Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumors boost Celtics odds to land superstar

The NBA season is officially over, and now a busy NBA offseason awaits.Giannis Antetokounmpo is the domino everyone is waiting to fall and one team is surging as the rumors swirl.The Celtics had been lurking as a potential landing spot for the two-time NBA MVP and now they are slight favorites to trade for Antetokounmpo on the prediction market Kalshi.The Heat were considered the favorites to trade for Antetokounmpo once they were eliminated from the NBA postseason in April after their play-in game against the Hornets.

At the time, the Heat had an 18.1 percent chance of landing Antetokounmpo and only the Bucks had better odds of keeping him with a 19 percent chance at Kalshi.New reporting has thrown some doubt into Antetokounmpo taking his talents to South Beach as the Celtics have surged up the board over the past week.As of Tuesday afternoon, the Celtics have nearly identical odds as the Heat with a 39.7 percent chance to trade for Antetokounmpo on a market that has attracted more than $2.5 million in volume.Longtime NBA insider Mark Stein said Monday on The All NBA Podcast that the Heat are still in pursuit of the 2022 NBA Finals MVP, but no deal is imminent.“Of all the teams that were after Giannis in February, really Miami is the only one still in that chase,” Stein said.

“When it comes to Miami, we know the players, the bulk of the players on the table.It’s [Tyler] Hero, it’s [Kalel] Ware, it’s [Jaime] Jaquez, it’s the 13th pick on June 23rd in the first round of the draft.

There’s other unspecified draft consideration that we haven’t confirmed that would presumably be in the deal.”ESPN’s Brian Windhorst echoed some of those statements Monday, saying that Antetokounmpo’s preferred destination is Miami, but added that “the Heat and the Bucks have been talking for months and not agreed to a deal, because the Bucks don’t love the Heat’s offer.”Windhorst elaborated on that point Tuesday, adding that the Celtics are a destin...