Did the Milwaukee Bucks botch the Giannis trade?

The NBA offseason has already been one for the books, but before all of the trades and signings, a lot of the attention was focused on the Milwaukee Bucks.

Rumors swirled for months about whether the Bucks would trade their superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the trade packages started to gain some momentum this summer. Of course, teams came out of the woodwork to throw their hat in the ring to land the 2021 NBA Finals MVP, but ultimately Milwaukee decided to trade him to the Miami Heat in June.

The long and anticipated wait was finally over, and we could move on with our lives and not create wacky trade packages at 2 a.m. However, even after Antetokounmpo was dealt, some of the spot light remained on the Bucks.

After seeing what Milwaukee got in return for Antetokounmpo, some of the public believed the Bucks waited too long to trade him, which resulted in them accepting a subpar offer on paper.

Brad Botkin of CBS Sports wrote a story the following day after the trade was made and explained how not only did Milwaukee waited too long to trade Antetokounmpo, but also might've chose the wrong the package as well.

"The Bucks waited too long to trade Antetokounmpo, and as a result were forced to execute this trade from a position of weakness, if not desperation," Botkin said. "That's not how you win a negotiation. What the Bucks should have done was accept the reality that the Giannis era had run its course the second the aforementioned Lillard ruptured his Achilles in the 2025 playoffs and started looking to trade him last summer. "

He also added that the Bucks had to settle for a package that didn't inlcude a foundational piece and the three first-round picks were at the top of the deal. Botkin believed that if Milwaukee wanted a known quantity then they should've gone with the Boston Celtics package.

"If the Bucks wanted a known quantity, they could've, and perhaps should have, gone with Boston's package," Botkin said. "From Boston, the Bucks reportedly could've gotten the two draft picks and Jaylen Brown -- a five-time All-Star, the 2024 NBA Finals MVP and a far more established player than any of the four the Heat included. Milwaukee could've kept Brown or the franchise could've flipped him this summer for presumably another pretty significant return. "

The Bucks front office explained why they chose the Heat's deal over teams like the Celtics in a story by Eric Nehm of The Athletic and thought the pieces and draft capital they received would be something they could capitalize on.

“So, we’ve got a lot of work to do, and we championed balance and getting back foundational players that we believed in, draft capital that we thought we could utilize and capitalize on, either by drafting at some point or by using in future transactions and flexibility to make decisions," Jon Horst said. "The Miami opportunity presented us with the best path in totality, and that’s why we did the deal.”

While Milwaukee believes it made the correct choice at the end of the day, some people still think the organization could've done better. In a recent Bleacher Report article that looks at one overreaction for each team, Zach Buckley's overreaction for the Bucks was "They botched the Giannis Antetokounmpo blockbuster."

"By the time the Bucks got around to trading away Antetokounmpo, he was entrenched as the best player in franchise history," Buckley said. "And through that lens, Milwaukee's return package—Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel'el Ware, Kasparas Jakučionis, three firsts, a swap and a second—might seem so underwhelming to make you think the Bucks really botched this.