Mid-Season Report Card: Bucks

The regular season doesn't matter for this Bucks team anymore. How can they beat Brooklyn or Philly?

Reverse-engineering

Maybe the Bucks cracked the code on reaching The Finals. The past two seasons illuminated the world on the ferocity of Bucks regular season basketball, but led to postseason disappointment. Are they focusing more on the road ahead this time?

Their record is by no means bad, and 23 or so teams in the league wish they could achieve that level of success. The truth, however, is that Milwaukee doesn't care about this number and needs to make a deep run in the playoffs to not be ridiculed.

To say their window was the past two years would be an extreme overreaction. They were close in 2019, taking Toronto to six games in the ECF, and they collapsed last year against the Heat in the East Semis. Giannis is committed long-term and the Bucks have Jrue Holiday to provide them with extra juice.

Bud

Coach Budenholzer will likely be dismissed if the Bucks disappoint in the postseason, and whether that's fair is irrelevant, given the NBA's tendency to oust coaches even when it's clearly not their fault.

The story here is that a similar situation with Mike Budenholzer materialized in his time with Atlanta, taking them into the playoffs, but never past the east teams and into The Finals.

Deadline

Every team can certainly do something at the deadline to improve, but Milwaukee might be one of the teams best-suited to keep things relatively the same and hope to challenge Philly and Brooklyn with what they have.

Let the team grow together and build chemistry that will allow serious contention against those who are favored above them. The league might be underestimating Milwaukee's chances just a bit too much in a year that labels Brooklyn as the only viable option out of the east. The Bucks might just surprise everyone.

Grade:

B+