The Fastbreak offseason edition: What a Bulls trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo would look like

The Fastbreak offseason edition: What a Bulls trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo would look like

Welcome in everybody to another edition of the fast break. I am Casey Johnson and we are in offseason mode. So I don’t even know what episode this is, but thanks for tuning in. Here are the four storylines that are on my mind as of this taping. Number one, the future of Giannis Antakmpo. I believe I said that correctly. And do I need to start pronouncing it, practicing pronouncing it? Because Bulls fandom has anointed Giannis coming to Chicago. Even our beloved Secretary of State, Alexi Janulius, a very esteemed hooper himself, has done so on Twitter/X. I’m here for a little dose of reality, though. But look, the future of Giannis will be a dominant theme to this off season, unless the Bucks come out and flat out say they will not be trading him. Uh, the entire league will descend upon Chicago next week for the NBA draft lottery as well as the combine. So, there will be a lot of chatter about the future of Giannis. Obviously, this is stemming from the Bucks first round flame out against the Indiana Pacers and Giannis’s consistent post series comments that he wants to win another chip. And most people will tell you that especially with the unfortunate injury to Damen Lillard, the Bucks championship window appears to be closed or closing depending on your perspective. I personally think it’s closed, Ben, for a while. Anyway, the future of Giannis is top of mind for most NBA types. And again, the Bulls fandom is having a lot of fun with this because one time Giannis did say he respected the legacy of Michael Jordan and maybe one day he would play in Chicago. There’s obviously a great Greek population here. I believe he even has some investing uh in some restaurants uh restaurant tours that have places both in Chicago and Milwaukee. I don’t know, man. It’s all over the place. Let’s talk about the brass tax of the basketball standpoint, though. If the Bucks uh do decide to move on Giannis, and let’s emphasize that’s a big if. I mean, this is a pretty special relationship that Giannis has had with that franchise, with that community. He’s been incredibly loyal to that small town community, small town franchise. Um, they have loved him back. So, let’s start there. Giannis has not said he wants to leave Milwaukee, and obviously the team can decide to trade him without his blessing. Although given that relationship, I would find that a long shot. Now, here’s the other thing. Giannis is under team control for two more seasons with a player option in that third season, close to $63 million. He’s due roughly 54 million next season. That’s a big number to get to. So, let’s even say, let’s play with the hypothetical that the Bucks are going to move off Giannis this off seasonason. What will they be looking for? Well, they do not control any of their draft picks until 2030. They obviously will be looking for draft capital. They’d also be looking for some salary cap relief. The Nets are better positioned in both uh situations than the Bulls. You would have to believe all 29 teams would get into that bidding for such a high-profile player. It would not be conducted like the Luca Donuch lack of sweep stakes. The I’m assuming the Bucks would open it up to the entire league. And sure, if you’re the Bulls, you have to at least make a call and do some expirations. But let’s even try to build a package to get up to that $54 million number. I do not see the Bucks interested in Nicolola. That’s a big number right there. So, how do you get to that number without him? You’d probably have to throw in a signed and traded Josh Giddy. Kobe White would probably be asked for in that package. You absolutely have to think the Bucks would ask for Modis Buselis. And then look, every first round pick that the Bulls own and every pick swap available to the Bulls would be headed Milwaukee’s way. What would that leave you? That would leave you with Giannis and Vuvich as your core moving forward. Is this something you’d want to do as a Bulls fan? I know he’s top three player in the world. I know he’s special talent. Uh obviously put a lot of fans in the seats. Wonderful to watch play basketball. That’s not the Arcturus carnish that I heard this season. in any news conference and obviously front office’s roles is to be nimble, react to new situations, new developments, but at the end of the season, what I heard from management was patience, asking for patience. He sounded someone