Giannis Antetokounmpo Traded to Miami Heat in Blockbuster Deal

The NBA’s July 16 social media rollout of Giannis Antetokounmpo in a Miami Heat uniform added another public marker to one of the offseason’s biggest moves, with NBA.com posting, “Welcome to Miami, Giannis Antetokounmpo 🙌.” But the trade itself was finalized 10 days earlier: Antetokounmpo officially became a member of the Heat on July 6, when the league’s offseason moratorium ended and the 2026-27 transaction period opened.

In that completed deal, Miami acquired Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis from the Milwaukee Bucks, while Milwaukee received Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakučionis, the No. 13 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft — the draft rights to Nate Ament — first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, a 2030 first-round pick swap and a 2033 second-round pick.

That package underscored the scale of Miami’s win-now bet. Antetokounmpo, 31, arrives as one of the NBA’s most decorated active players after 13 seasons with Milwaukee, which drafted him No. 15 overall in 2013. Before the trade, he had built a résumé that included two NBA Most Valuable Player awards, in 2018-19 and 2019-20, the 2021 NBA championship, the 2021 Finals MVP award and 10 All-Star selections.

The move also closed a defining chapter for the Bucks. Antetokounmpo was the face of the franchise throughout its rise to the 2021 title, and Milwaukee publicly framed the deal as the end of an era as much as the start of a reset. Bucks general manager Jon Horst said: “We experienced moments that will live forever in franchise history, punctuated by the 2021 NBA Championship. On behalf of our entire organization, please join us in expressing our deepest gratitude to Giannis and his family.”

Miami, meanwhile, cast the trade as a franchise-level swing. In a team release quoted in media reports, Heat president Pat Riley said, “The announcement of today’s trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis Jr. is one of the great trades in HEAT history.”

Since the deal became official, the next details of Antetokounmpo’s Heat tenure have started to come into focus. NBA.com reported July 7 that he will wear No. 7 in Miami, ending his long run in No. 34 with Milwaukee. Multiple outlets also reported that, under NBA rules governing extensions for recently traded players, Antetokounmpo is expected to become eligible roughly six months after the trade was made official to sign a four-year, $275 million extension with the Heat. That eligibility has been widely reported, but no extension is in place.

For Milwaukee, the return was substantial: an established scorer in Herro, multiple young players in Ware, Jaquez Jr. and Jakučionis, this year’s No. 13 draft asset in Ament’s rights, plus future first-round capital and additional draft consideration. For Miami, the cost reflected the rarity of acquiring a player of Antetokounmpo’s stature in his prime years.

If there is any lingering reminder of where Antetokounmpo left off on the court, NBA.com reported that he averaged 27.6 points per game in an injury-shortened 2025-26 season and missed the end of that season after a March knee hyperextension and bone bruise.