THE Milwaukee Bucks are 1-4 and look more like a Cooper Flagg contender than a championship contender through Week 1 and the NBA season change. Doc Rivers has a losing record since taking the Bucks job and this roster is basically immune to any improvement. There are few assets to trade and even less flexibility in trading them. The Bucks are stuck in the second apron with an exorbitant tax bill, a glaring lack of promising young talent and an aging roster without the pieces needed to keep winning around Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.

It helps that Giannis and Dame don’t give off the biggest vibes in the world.

The Bucks are in big trouble. It’s usually not wise to panic after five games, but all of the problems that plagued Milwaukee last season are happening again this season. The “Doc is new” excuse is out the window. He had a full offseason to install his playbook and put the pieces of the puzzle together. It’s tough to field a bad team with Giannis and Dame on your roster, but the Bucks are doing their best.

Giannis made no effort to avoid trade rumors. If the Bucks can’t turn things around, it’s only a matter of time before the two-time MVP gets nervous. Milwaukee should be much better than that, but for all the hype surrounding the Dame partnership when that trade fell through, these hypothetical landing spots could pair Giannis with an even better No. 2.

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The concept of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Zion Williamson in the same frontcourt is difficult to understand. The athleticism between the two would prove difficult for most defenses to contain. Currently without a suitable departure center, the New Orleans Pelicans surely wouldn’t object to Giannis filling that role, banking on his defensive range as a safety net behind Herb Jones, Dejounte Murray and NOLA’s perimeter dogs.

Obviously, the Pelicans would have to empty a deep support tank and a draft tank to make that happen. Giannis won’t come cheap, especially with several years remaining on his contract. The Pelicans are also not a marquee destination, which could complicate negotiations. Giannis is bound to have ideas about where he should end up.

That said, the prospect of pairing Giannis and Zion is enticing, as it would create the most unique and dominant frontcourt duo in modern history. Forget spacing, the Pelicans would have two free tickets to the edge at any given time. Defenses would likely pack the paint and throw a wall at both slashing giants, but Zion has thrived in non-optimal spacing environments before. Giannis’ shooting isn’t any worse than what Daniel Theis is putting out these days.

The Pelicans would have no trouble collapsing the defense and creating open shooters on the perimeter. This trade would likely encourage the Pelicans to pursue more 3-point bombers (Jordan Hawkins would have a field day), but just getting Giannis’ build is a great first step. Let’s start there.

THE Houston Rockets are loaded with assets, both in terms of personnel and recruiting, so there aren’t many teams with better business packages lined up. Believe me skeptical that Houston keeps Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard out of this trade, but I’m just imagining the two-man actions with Sheppard bypassing Giannis’ DHOs, or Thompson heading straight to the rim and putting Giannis on the dump-offs.

That said, his real “running mate”, at least initially, would be Alperen Sengun. Most will balk at calling Sengun “better” than Damian Lillard, but we need to start thinking long term. Lillard’s early years are clearly behind him. Giannis still has a few left in the tank. At just 22 years old, Sengun has the upside of being an All-Star in a role coveted by many teams.

Nikola Jokic really changed the way we think about the central position. I’m not here to fuel these reckless comparisons, but Sengun’s playmaking skills are a rare gift at the fifth tier. There would be many great and creative ways to utilize the combined passing and inside scoring ability of Sengun and Giannis.

In the meantime, it’s a perfect defensive marriage. Sengun struggles to protect the rim at a high level due to his limited size and lack of vertical pop. Giannis covers a ton of ground on the weak side and can give Sengun some coverage, thus addressing one of Houston’s main weaknesses.

The Rockets are deep enough to trade for Giannis and keep a decent supporting cast intact. This team would travel.

It is clear that Oklahoma City Thunder are the best team in the Western Conference. It’s impossible to predict the future in such a loaded conference, but a healthy OKC team should rise to the challenge and meet Boston (or an Eastern underdog) in the NBA Finals. That’s without trading for Giannis.

There is no team better positioned to thread the needle between the present and the future than OKC. Sam Presti still has an ungodly volume of future first-round picks in his stores. The Thunder can overwhelm the Bucks with picks and not even touch their young talent pool. OKC has a real chance to pair Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, And Giannis if it comes to trade discussions between the two teams.

Giannis could go for a more glamorous deal, but if he’s truly determined to win, that should be his desired landing spot. OKC isn’t necessarily the sexiest city, but this team is made up of 11 guys, as Kevin Garnett so eloquently explained on his podcast.

The Thunder are deep, young and brimming with star power. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is already an MVP candidate, arguably even more important in the NBA hierarchy than Giannis. Imagine Antetokounmpo as No. 2. Plus, Chet Holmgren is quickly moving up this ladder in his own right. OKC would have the most dynamic and stifling defensive backcourt in the league between Chet and Giannis, with Shai creating endless advantages as the head of the snake offensively. This takes the pressure off Giannis and hopefully keeps him ready for a long championship run.

That’s what most people want to see. We’ve never had Stephen Curry and LeBron James on the same team, but Steph and Giannis could be just as entertaining. THE Warriors of the Golden State have been patiently holding on to their draft picks, with several young prospects — Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, Brandin Podziemski, Trayce Jackson-Davis — who could appeal to a Bucks team heading toward a rebuild.

Can Golden State win a bidding war with OKC, Houston or New Orleans? Absolutely not, but that’s where Giannis’ own desires come in. The eight-time All-Star won’t force a trade without some influence on his eventual landing spot. The Bucks have the right to ignore Giannis and do what’s best for the team, but more often than not, the NBA’s true superstars get to pull the strings behind the scenes.

Golden State is a premium market and a proven winner. Giannis would add an element to Steve Kerr’s offense that we’ve never seen, putting relentless pressure at the rim and thus generating easy buckets or ball movement. Two-man actions with Giannis and Steph would break down defenses, essentially providing what Milwaukee fans expected from Giannis and Dame. He’s not getting any younger, but Steph seems to be aging more gracefully than Lillard. His off-ball dynamism and shooting versatility are also just different. Dame is an all-time shooter, but he can’t compare to Steph, especially when it comes to playing with another offensive center.

The Warriors are hot out of the gate this season. Kerr has real depth and punch to work with around Steph, which changes the perception of Golden State a bit. The team isn’t built to contend for a championship as it stands, but the addition of Giannis obviously propels the Warriors several levels up in the West.