Great Expectations: Believing In The Milwaukee Bucks Again

By Jordan Treske | Mar 27, 2015

The last month of Milwaukee Bucks basketball hasn’t been so kind to us fans. A shocking trade, countless number of injuries, and stinging buzzer beater losses that make your head spin. And that’s not getting into how disjointed the team has looked post All-Star break. Even coach Jason Kidd recently commented on how there’s a “bigger picture” here for the Bucks, regarding recent play and the Knight-Carter-Williams trade.

While the play of both Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton has been terrific since being put in a bigger spotlight, the team, for the most part, hasn’t produced wins, going 6-11 since the All-Star break.

That’s why the buzzer-beating win over the Miami Heat was a big breath of fresh air. You can see it on the players’ faces after the shot went down and the ensuing celebration. The game not only meant something, in terms of the latter half of the Eastern Conference playoff race, but to the team in general and to win the way they did makes every Bucks fan jump for joy.

This year has definitely seen it’s ups and downs. While we cheered during the team’s early success, seeing Jabari Parker go down with a season-ending injury, the whole Larry Sanders situation, and whether you thought he was the team’s point guard of the future or not, seeing Brandon Knight get traded away to Phoenix. you start to feel robbed that this team could be a lot better than where they are right now.

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But it’s very easy to get yourself wrapped in the present when you cheer for your favorite team. Teams are ultimately judged by their success and if you aren’t successful, it makes fans lash out with anger who hold them in the highest regard and front offices make the appropriate changes as they see fit.

Looking towards the future is a popular trend for teams in the NBA. Teams like the 76ers and the Knicks have completely bypassed this year and have looked towards building for the future, for better or for worse. A team like the Celtics, who initially were looking towards the future, veered off course and are currently slotted as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.

Even with their post All-Star struggles, the Bucks have made both looking towards the future and enjoying the present major priorities. Even with a major shakeup in the roster, it hasn’t changed what the players, coaches and front office want: to make it to the playoffs.

Now the reality of that goal is a little slighted for the Bucks. They play in the Eastern Conference, where it’s definitely easier to make the playoffs than the Western Conference. As it stands right now, the Bucks would hold the sixth seed and they face the possibility of having a below .500 record, with 10 games to go.

However, all that doesn’t take away the accomplishments the team has achieved this season. No one thought the Bucks would be in this position at this time of the year, doubling their previous year’s win total by the all-star break, the development of Antetokounmpo and Middleton, not to mention the effect Jason Kidd has had on the team have made every Bucks fan excited for what the future holds.

Yes, there are still lingering questions of Carter-Williams and his fit with the team, along with question marks like Henson and the veterans of the team, but all we can do is speculate on what the future holds.

The last years under the ownership of Herb Kohl, the Bucks were completely focused on the present and kept putting off the future, disillusioning fans and players alike. Even last year, for the complete disaster it was, operated under a win-now mentality, only there were very few wins to come by.

Although under new ownership and coaching staff, fans started questioning whether that mentality seemed to stick around because of the early eyebrow raising success the Bucks had accomplished. While it’s fair to be skeptical, we have more than enough evidence that it’s not about just this year, but the foreseeable future.

For now, the Bucks will be fighting for a spot in the playoffs in the last remaining games of the season. It’s hard to see them going past the first round, but hey, no one expected this in the first place.

Next: SMH MCW: What's Wrong With Michael Carter-Williams?

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