like he’s like he’s committed to rebuilding this next roster iteration through the draft, through internal player development of his young core. guys like Kobe White and Modis Buzzelis. I did not hear a management team that was positioned to make a big splash trade this off season. He has taken that path before, not only in 2021 uh but also um you know with the Buchvich trade and then the D Rozan and Lonzo Ball signing trades. I feel like this is going to be a different roster build this time. This is going to be slow and methodical. That’s why our tourists asked for patience. I’m here personally to say I see Giannis to the Bulls as an extreme long shot, but never say never in the NBA. That’s one thing I’ve learned covering it for as long as I have. All right, number two, the draft lottery. We are one week away as of this taping next Monday and we’re going to break a some minor news here. We’ve got the Bulls on stage rep known. He will be Modis Boozelis. I love that pick. uh the 11th pick overall last year in the draft lottery. He’ll be repping the Bulls on stage uh next week in Chicago. The only other better option to me would have been Derrick Rose, who obviously is in great graces with the organization again, given that the Bulls have a 1.7% chance at that number one overall pick, which is exactly what the Bulls cashed in to acquire Rose in 2008. But in lie of D Rose, Modis Mousellis works for me. Look, it’s a ceremonial position. Julian Phillips filled it last season. You basically just stand there and smile at the camera. And if the Bulls stay at 12, which is where they are slotted, headed into the lottery, you’re not on the uh air very long. It’s a very brief appearance. But look, let’s have some fun. Let’s say the Bulls get lucky. They have an 8% chance to move into that top four. As previously mentioned, they have that 1.7% chance at the number one overall pick. If they somehow cash in that uh percentage odds chance for the second time in franchise history, you won’t be hearing from Modis Buzzelis afterward. Well, you would, but you’d also be hearing from Verarus Carnish. He would be doing interviews next Monday in Chicago. That would be a franchise changer obviously to land Cooper flag. Um but look, what I heard from our tourist at that season news conference was a very confident manager regime entering this draft and this iteration of a rebuild. Uh they are confident they can find value wherever they land in the draft. They feel they did that last year at number 11. Obviously not many people expected Modis Buselis to fall to number 11 and there he was and the Bulls snapped him up and he looks like he’s got got a very promising future. So the Bulls feel they are well positioned regardless of where they end in the draft lottery. Obviously, every management team needs to say that, but the Bulls have some quiet confidence that they’re going to be able to add a nice player wherever they land a after next Monday’s draft lottery. And maybe Modis can bring some lucky charms. We will see. All right, number three. I’ve been watching these playoffs religiously. I’ve been so into them. I said that um the last uh fast break we taped a couple weeks ago. I love the first round. That is now concluded. So, I thought we’d have a little bit of fun with these second round matchups and look at them from an XB Bulls standpoint and pick the winner based on that. Let’s start with Indiana versus Cleveland. I tweeted this was going to be a good series and I got some clapback, but uh Indie went in and stole game one. I think this is going to be a tougher series than a lot of people think. Now, obviously Cleveland’s been hurt by Darius Garland’s injury, but all right, let’s go with the X Bulls standpoint and pick a winner with uh Cleveland. You’ve got players only Max Streus, Tristan Thompson, and Javvante Green, a fan favorite in the ladder. With uh Indiana, you’ve got um Tony Bradley, the short-lived uh center, and James Johnson, the long ago first round pick, the stage veteran, the toughest guy in the league, the mixed martial arts uh expert. Um that’s on the playing side. On the coaching side, you’ve got assistant coaches Janiro Pargo and our old friend Jim Boland. En. So, I mean, come on. With Jim Boland’s presence alone, let’s give the nod to the Pacers in this series, right? All right. Number two, Boston versus New York. Uh, pretty thin. On the Celtic side, you’ve got ex players Luke Cornet and Tory Craig. Ted Craig as we like to call him, my fellow vegetarian. Uh, and on the Knicks side, this is a landslide. You’ve got um campaign on the playing side. And let’s let’s run down this