Just over 100 days ago, the Heat seemingly stole away the conference semifinals from the Bucks in five games.
Now, the Bucks open their season on Wednesday against the Celtics, after a quick turnaround and a facelift to their roster.
Earlier this offseason, the Bucks were able to shed Eric Bledsoe and George Hill in a three-team trade that landed them Jrue Holiday, an upgrade at the point guard position. Holiday will complement Khris Middleton in the backcourt. Middleton signed a five-year contract extension last season.
More importantly, the Bucks locked up the biggest free agent in the 2021 class, Giannis Antetokounmpo, who signed his five-year, $228 million supermax contract extension. Antetokounmpo is now the highest-paid player in NBA history.
“Some see a wall and go in [another direction]. I plow through it,” Antetokounmpo told Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports back in September. “We just have to get better as a team, individually and get right back at it next season.”
For the Bucks, this season is time for Antetokounmpo to plow through that formidable brick wall in the Eastern Conference. Last season, after winning Defensive Player of the Year, the Bucks could not match up with Miami’s offensive tempo. Bringing in veteran help like Holiday and Torrey Craig should provide another spark plug for Antetokounmpo’s offensive game.
Can Milwaukee Find Playoff Success?
Head coach Mike Budenholzer needs to adjust his own approach, as he’ll be accommodating his own big three with Antetokounmpo, Middleton, and Holiday.
In each of the last two seasons, Budenholzer’s Bucks were eliminated from playoff contention by the Raptors and Heat—two organizations with stellar head coaches in Nick Nurse and Erik Spoelstra. Budenholzer has a mini superteam of his own in Milwaukee, similar to his days coaching Al Horford, Kyle Korver, Jeff Teague, Kent Bazemore and Dennis Schröder in Atlanta.
“To think that a season is championship or bust is certainly not how we’ve approached it,” Budenholzer said.
After a disappointing five-game series against the Heat in the bubble, Milwaukee decided to keep Budenholzer as their head coach. They added star-power. They added rotational wing help. They ousted any possibility of their superstar skipping town this summer.
“I don’t think we change the way we approach it because it’s been working the last two years. We’ve won a lot of games and we’ve created winning habits,” Antetokounmpo said.
The Bucks should win a lot of games. They put themselves in a great position to continue this offseason. But if they suffer another disappointing playoff exit, with Budenholzer and Antetokounmpo underachieving under the league’s brightest lights, that will be more concerning than publicly going all-in on a championship this season.
