Might the Portland Trail Blazers have been a sleeper team to land Giannis Antetokounmpo before the “Greek Freak” signed a supermax with the Milwaukee Bucks?

Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports reported on the latest edition of the Posted Up podcast Antetokounmpo had grown especially close with Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard this summer.

Haynes added the two superstars had plans to work out with one another, despite Giannis rarely working out with fellow star players:

“If Giannis were to leave Milwaukee, I’m talking about this past summer, before he signed the max extension. If the team didn’t make the necessary moves to make Giannis feel comfortable, I believe there was a team that he would have considered leaving for, and that team is the Portland Trail Blazers,” Haynes said, via SB Nation. “Sources have told me that Giannis and Damian Lillard, they’ve gotten really close over the last few months. And they were talking about working out together.”

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Apparently, Giannis and Dame had interests beyond just working out, including possibly playing on the same team:

“But sources have told me that both of them were talking with each other about the possibility of what it would look like playing with each other, you know, when their contracts allowed so,” Haynes said, via SB Nation. “I believe Dame was trying to tell Giannis about what it would look like him playing in Portland and same, visa versa, what it would look like him playing in Milwaukee.

It might have been difficult for the Trail Blazers to land Antetokounmpo this summer without at least sending C.J. McCollum back in a sign-and-trade. The salaries would not have worked otherwise.

Still, it would have been intriguing to see whether Portland might have maneuvered to make a run at Giannis to team him up with Lillard.