The Miami Heat can already offer the most complete package of any frontrunner in the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes. They have multiple draft picks. They have young talent. What the Heat don't have, right now, is the same bounty of future first-rounders available to a team like Golden State. Right now, they can only trade two first-round picks.
Getting their hands on another one could be the final nudge to eliminate any last trace of doubt. Miami would be able to assemble an offer so obviously superior that the Milwaukee Bucks might as well stop talking to other teams.
If that's the goal, an Andrew Wiggins trade is probably the simplest way to achieve it. Want Giannis? Get it done, Miami.
Miami could makes themselves all but unbeatable in Giannis bidding war
Here's where Wiggins comes in. Averaging 15.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.9 assists per game on 38.4 percent from three, he is still a useful player who could be the final piece on a contender. Still a two-way player, he accounts for better than a steal and a block per game.
His mid-tier salary also makes a deal workable. Wiggins only has two years left under contract. His combination of talent and a palatable contract makes him Miami's best option to flip for draft capital. For a team on the cusp of competing for a title, he could be worth a first-round pick likely to fall in the late-teens or twenties. While the rebuilding Bucks would have little use for Wiggins himself, they would be happy to take back an extra draft pick.
Something else to consider: trading Wiggins for any old first-rounder would give the Heat three tradeable picks, plus multiple swaps, to package in a deal. That's excellent already.
Netting a first-round pick in 2027 specifically would be the jackpot.
Here's the thing. Miami owns first-round picks in 2026 and every year from 2028 to 2032. They do not own a pick in 2027. The league prohibits teams from leaving themselves without first-rounders in consecutive future drafts. As a result, the Heat only has two tradeable firsts anyway you cut it.
By acquiring a '27 first-rounder, however, Miami would gain access to picks every other year beginning in 2026, all the way through '32. That would give them four first-rounders total. That matches the maximum number of picks the Warriors, another Giannis frontrunner, could offer.
On top of that, the Heat could offer pick swaps in '27, '29, and '31.
The issue, of course, is that there are only so many teams that would both be interested in Wiggins and have a '27 pick they'd be willing to trade. It's a lot simpler without requiring a specific year, and they would still have three picks available. It might not be necessary, either, given Miami's other assets.
Their pool of young talent, the other critical element of the Bucks' desired return, includes Kel'el Ware, Pelle Larsson, Kasparas Jakucionis, Nikola Jovic, and Jaime Jacquez Jr. Larsson is the only member of that group who is not a former first-round pick, and he's taken a big step forward as a sophomore.
Any combination of three or more first-round picks, pick swaps, and names from the above quintuplet could form the basis of a monster offer.
Acting now only works to Miami's favor in a bidding war. Say the Bucks are unimpressed by any offer and wait until the summer. Then, everyone will gain access to a 2033 first-round pick. Some teams that currently can't trade their 2026 first-rounders would be able to trade the rights to those picks on draft night. The Heat's combination of draft capital and young players would no longer be quite so untouchable.
If they're dead serious about winning the Giannis sweepstakes right here and now, there's no need to wait. Find a new home for Wiggins, take back a role player to keep, and a pick to trade. That one move could be their killshot. An offer including three firsts, multiple swaps, Ware, Jakucionis, Jacquez, and Tyler Herro is one the Bucks would be hard-pressed to refuse.