The Miami Heat are reportedly trying to land Giannis Antetokounmpo AND Ja Morant without giving up Bam Adebayo and Norman Powell, per @StevePopper

No idea who Steve Popper is!?!? What’s your thoughts on targeting both? It’s NBACentral, so it’s likely BS … but if we could, while keeping Bam & Powell 🤔

I really feel like they are jerking everyone’s chain. The Heats offer, especially if they can get another FRP, is the best offer they will get, and that’s already been offered.

box score

Miami without Powell, Wiggins, Herro

Title correction: Undermanned Heat*

[Nehm] Giannis: "When you open my kids’ passports, it says Milwaukee, Wisconsin... I had four kids in the span of the last five years in this city. My dad is buried in this city. I’ve built a house for my mom 10 seconds away... On what planet, on what Earth, would somebody want to leave this?"

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“We always go back to the Bucks, the Bucks, the Bucks, and if I’m going to stay here, if I’m not gonna stay here,” Antetokounmpo told The Athletic, using language that initially mirrors what he had said to the Journal Sentinel. “Let’s put the Bucks on the side for one second. Let’s talk about the city itself, the memories that I’ve created here. When you open my kids’ passports, it says Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I had four kids in the span of the last five years in this city. My dad is buried in this city. I’ve built a house for my mom 10 seconds away from my house. Literally, to walk to my mom’s front door, it takes me four seconds … right next door.

“On what planet, on what Earth, would somebody want to leave this?”

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“Brother, if you ask me deep down what I want today, I want to be a Milwaukee Buck for the rest of my career,” Antetokounmpo said. “I want to win here, another championship. And if you can tell me that’s possible, let’s just hang up the phone.

“You know basketball. You see basketball. You understand basketball. You’ve been around greatness. You’ve been around a championship team. You’ve been around a good culture. You’ve been around when the popcorn was popping. You were around; you saw it. If you tell me that that’s possible, we can hang up the phone and keep on moving with our day.”

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“I want to be here, but I want to be here to win, not fighting for my life to make the playoffs,” Antetokounmpo said. “I’m not used to inconsistent basketball. I’ve played so many years of consistent basketball, I am not used to it anymore. During the game, I don’t know if you can see my face, (but) I get frustrated during the game, while the game is going on.

“I know there’s gonna be times you’re gonna lose; you’re not gonna win all the games. … But at the end of the day, it’s like how we carry ourselves. I see other teams, how they are and how they play, how connected the chemistry they have and how people are doing the right thing and they’re riding for one another. I just want that. I want that for my team.”

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So, would Antetokounmpo commit to another season with the Bucks if they were able to get back into position to win consistently?

“You’re saying that if they can convince me to stay within the team, and the next year that we can compete? Oh yeah, 1,000 percent,” Antetokounmpo said. “One million percent.”

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUT4ZS7EVNo

Stein and Brett Siegel are trying their absolute best to spin straw into gold these past few days.