The looming $275 million reason a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade will be harder than you'd think for Bucks

Billy Heyen

The looming $275 million reason a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade will be harder than you'd think for Bucks image

Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

Of course, in a vacuum, every team in the NBA would love to have Giannis Antetokounmpo.

But professional basketball isn't playing in a vacuum, and so there's so much more to consider. Including the fact that the next contract for Giannis will be humongous. 

Any team that acquires Antetokounmpo in a trade from the Milwaukee Bucks will want to feel like it can extend him and keep him around long term.

That extension won't be cheap.

"There are many variables to consider," ESPN's Tim Bontemps wrote on Friday. "High among them is Giannis' potential next contract, a four-year extension worth a staggering $275 million, per ESPN's Bobby Marks."

That works out to $68.75 million per year.

Bontemps added this thought from an executive:

"You are going to gulp and do it," an East executive said when asked if they would be comfortable signing Antetokounmpo to that number through his age-37 season. "But you have to be good enough where the beginning of the deal is worth it, because you are baking in the back end.

"If you're a play-in team? Or a six seed? Then, you shouldn't be doing it."

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As an acquiring team, you've also got to be confident in your team-building abilities. Any massive contract can make it tougher to get the right pieces in place around the superstar.

Antetokounmpo is the type of guy you get to try and raise a banner. It's championship-or-bust if a team makes a trade to get Giannis.

They just better be prepared to pay up, too.

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Contributing Writer