Milwaukee Bucks: Building A Roster The Right Way
By Adam McGee
Learning From Mistakes Of Years Gone By
In the reaction and analysis of Milwaukee’s offseason moves (particularly the Miles Plumlee re-signing), there’s been a sense of a growing collective who believe the Bucks have settled for mediocrity. Some have suggested their biggest ambition for this season may only be an eighth seed and a spirited playoff appearance.
The problem with all of this, of course, is that if any organization and fanbase knows about eighth seeds and mediocrity, it’s the Bucks. This feels different to those previous mistakes and with good reason too.
Recent moves haven’t been about just consolidating a roster that has won less than 75 regular season games over the past two seasons in order to boost their output now, there’s a greater context to it than that.
Last summer saw the Bucks trade away veterans to put greater trust in youth. That move may ultimately have proven to be a step too far, taken far too soon, but the intent behind it was the complete opposite to what has underpinned some of the most mediocre Bucks squads of the past two decades and beyond.
With the team’s current young core reportedly viewed as “untouchable” in trades at present, there’s no sense that a Ray Allen style trade could be on the horizon to kill the positive vibes that are now in place.
The Bucks are putting together a slow, methodical rebuild that’s heavily reliant on the draft. Good fortune has meant that the really bad times were incredibly brief, but it shouldn’t dispel the notion of this being a rebuild in progress that still requires patience. We should all be glad of how painless it’s been to date, and reassured by the fact that the owners seem to have the required restraint to see the project to its completion.
Next: No Quick Fixes