Milwaukee Bucks should run it back this summer and retain core players
By Dan Larsen
Within reach of a title
Since their disappointing elimination in the Eastern Conference Finals, many have lost perspective of just how good this Milwaukee Bucks team was this past season.
Milwaukee won their most games in a single season (60) since the 1980-81 season. They finished in the top five in the league in net rating (first), offensive rating (fourth) and defensive rating (first) during the regular season, a feat that only one other team was able to do this season (the NBA Champion Toronto Raptors).
Milwaukee carried that fantastic regular season success into the playoffs too.
Largest Point Differential Through First 11 Games - NBA Postseason History:
— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) May 18, 2019
2016-17 Warriors* +182
2000-01 Lakers* +170
>>2018-19 Bucks +168
1970-71 Bucks* +164
1995-96 Bulls* +162
*Won NBA Championship
Milwaukee were THE standout performer through the first two rounds of the NBA Playoffs, as well as the first two games of the Conference Finals. Yes, they rolled through a poor Detroit Pistons team in Round One, but they came back from an awful opener in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals to annihilate a Boston team that was a fourth quarter in a Game 7 away from making the NBA Finals the season prior.
Even after things started to unravel in the Eastern Conference Finals after their Game 3 loss in overtime in Toronto, the Bucks were still well within reach of winning the series.
Most people still don’t intuit how close and how variable game outcomes are.
— Ben Taylor (@ElGee35) May 26, 2019
Merely 50% 3-pt shooting (!) from Fred essentially swings the series to MIL in 6. Remember that when you read sweeping narratives about these teams/players. #winningbias https://t.co/2ocUB53oX6
The Raptors finish the series shooting 33% on guarded catch-and-shoot jumpers.
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) May 26, 2019
The Bucks finished the series shooting 32.9% on unugarded catch-and-shoot jumpers.
It took a historic shooting performance from Fred Van Vleet, as well as an aberration of awful shooting from the Bucks on open shots throughout the series, to get the Toronto Raptors to the NBA Finals. Even then, they won by only the finest of margins.
Despite losing four straight games to end their season, Milwaukee finished as a historically great team in the post-season too.
Milwaukee's +8.8 point differential in the playoffs was the best in the 16-team era for a team that did not reach the NBA Finals. Leaderboard:
— Kevin Pelton (@kpelton) May 26, 2019
+8.8 Milwaukee 2019
+8.6 Orlando 2010
+8.6 Denver 2009
+8.5 Cleveland 2009
+7.7 Utah 1996
+7.6 L.A. Lakers 1986
+7.1 Phoenix 1989
Milwaukee finished the 2019 NBA Playoffs with this best net rating of any team (8.8). In fact, their net rating ended up being three points higher than the next best team, the champion Toronto Raptors (5.6).
Had Milwaukee been even a hair better in those final four games in the Conference Finals, there’s a very good chance they’d have won the NBA title this past June.