Giannis Antetokounmpo Rumors Persist, So Why Don't the Boston Celtics Seem Interested?

The rumors surrounding the Boston Celtics and Giannis Antetokounmpo persist, with both Bill Simmons and Marc Stein reporting Antetokounmpo is interested in playing for the Celtics, but the Celtics aren’t quite reciprocating.

It might seem counterintuitive, especially in the NBA. When a superstar says he’s interested in playing somewhere, that's usually a team’s cue to low-ball his current employer and make the inevitable happen. But in 2026, with aprons to consider and an extraordinarily punitive tax system, it’s not nearly as easy.

Antetokounmpo isn’t just a star who might be on the move, he is a test case for the current CBA’s power. The system was designed to be a popcorn popper that pushes teams from the bottom to the top, where they hang out briefly as a contender before bottoming out again.

The second apron is designed to make moves virtually impossible, so once a team gets there, they have only as long as their current core functionally exists. Then, like the Celtics with Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday, they have to start selling pieces off. Theoretically, those are the team’s best players, so Boston was a bit of an exception with their ability to retain their two most important guys and still have tools with which to build.

We’ll come back to that last part in a second.

Theoretically, again, the sell-off is supposed to go to the teams with cap space. Taking back more money than you send out triggers a hard cap at the first apron, so that should eliminate most of the good teams who presumably have rosters hanging around that first apron. And because teams are required to hit a salary "floor," which means they have to spend at least 90% of the cap on players, those teams with money are supposed to chase these big free agents/trade targets. They're not supposed to care about aprons at that stage.

What the system is ultimately designed to do is push most of the league to the middle, with the first apron acting as the real salary cap line. So much of the league’s meaningful business triggers the first apron cap that only a few teams can avoid it. Those are generally the teams who are all set, and can tinker their way into the most expensive tier for maybe a season or two. On the other end of the spectrum, we’re supposed to find the remnants of the teams who were just expensive, and have to start over.

So the Milwaukee Bucks are supposed to be dealing with the Chicago Bulls, Brooklyn Nets, and, if LeBron James leaves, the Los Angeles Lakers. They're not really supposed to be dealing with the best teams in the league. The system isn’t supposed to work that way. And, by the way, we’re still not sure what the Bucks really want out of this. Are they rebuilding? Are they trying to stay relevant? What’s their motivation here?

And so here are the Celtics, with the two key building blocks and path to getting better without being too disruptive. Strip away the overreactions to their first-round loss and the Celtics are still in a really good place. They have all the key elements to becoming much better next season: returning stars, strong potential for internal improvement, and tools to improve areas of weakness.

The Celtics' reticence regarding Antetokounmpo may simply stem from the feeling that they don’t need a big swing to be a contender next year. To borrow from Brad Stevens' constant “hit singles” analogy, they have runners in scoring position, they don’t need a high strikeout guy at the plate hoping he hits a home run. They need to just get those guys home, and they feel like they have the path to doing so.

That's not to say that passing on Antetokounmpo is some kind of no-brainer, either. He’s a great hitter who can get those guys home as well. But the Celtics have gotten here with a formula that works. Just look at the New York Knicks to see how far good execution, good shooting luck, and the right matchups can get them. The margins between looking bad and getting to the NBA Finals aren’t as wide as some believe. I don’t want to pull a Kenny Atkinson and say the Celtics analytically won games that they actually lost, but the difference between them getting past Philadelphia and “choking” can be boiled down to a handful of shots.

So the Celtics don’t feel compelled to make monster changes to the roster. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are a proven championship core, but they definitely need help. Part of that help will come from Tatum himself because he will start the season as “Jayson Tatum,” not some percentage of Tatum trying to work through rehab. They can anticipate some level of growth from guys like Neemias Queta, Baylor Scheierman, Hugo Gonzalez, and Jordan Walsh. And they have multiple options for adding impactful players.

They don’t need to make the big swing now. And passing on it right now doesn’t necessarily mean giving up on it for good, either.

It would be very smart for the Celtics to make one big move this summer and wait to see how everything comes together before figuring out how to proceed. We want instant gratification, but the right move might be more of a slow burn, figuring out if Queta has gotten significantly better or not. Can Scheierman really step into the starting role and be a consistent shooter? Can Gonzalez be more of a do-it-all wing with a reliable jumper and without getting into foul trouble?

They will answer some questions and then use the remaining tools they have to fill in the rest of the gaps. And considering one agent recently told the Ringer’s Zach Lowe that he anticipates the Antetokounmpo saga to drag into next season, the potential for a bigger swing could still be there at the trade deadline.

The sting of a first-round loss to the Sixers is still fresh in people’s minds, but Brad Stevens doesn’t operate by making emotional decisions. I think Boston’s lack of interest in Antetokounmpo is because the math doesn’t add up for them just yet. It doesn’t mean that it won’t some day, but right now, it makes more sense to stay the course.

That still means moves to improve the team. It doesn’t mean sitting on their hands. It’s just that a very busy summer of pushing this team to be its best will likely keep Brown’s nameplate over his locker and change his neighbors, rather than his zip code.

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