Boston Celtics
Antetokounmpo is a great player, but he doesn’t address what’s really wrong with the Celtics.
Giannis Antetkounmpo AP Photo/Aaron Gash
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COMMENTARY
Let me preface this by saying that I believe that trading for Giannis Antetokounmpo makes a whole lot of sense for the Celtics on paper.
He would immediately fill a huge need. Boston as a whole tends to be overly reliant on the 3-pointer, and the team doesn’t have a go-to inside scorer. Antetokounmpo wouldn’t just be the Celtics’ go-to in that category. He’s one of, if not the very best in the game at getting buckets inside.
Brad Stevens’s words from his end-of-the-season press conference are still ringing in my ears. “Every one of us would prefer a dunk over a three, every single one of us.”
While Stevens acknowledged that the Celtics struggled to get good looks against Philadelphia, he seemed to frame the struggles as a personnel issue. They need to add to the team in order to get the kind of of shot variance that they would like, he said. Antetokounmpo would certainly help them get more dunks.
I find Antetokounmpo’s fit alongside Jayson Tatum and these trigger-happy Celtics to be intriguing. Boston would have two elite rebounders on the floor along with a center most of the time. Sure, Antetokounmpo is going to need his touches, but even if the Celtics are still inclined to toss up a bunch of threes, they would be able to put a decent amount of them back for twos.
Pundits have voiced concerns about how Antetokounmpo would change the Celtics’ offensive play-style, but after what happened in these past two playoffs I’m convinced that making some big changes with more of a focus on scoring inside wouldn’t be the worst thing.
Plus, this is a four-time All-Defensive First-Team caliber player we’re talking about here. He was the Defensive Player of the Year in 2020. He’ll be a pretty significant upgrade defensively, too.
When healthy, Antetokounmpo is a top-five player in this league, the kind of guy that is rarely available via trade. The Celtics might not have to blow up the whole roster to get him, either.
Yet, when asked if I would pull the trigger, I find myself to be extremely hesitant. Here are a few reasons why.
Tatum hasn’t gotten too much heat for missing Game 7 of the Philadelphia series, and it’s understandable. After a lengthy comeback from a ruptured Achilles’ tendon, the risk of re-injury and going through another extended absence next season would have been hard to stomach.
Trading for Antetokounmpo would make the Celtics older and more injury prone, almost certainly shortening their championship window. Health is such a huge part of winning in the NBA, and when I look at the Tatum and Antetokounmpo pairing I have serious questions about whether they’ll be able to hold up come playoff time.
Tatum stayed healthy in 2024 and the Celtics won a title, but in three of the past four postseasons, the Celtics played elimination games without him.
An ankle injury forced an early exit in Game 7 of the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals. Last season Tatum suffered the Achilles’ injury against the Knicks.
This past postseason, the Celtics had a Game 7 on a Saturday night at TD Garden against the Sixers after months of hype surrounding Tatum’s return, and yet it was Ron Harper Jr. in the starting lineup instead of him. People paid their hard-earned money to see Tatum in that environment. That didn’t happen this time around.
Antetokounmpo has injury concerns of his own. He missed the 2024 playoffs with a calf strain, and played in just 36 games during the 2026 regular season after dealing with a variety of injuries. He’s turning 32 in December, and he’s not getting any younger.
Then, there’s the fact that Brown and Tatum have nearly a decade’s worth of playoff experience together. They have played more than 120 playoff games together. That’s a season-and-a-half’s worth of navigating losses, wins, struggles, and breakthroughs together in a playoff environment. I think that counts for something.
They’ve proven themselves as a championship caliber duo, and while they’ve gotten bounced from the playoffs early the past two seasons, they don’t seem too far away from another deep playoff run as currently constructed.
Injuries and shooting droughts have left them vulnerable against lower-seeded opponents. Both depend on luck, and fortunes can easily change. Especially if there’s a willingness to learn from mistakes.
Plus, when the Celtics won the championship in 2024, Brown won NBA Finals MVP and Eastern Conference Finals MVP. Brown also finished sixth in the MVP voting this year. His absence would be felt even if the Celtics were to add such a talent as Antetokounmpo.
I think it’s fair, at this stage of their careers, to ask how big of an upgrade swapping the two would be. If this was 2019, the thought would be laughable. In 2026, not so much.
The Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn recently said the Celtics are kicking the tires on what it would take to get Antetokounmpo without trading Brown.
It’s hard to imagine, in my opinion, Milwaukee accepting a package centered around say – Derrick White, Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard, and picks in exchange for Antetokounmpo. But, if Stevens could pull that off, it would be a completely different conversation. A big three of Tatum, Brown, and Antetokounmpo in Boston? Take that and run. Figure out the rest later.
To me, it seems like these Celtics’ needs are closer to minor tweaks and some better injury luck than a major franchise-altering trade. They’ve been the favorites every time they’ve lost during the Joe Mazzulla era. They have either won the title or suffered an epic collapse with no in-between.
The Celtics (founded in 1946) have been playing basketball for 80 years. Do you know when the first time they blew a 3-1 playoff series lead was? This year against the 76ers. They blew two 20-point leads at home against the Knicks in 2025. They won three straight against the Heat in 2023. They were right there in all three series, but they managed to fall apart each time.
Could Antetokounmpo fix that? Perhaps. But, I think a healthy Tatum and some offensive strategy shifts would help a lot more.
Khari A. Thompson
Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.
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