The Milwaukee Bucks Are Back
The Milwaukee Bucks finished the 2016–17 NBA season with their first winning record in seven years.
Even though the Milwaukee Bucks season came to a screeching halt on Thursday night, they hope to use this past season as a building block to a brighter future. A future, hopefully, that contains far more postseason success than they had this year.
By most measurements Milwaukee had a successful year. It may not seem that way right now after the Bucks wasted 1–0 and 2–1 series leads against the Toronto Raptors, but if we look at the big picture it certainly holds true.
The Bucks ran into a Raptors team that is built for the playoffs. With players like DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka all solidly in their prime, their roster was constructed for a run in 2017.
Milwaukee, on the other hand, has a team who won’t max out their potential for another few seasons. This was simply a learning experience for the young Bucks. Something they can draw on when making their deep postseason runs in the years to come.
The biggest bright spot for Milwaukee was the continued development of budding superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Antetokounmpo made his first All-Star appearance this season when he was selected as a starter for the Eastern Conference. Everyone was expecting him to improve his play from last season, but he improved more than anyone could have hoped.
The future is a blank page for Antetokounmpo as he may have NBA champion, MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and who knows what else written on the pages once he is finished.
As for the Bucks, they saw growth and development from other players on their roster besides their superstar.
Tony Snell, an impending restricted free-agent, took a huge leap in his outside shooting and could be a floor-spacer the Bucks desperately need.
Greg Monroe, who has a player option for next season, showed that he is willing to sacrifice personal glory and come off the bench for the Bucks. He was very effective in that role and provided a much-needed scoring spark for the second unit.
Rookies Malcolm Brogdon and Thon Maker were both pleasant surprises in their own rights. Nobody expected either player to be able to come in and contribute right away but they proved otherwise.
Maker may be the next Antetokounmpo in terms of growth in his development. He has a long way to go but was able to show flashes of his immense potential.
Jabari Parker is another player who showed his amazing scoring ability before his catastrophic knee injury ended his season and put question marks all around his career. Parker’s future may very well be directly linked to the Bucks’ success. Nobody knows for sure if he will be able to regain the same form he showed throughout the first three plus months of the season.
If Parker isn’t able to rehabilitate himself back into that shape, the Bucks must find scoring elsewhere as Antetokounmpo can only shoulder so much of the scoring load.
Khris Middleton will be another key piece to the Bucks’ puzzle as he never truly regained form after coming back from a hamstring injury in February. It will be important for him to play like he did during the 2015–16 season when he was the best Bucks player night in and night out.
With an important summer looming for the Milwaukee Bucks, don’t expect them to make many, if any, moves in free-agency.
If Monroe and Spencer Hawes opt into their player options the Bucks will be above the salary cap. If they both opt out, the Bucks will be about $11 million below.
That $11 million won’t be enough to buy them very much on the open market so look for the Bucks to stand pat.
We can expect Milwaukee to be active on the trade market. They will be trying very hard to dump John Henson and his awful contract which still contains three years and nearly $33 million owed to it.
That is easier said than done however, as many teams are unlikely to be willing to take on that contract without giving Milwaukee something nasty back in return. This will probably result in the Bucks flipping a bad contract for another bad contract in hopes that a change of scenery for the player they acquire will be enough to spark them.
Milwaukee may also be looking to move one of either Matthew Dellavedova or Mirza Teletovic. Both players signed deals with the Bucks last summer but had underwhelming seasons. However, at this point I would guess Jason Kidd is willing to give them one more year to prove themselves in a Bucks’ uniform.
The biggest improvement for Milwaukee will likely come from within. The Bucks are counting on another big jump from Antetokounmpo as well as from players like Maker and Brogdon.
For the most part the Bucks have pieces in place to be successful, now it’s time to do the small maneuvering that championship teams have been so successful at in the past.
Ultimately, the Milwaukee Bucks can be proud of the season they had. Game Six against the Raptors was a microcosm of their season as a whole. The Bucks got off to an okay start but soon became sluggish and fell behind. Tragedy then soon struck and the Bucks found themselves looking at a 25 point deficit mid-way through the third quarter.
This didn’t stop Milwaukee, however, as they battled back and were able to take a two point lead late in the fourth quarter. In the end though, Milwaukee just didn’t have enough talent. Their season came to an abrupt end but this is only just the beginning for a young Bucks squad.
