On Tuesday, Giannis Antetokounmpo scrubbed virtually all mentions of the Milwaukee Bucks from his social media — a troubling sign for a 9-13 team built around Antetokounmpo.

Now comes a report that Antetokounmpo and his agent are meeting with the Milwaukee Bucks to discuss "whether his best fit is staying or a move elsewhere," Shams Charania reports at ESPN. The report states that the sides are expected to reach a resolution "in the coming weeks," which will impact whether Antetokounmpo is available around February's NBA trade deadline.

This is far from the first time Antetokounmpo trade rumors have surfaced. He reportedly pushed the Bucks to discuss a trade with the New York Knicks over the offseason, but those talks went nowhere. That led to these comments from Antetokounmpo at the team's media day.

"I've said this many times, I want to be in a situation that I can win and now I'm here," Antetokounmpo said. "I believe in this team. I believe in my teammates. I'm here to lead this team to wherever we can go and it's definitely going to be hard… Now, if in six, seven months, I change my mind, I think that's human too, you're allowed to make any decision you want, but I'm locked in. I'm locked into this team. I'm locked in to these guys, to this group and to this coaching staff and to myself."

"Six or seven months" implied Antetokounmpo would revisit the issue next offseason, a re-evaluation he says he makes every summer. However, the Bucks' rough start may have changed his thinking and his timeline.

Antetokounmpo is playing at an MVP level this season, averaging 30.6 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 6.4 assists a game. Milwaukee recently went 0-4 when Antetokounmpo was out with a groin strain. The team is now 1-5 on the season when he does not play and just 8-8 when he does, including an ugly loss to the Wizards on Monday night. Milwaukee is not a contender as constructed, even in a wide-open East. Beyond that, the Bucks don't have the draft picks or young players it would likely take to make a trade that would dramatically upgrade the team this season.

The Bucks are not going to trade Antetokounmpo unless he directly requests it. Even if he does, trading Antetokounmpo and his $ 54.1 million salary during the season is incredibly challenging. Especially considering the teams he would want to be traded to — the Knicks, maybe the Warriors, others — are also hard-capped or up against the luxury tax aprons themselves.

If Milwaukee is forced to trade him, it will ask for a massive haul of quality young players, high draft picks, and veteran contracts it can flip in a trade, all to jump-start the inevitable rebuild. To use the Knicks as an example, they are thin on quality young players and have only one first-round pick, plus a couple of swaps, to offer. The math works on a trade of Karl-Anthony Towns and Miles McBride plus the pick, but is that nearly enough for Milwaukee? Especially considering there would be a long line of teams at least checking in — Houston, San Antonio, Golden State, the LA Clippers, and the list will go on and on — and some (many?) of those would put together offers more enticing to the Bucks.

All of that is getting ahead of things. For now, the Buck and Antetokounmpo (as well as his agent Alex Saratsis) are sitting down and figuring out what is next. Even if that is a decision to part ways, an offseason trade is far more likely than one at the deadline.