Giannis Antetokounmpo bombshell exposes how Mavericks botched the Luka Doncic trade

The Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo saga finally reached its climax on Wednesday morning, as ESPN's Shams Charania reported that he "is ready for a new home at the Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline or in the offseason as several rival teams make aggressive offers to the Milwaukee Bucks for him, and the franchise is starting to listen."

This report from Charania is effectively saying that Antetokounmpo requested a trade without outright saying it, and while Antetokounmpo and the Bucks have been far from perfect throughout this entire process, at least Milwaukee started a bidding war for their superstar forward rather than moving on from him in silence, as the Dallas Mavericks did.

The Mavericks' situation with Luka Doncic was obviously completely different, as Doncic had no idea that Dallas was even looking to move him, but it's the same in the sense that a team looked to trade a top-five player in the middle of the season.

The Bucks did what the Mavericks refused to do

Neither did the fans, and that's why Mavericks fans were so hurt by the move. Fans never expected for the team to trade Doncic, especially after he led them to the NBA Finals eight months prior, and the entire world was shocked.

The shock factor of the trade and everything that came along with it put the Mavericks in the middle of a PR nightmare, and there was no way for them to get out of it. Leaking that they were looking to trade Doncic would've at least prepared fans for the inevitable, regardless of how badly fans were hurt.

Superstar movement is becoming more common in today's NBA, and if the Mavericks were truly set on moving on from Luka Doncic, they should've told the entire league that they are open to trading him. This is exactly what the end of today's report from Charania is doing, and it would've allowed Dallas to net an all-world return for the Slovenian stud.

One of the biggest knocks of the Doncic trade was the return, as the Mavericks only received an aging Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a future first-round pick for a perennial MVP candidate, and this issue would've been alleviated if they made it obvious that they were ready to move on. The entire city of Dallas was always poised to be furious that the team was willing to trade Doncic, but some of their emotions would've been more measured if they at least hunted a proper return.

The Mavericks would've received one of the best trade returns that this league has ever seen if they had handled the Luka Doncic situation properly, and now they're stuck trying to get rid of Anthony Davis less than a year after trading him. His value has sunk so far that teams have completely backed away from trading for him this season, and even if he were to be on the move, Dallas would likely only receive expiring contracts for him with no draft capital or promising young players included.

On the other hand, the Bucks are about to get an absolute haul for Giannis Antetokounmpo if they trade him by next Thursday. It's not every day that a player of his caliber hits the open market, and teams from around the NBA will be doing whatever they can to bring the Greek Freak to their city.

We would've seen similar interest, and probably more, had the Mavs opened up trade offers for the then-25-year-old superstar Luka Doncic, and Dallas is in a class of their own when it comes to how they fumbled the entire situation.