shooting or the playmaking to make his half-court game easy. The Heat added Tim Hardaway Jr. with $6.1 million of the mid-level exception, brought in Klay Thompson and kept Andrew Wiggins on a two-year extension after he opted in. Miami Herald beat writers Anthony Chiang and Barry Jackson concluded the Heat need more size, playmaking and shooting before anyone should project them as a top-four seed in the East.
That is the assignment. Adebayo and Antetokounmpo sharing the paint only works if the perimeter around them is lethal, and right now it is adequate. Erik Spoelstra has made worse fits function, but no coach can scheme around a lineup that lets defenses load up on the drive.
The Heat open the preseason Oct. 3 against Toronto in Quebec City. By Christmas we will know whether this is a contender or a very good team with a spacing problem.
What Milwaukee is left with
The Bucks got a solid return and still lost. Herro is a proven scorer and a Milwaukee-area kid, which makes the marketing easy. Ware and Jaquez are real young pieces. The 2031 and 2033 firsts could matter enormously.
But Milwaukee waited too long. Had the Bucks moved him two years earlier, off a healthy season, the haul would have been substantially larger. Instead they fired Doc Rivers, hired Taylor Jenkins in May, and dealt their franchise player in July while telling the new coach he might or might not have a superstar.
Miami wins this trade. Antetokounmpo gets the co-star and the tax situation he wanted, Riley gets the third act he refused to retire without, and Milwaukee gets a long rebuild it should have started sooner.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.