Amid a breakout season, Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. seemed like the one trade target who could help turn the Milwaukee Bucks' season around. Now Giannis Antetokounmpo is hurt again, and those hopes just flew out the window.
The Bucks could still make the trade, of course, but Giannis' four-to-six-week recovery timeframe severed the thread the season was already hanging by. Going all-in for Porter no longer makes sense. Consider that fantasy fizzled all the way out.
Porter-Giannis pairing must become a dream of the past
The Bucks were already struggling with Giannis in the lineup. Friday's loss to Denver was their fifth in six games. Antetokounmpo strove valiantly to gut it out, but late in the fourth-quarter, discomfort became disaster when he pulled up with a calf strain. Now he will miss an estimated four to six weeks, his third sideline stint this year. That one play instantly altered the course of the Bucks' season.
While Porter is one of the top available targets this deadline, he isn't a substitute for Giannis. In a trade, the Bucks would likely send out Kyle Kuzma and Bobby Portis, hurting an already thin rotation. Porter wouldn't slide into Giannis' place, on a roster minus Kuzma and Portis, and salvage the season. Not a chance.
Milwaukee might still pull off some sort of move. It's probably not a good idea, but it's possible. Zach LaVine remains an option. He would not move the needle, but at this juncture, the Bucks can't afford to sacrifice future assets, no matter how desperate the franchise feels.
Whereas LaVine's bloated contract should drive his cost down, Porter's price tag is higher than just about every other name the Bucks were looking at. The Nets don't do that deal without requiring the Bucks' 2031 or 2032 first-round pick, either of which is among the league's most valuable draft assets. With the present season circling the drain, that kind of investment is no longer tenable.
The best thing the Bucks can do is hold onto the pick, continue to slip in the standings, and wind up with a decent selection in the 2026 draft. Although Atlanta owns the better of Milwaukee's and New Orleans' picks, decreasing the value of a full-blown tank, the worst of the two could still fall fairly high.
Maybe Giannis buys into that approach. Maybe he doesn't. Either way, the Bucks are better off prioritizing the future.
This isn't how anyone wanted the season's hopes to come to an end. Shelling out for Porter was a last-ditch, perhaps doomed "solution," anyway, but it would have given the Milwaukee Bucks their best chance to salvage the season. Moving on from that possibility is painful, but there's simply nothing left to do.