There's a rumor: Giannis Antetokounmpo might be interested in the Brooklyn Nets

The Milwaukee Bucks do it again on Thursday. The Bucks played the Memphis Grizzlies, a team the Brooklyn Nets defeated on Wednesday, and fell 40-24 in the first game. If they lose, they will be 1-4, a complete game behind the Nets.

No one is panicking yet…we're told. It's still early, of course, but the Bucks should be a top contender in the East. Instead, they look old, not very aggressive, and aside from Giannis, not a particularly good team. As an announcer on the Bucks-Grizzles feed said of Milwaukee's offense on Thursday: “A one-man show.”

Furthermore, the Bucks, winners of the 2022 NBA title, are hamstrung going forward. They have Giannis, but many of his supporting players are older than 30. Damian Lillard is 34 (and owed $160 million over the next three seasons;) Brook Lopez (holy memory) is 36. Khris Middleton is 33 but hasn't played yet this year. Pat Connaughton is 31 and Bobby Portis Jr. is 29.

Don't even look at their draft stock. It's not a pretty sight. Take your first all-rounder this June. If it lands between numbers 5 and 30, it will become the property of Sean Marks, part of the Mikal Bridges trade. And there's no relief for Milwaukee if the ping pong balls find their way into the right holes and they finish No. 1, 2, 3 or 4 overall. It doesn't go to Bucks GM, Jon Horst. Instead, it belongs to Bryson Graham, the Pelicans' GM. No matter what happens, the Bucks are out of the first round.

When you add it all up, the Bucks aren't getting any better. Expect fireworks at the Fi-Serv Arena. The big question, of course, is how much patience Giannis has for a rebuild. He has expressed his love for Milwaukee many times, including last year when the Bucks rewarded his loyalty with a three-year, $186 million contract. In the final year of Giannis' final season, when he is 32 years old, he will receive $66.8 million as long as he exercises his player option in the summer of 2027. No one has ever made so much money in an NBA season.

“Milwaukee is where I started my career, it is our home, it is where we raise our family and it is where I will continue to work hard every day to make Bucks fans proud,” he said of his home since then designed 11 years ago. And Giannis hasn't even indicated he wants out.

However, CBS Sports' Bill Reiter looked at the landscape down the road Thursday and spoke with various league executives who are committed to tracking all hops and barley seeds back to Milwaukee.

“The teams are in circles – and full of hope,” said a Western Conference team manager.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened by the trade deadline,” said a top executive from a team that could be in the mix.

An Eastern Conference NBA executive has already heard which places are likely Giannis' preferred destinations: “The teams I've heard are Miami and New York – the Nets, not the Knicks.”

A league source told NetsDaily the same thing, saying Brooklyn has been interested in Giannis for years. “The Nets have always been about Giannis.”

Also in late September, long before the Bucks' early-season struggles, ESPN reporters speculated about a final destination for the Greek Freak. The Nets were also prominently mentioned at the time.

“A few tentative teams that will at least be watching this situation closely could be the New Orleans Pelicans, Toronto Raptors, Brooklyn Nets, New York Knicks and Golden State Warriors,” said Zach Lowe and Ramona Shelburne during an episode of the Lowe Post podcast . “Each of these teams has a combination of intriguing young players and valuable draft picks that could be packaged into the trade that would theoretically be necessary to land Antetokounmpo.”

But they say the 6'11″ all-world center doesn't fit Net's new timeline, their new strategy of building a contender organically by using a plethora of picks, limiting space and mixing with fallen angels . Build from within! How immutable is the strategy? Everyone from Joe Tsai to Brooklyn fans seems committed to the long term – sustainable growth. But as one of our former writers, Billy Reinhardt, aptly put it, the lure of stardom often changes things quickly…

The fans' initial reactions to Reiter's report seem to be mostly skeptical. Maybe drawn by Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden?

We have no idea how much interest there is on both sides. Giannis and the Nets have actually only been linked by experts and fans. To be fair, fans would be surprised at how little contact there is between the teams and how rarely they talk to each other… until the final 24 to 72 hours before the trade is called into NBA headquarters. In addition, the NBA trade season does not even unofficially begin until mid-December, when more than 100 players who changed teams in the summer can be traded for the first time. It's also about a third of the way through the season when GMs recognize the holes in their roster and hope to fill them. Enough time to discuss strategies.

Who or what would the Grizzlies want to cut from the Nets' roster and their draft bucket? I have no idea about that either. Brooklyn does look an ideal partner if the Bucks decide to go in a different direction (aka “tank”) and the Nets want to move from a rebuild back to a repeat of the “Big Three” they assembled between 2019 and 2022 . Marks and Joe Tsai like to keep things quiet, and Marks likes to play the game within the game by shooting and feinting before actually making a move.

And wouldn't the pursuit of Giannis be ironic? The general consensus is that the Nets' rebuild was the realization that the stars they wanted to pair with Bridges wouldn't be available. Giannis has signed a long-term contract to stay at home. So did Donovan Mitchell. Now that they have settled on an alternative route, they would assume the highway is wide open.

Meanwhile, panic is brewing. The Bucks lost to the Grizzlies 23, 122-99. Giannis scored 37 points, but Memphis was never in the game.