The Boston Celtics may be the consensus landing spot for Giannis Antetokounmpo in NBA media circles, but Stephen A. Smith floated a different — and arguably more urgent — destination on First Take this week: Minnesota.
The pitch is built around Anthony Edwards. The Timberwolves have now been eliminated in consecutive Western Conference Finals appearances under the Edwards era — first by Dallas, now decisively by the San Antonio Spurs — and Smith argued that the front office cannot afford to let another summer pass while their cornerstone star carries a roster that keeps falling short.
"If I'm Minnesota, I'm going after Giannis," Smith said on First Take, broadening a Giannis trade conversation that has so far centred on Boston, Cleveland and a handful of mid-market suitors. "You got to find a way to keep Anthony Edwards happy. He can't continue to keep doing his part and the others around him are not getting it done."
Smith's appeal carried a second hook — the lingering ghost of the Karl-Anthony Towns trade. Minnesota dealt Towns to the New York Knicks before the 2024-25 season in part to relieve themselves of his long-term contract. Towns is now playing as a primary facilitator in a Knicks rotation that has reached back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals.
"Don't let Karl-Anthony Towns get to the promised land before him and win the NBA championship after they traded him," Smith said. "Then he is really going to be off. Karl-Anthony Towns complementing Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert would have been much better against San Antonio than what we're seeing. But that was a financial thing, too, right? Randle was making less money than Karl-Anthony Towns was."
Edwards himself signposted the broader concern after Game 5, when he acknowledged the obvious about Victor Wembanyama: "Victor Wembanyama is doing some things that we just don't really have answers for."
The Wolves did not solve those problems in Game 6 either, and the offseason discussion in Minneapolis is already turning to what kind of supporting cast Edwards actually needs. Hoops Tonight host Jason Timpf was less convinced a point guard upgrade alone would change the math.
"Let's just pretend Fred Van Vleet's on this team. Pre-Achilles tear Fred Van Vleet in the Donte DiVincenzo spot," Timpf said. "It's Ant, it's Fred, it's Rudy, it's Jaden, it's Julius. Do you think they're beating San Antonio? Do you think they're beating OKC?"
Timpf's answer was implicit — no. Which is why the conversation in NBA front-office circles is gravitating not to a tweak, but to a Giannis-sized swing. Boston has emerged as the loudest rumoured suitor, with Kendrick Perkins arguing on the same First Take episode that Jaylen Brown is enough to centre a return.
"You're damn right it is," Perkins said when asked about Boston pursuing Giannis. "For Jaylen Brown. Can you imagine Jason Tatum and Giannis Antetokounmpo in the Eastern Conference in Celtic green? They would be the best duo in the East."
The flaw in Perkins' framing, Kenny Smith argued, is that Milwaukee would never accept a deal headlined by a 29-year-old non-superstar. "They need younger players and draft picks," Smith said. "Not a guy who's 31, 32 years of age who's got a five years left in the NBA where they're not going to do anything. So I don't like the trade for that."
That is the Minnesota opening. The Wolves can offer the package the Bucks would actually want — a star younger than Brown in Edwards is off the table, but Jaden McDaniels, draft capital, and a willingness to take back Bobby Portis-style salary could be structured into a workable framework if ownership is willing.
The hardest question is whether Minnesota has the stomach for it. They had Towns and dealt him. They have Gobert on a near-max deal. They have Julius Randle in a role that did not work against the Spurs. And they have Edwards, whose patience is now the most valuable currency in the franchise.
If Stephen A. Smith is right and Boston is not the only desperate suitor, this becomes the most consequential offseason Minnesota has navigated in a decade. The price of standing pat, in his telling, is watching Anthony Edwards eventually decide that the path to a ring runs through another city.