coaching staff. Oll Harrington, assistant coach. Dice Yoshimoto, video coordinator here, now an assistant coach. Maurice Cheeks, the Hall of Famer, assistant coach. Rick Brunson, uh, pretty famous father of a certain player named Jaylen Brunson, assistant coach. Andy Greer, assistant coach, and the headman himself. Yes, Tom Fivido. So, Nicks in a landslide, although we all think Boston’s going to win the series. All right, moving to the West. OKC versus the Nuggets. Pretty slim pickings in this series. You’ve got Alex Caruso obviously with the Thunder. Uh Mike Wils. So that’s going deep cut there for you Bulls fans. The uh journeyman guard as an assistant coach with the Thunder. And this technically is not an ex Bull, but we’re going to give it to him. The shooting coach, the premier shooting coach in the league. Chip England used to be Steve Kerr’s personal shooting coach in that second three peak. And uh for the Nuggets, you’ve really only got the ghost of AK. That’s about all that’s left after that house cleaning. No players, no coaches. So, we’re going to give it to our guy Alex Caruso and the Thunder. I’ve said before, I would love to see Alex Caruso win another chip. Um, talked to him at length about that possibility when the Bulls were an OKC uh late in the season. He’s obviously knows what an opportunity he had. And that last series is a doozy. Warriors versus Timberwolves. Very light on the Minnesota side. But get this, this is a battle of executives here. Uh, obviously Tim Connelly is the lead basketball executive in Minnesota, but his trusted GM, a wonderful uh uh talent evaluator, longtime Orlando Magic exe, has now been in Minnesota as the GM for several seasons. Matt Lloyd has Bulls ties, not only on the PR side, but on the executive side here. And Mike Dunlevy Jr. is the lead basketball executive with Golden State. So, you got the dueling executives there. But we’re going to give it to the Warriors in a landslide because they’ve obviously also got playoff Jimmy and Jimmy Butler, head coach Steve Kerr, and that longtime uh premier executive, I’m sorry, assistant Ron Adams. So, we’re going Warriors in the Warriors Timberwolves series. Although, off the record, I think the Timberwolves are going to win that series. All right, that was kind of a light-hearted fun one. This is what you get in offseason mode when the Bulls haven’t been playing for over a month uh or close to a month. Uh, our last subject though is going to be I’m thinking about Iodumu. He’s been popping up on social media a little bit lately. I saw him bartending in a social media clip and it brings to mind his rehab situation in that last media session we had with him after the season. You got to love the way this guy is attacking his rehab. He’s at about the 9 to 10 week mark as of this taping. His brace is off. He said the rehab is going great. Uh this is the first surgery of his entire life career. So this is a new uh ground for him and uh he has said that he is pointing to playing five on five in August. This is going to be an atypical offseason for Iowa who usually comes back with a new trick in his bag. I asked him what he hoped to add this off season and he directly alluded to how this is a different offseason for him. He said he doesn’t know that yet. Right now, his focus is on rehabbing that shoulder following the surgery and then he will approach and attack what he wants to add once he gets back in that five on five contact situation in August. So, going to be a different off seasonason for IO, but you have to love his positivity, his attitude, and he also has talked about leaning on Kobe White, who obviously went through an offseason, not the same shoulder injury, but shoulder surgery, the same offseason situation a couple seasons ago. So, we’re going to be following Iowa obviously throughout this off seasonason. We’re going to be following every storyline. They’ll be more voluminous once we come out of the draft lottery and the draft combine. The whole league will be here. We look forward to covering that for you and we’ll be back with more fast break content shortly. We certainly appreciate you checking us out today. Catch you next time. 13 minutes.

K.C. Johnson returns to the desk for an offseason edition of the Fastbreak to break down his top four topics surrounding the Chicago Bulls.

1. Why a Giannis trade to the Bulls is extremely unlikely and what a potential package would look like
2. Matas Buzelis to represent the Bulls at the NBA Draft Lottery
3. Ex-Bulls in the NBA conference semis
4. Ayo Dosunmu’s shoulder recovery

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