Saturday’s loss to San Antonio mathematically eliminated the Bucks from playoff contention, capping an extremely disappointing season and setting up a resumption of the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade sweepstakes, which could be the biggest story of the summer.
Milwaukee is the fifth Eastern team to be eliminated, joining Indiana, Brooklyn, Washington and Chicago, which means the 10 conference teams that will participate in the postseason are now set.
The Bucks’ decision to hold onto Antetokounmpo past the February 5 trade deadline signaled that the organization hoped to make a late-season push to at least reach the play-in tournament and then try to make a playoff run. That never materialized as the team has gone 9-14 since then and Antetokounmpo has played just six times due to the combination of a calf strain and a hyperextended left knee and bone bruise.
The Bucks’ strategy of keeping Antetokounmpo wasn’t accompanied by any other big moves to make the team more competitive. Milwaukee’s only deadline transaction was to get involved in a three-team trade to acquire Oklahoma City’s Ousmane Dieng, who has been a productive addition, and Phoenix’s Nigel Hayes-Davis, who was waived the next day.
Cam Thomas was a surprise addition in early February, signing for the rest of the season after being waived by Brooklyn. Although he got off to a strong start as a scoring threat off the bench, Thomas was released on Monday after 18 games with Milwaukee.
The seeds for this season’s failure were planted in last year’s playoffs when Damian Lillard suffered a torn Achilles. Instead of waiting a year for the veteran guard to heal, Bucks management made the controversial decision to waive him and use the stretch provision to spread his remaining $112.6MM salary over the next five years.
The newly created cap space was used to sign Myles Turner away from Indiana. Turner has provided a steady presence in the middle, even though his scoring average (11.9 PPG) and shooting numbers (44% from the field and 38.4% from three-point range) have declined from last year’s production with the Pacers.
This marks the Bucks’ first non-playoff season since 2016, and it’s just the second time since Antetokounmpo’s rookie year that they’ve failed to qualify. After today’s game, coach Doc Rivers talked about the frustrations that led up to this point, relays Eric Nehm of The Athletic (Twitter link).
“It’s been disappointing obviously,” Rivers said. “Since I’ve been here, I haven’t had a healthy stretch and it’s been your key guys. It’s been Giannis. It’s been Dame. And you hope you can play through that, but we just haven’t had the ability. This year, having only one quote-unquote star, every other team has two and three. We needed health. We were thin. We knew that before the season started and it just didn’t go our way. All the talk and all that stuff probably didn’t help either.
“But I always try to look at silver linings and Ryan (Rollins) is one of them. Pete Nance is another one. Ous (Dieng) is one of them. And we gotta rehabilitate or get A.J. Green going again. He’s a good player. He’s played too many minutes. We’ve had no choice and I think that’s put him in a tough spot and I feel bad for him at times. Bobby (Portis) is Bobby. He’s been a pro throughout this year. We had a great talk today about it before the game. I’m so proud of him as a leader. He tries to do the right stuff. He tries to say the right things in the locker room.”
Rivers, 64, is entering the final year of his contract, and his future in Milwaukee could be tied to Antetokounmpo’s. With only six current players currently under contract for next season, plenty of change could lie ahead, whether Antetokounmpo returns or not.
at least i got to see 1 bucks championship in my lifetime. will never happen again
Bucks should trade Giannis. Then swing for the fences. Draft well and just rebuild. This is a deep first rd draft.
Bucks decision to keep Giannis at the deadline was not based on trying to make the play in. It was because the offers were subpar and they feel there will be more suitors and more clarity on exactly what assets they are receiving after the lottery. Teams will presumably be more willing to trade from their rotation in the offseason as well. Trade will happen this offseason, but I think they will still be disappointed with the return.
Exactly nobody’s going to trade three to four first round picks for Giannis. He can’t win a championship if he’s your number one option. It’s impossible for him to stay healthy at this point in his career. He’s going over 30 with no post-up game or a jump shot. He’ll continually have minor injury after minor injury. Not really sure what fits. Maybe to New York if New York flames out they can take back Kat. And reset with those picks. Again, they don’t own their first round picks for the next 3 to 4 years with pick swaps are giving them up. So there’s no reason to tank at all. They will not be good for the next 4 to 5 years and then they’ll have a 3-year rebuild after that. So you’re looking at close to 7 to 8 years before we see Milwaukee actually behalf of a good team again
His post game isn’t terrible but his jump shot is. Everything else is spot on though. At this stage in his career, he’d be a perfect robin to someone like Curry, Murray in Denver, even Cade and the Pistons would be a good fit imo. He’s no longer capable of being Batman or a true number one on a contending team.
Not sure Golden State works. Unless you give up Butler. Salaries won’t fit.
Detroit not sure him and cade fit unless you have shooters but seems to be the best option.
As for everybody else saying, not sure if the GM will get good picks. You have to understand the NBA trade market has changed and especially with the anti-taking rules. Pics may not be as valuable as they once were. So teams are not going to just trade for and find five draft picks
Why they hired Doc Rivers I will never know. I could have coach the 2008 cektucs with lue and this.
Pistons beat a depleted Minny team today. Without Cade. They showed they got depth. I was impressed. This is a young team. That added some solid vets. In LaVert, Duncan, Huertar. This is a good team. Definitely can come out of East. Knicks better be ready.
After this train wreck of a season, who trusts the GM to make a smart Giannis trade or decent draft picks?