Report: Bucks listening to Giannis Antetokounmpo trade offers. Again. Plus other post-lottery trade rumors

The combination of the NBA Draft Lottery setting the order for the NBA Draft (and the value of the picks), along with executives from every team gathering in Chicago for the NBA Draft Combine, is always the spark that lights the NBA offseason trade and free agency markets on fire. That is happening this week in Chicago, and the biggest rumor out of the Windy City is the least surprising. Bucks listening to Antetokounmpo offers This was expected, but ESPN’s Shams Charania made it official .

Milwaukee listened to trade offers back at the February trade deadline, but sources from other teams told NBC Sports then that it felt more like Bucks GM Jon Horst was gauging the trade market, not seriously looking for a deal. He and ownership wanted to wait until the offseason, when more teams and better offers would (theoretically) be on the table. While the Bucks are still open to the idea of trading for another star, which inspires Antetokounmpo to sign an extension and stay in Milwaukee, most teams around the league expect the two-time MVP and NBA champion to be traded — and a deal to be done before the NBA Draft, which is what co-owner Jimmy Haslam expects .

From Charania: There is expected to be a robust market for Antetokounmpo's services, and ownership and front office officials expect to maintain their trade deadline asking price of a young blue-chip talent and/or a surplus of draft picks, sources said. One of the reasons to hold out until the summer to trade Antetokounmpo was to get teams that had a disappointing playoff run — Houston, Orlando, Boston — to seriously consider jumping the mix, as well as a couple of teams still playing but with questions, including the Lakers and Cavaliers. Waiting into the summer also gave Antetokounmpo more leverage in where he might be traded — he has just one guaranteed season left on his contract (followed by a player option), and he can tell a team he does not want to play for that he will not re-sign with them.

While Antetokounmpo's camp is tight-lipped, the feeling in league circles is that he wants to stay in the East and play for a team he can elevate to contender status. "The conversation will be simple: Where does [Giannis] want to be moved, and where will he sign long term? " one source with direct involvement in the situation told ESPN.