Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The trade is official and now Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis are members of the Miami Heat

Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis are a part of the Miami Heat and now the trade is official. Giannis will wear the same #34 in Miami, and will start his 14th season in October. Portis will be starting his 12th.

After Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Antetokounmpo is the greatest Buck in team history His goodbye post was clips of his time in Milwaukee with a voiceover of him talking about the team and people of the city. In it, he said he hoped he represented the city the best he could. 

It was a classy gesture after the drama-filled season in which relationships soured. He only played in 36 games, and logged the second-lowest minutes of his career, but he is arriving in Miami a better player than Shaquille O’Neal was when he got there in 2004.

In Miami, Antetokounmpo will play for the best coach he’s ever had in Erik Spoelstra, and Bam Adebayo is the best defender he’s been with aside from Jrue Holiday and Brook Lopez.

Heat president Pat Riley said through a team post, “The announcement of today’s trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis Jr. is one of the great trades in HEAT history. In my opinion, Giannis is one of the top five players in the league and Bobby is one of the best power forwards. The difficult part is trading Tyler, Kasparas, Jaime and Kel’el who have given so much to this organization, we wish them nothing but the best. I also want to thank the Arison’s for their continued pursuit towards winning a championship and we feel this gives us a better opportunity moving forward. I want to welcome Giannis and Bobby to the Miami HEAT family.”

Media day in Miami should be packed now that the national brigade has a reason to come back, and perhaps it will be close to the level the Big Three got.  They won’t be as good, but they should win between 49 and 53 games this season and secure a top-three seed, snapping their streak of four Play-In Tournament appearances. 

The team still needs some extra playmakers and shooting around Antetokounmpo, but they should be fine in the short term without it. The defense and rebounding will make up for it. 

As for the package traded for Antetokounmpo and Portis, there time in Miami mattered. Kasparas Jakučionis, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kel’el Ware all have promising futures and are now highly motivated after being shipped off. The best hasn’t of Tyler Herro hasn’t been seen, either.