With news that Kawhi Leonard is headed to the Western Conference, the Milwaukee Bucks have a golden opportunity to at least get to the Finals next season.
The NBA landscape reset once again late on Friday night, and as Kawhi Leonard embarks on the next chapter of his journey with the LA Clippers, the Milwaukee Bucks should be feeling very good about where it leaves them.
Of course, even with Leonard in their path, the Bucks were feeling good when they were up 2-0 in last season’s Conference Finals. How that series turned, and how significantly many teams have retooled since then, is proof that you can never rest on your laurels in the NBA.
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An objective view of the Eastern Conference still makes for favorable reading for the Bucks, though.
The loss of Malcolm Brogdon will almost undoubtedly see the Bucks take a step back, and if anything, Leonard leaving Toronto only makes the Bucks’ decision to let Brogdon walk away all the more frustrating. But the fact remains, there’s a major opening for the Bucks as they seek to make the Finals for the first time since 1974, and possibly get their hands on an NBA championship trophy for the first time since 1971.
All said, the Leonard sweepstakes ultimately played out close to as well as they could for the Bucks given the options that were in front of them.
Leonard staying in Toronto would have cemented the Raptors’ spot as one of the Bucks’ toughest rivals for years to come. With Anthony Davis and LeBron James already in place, Kawhi joining the Lakers would have potentially made for a very unappealing matchup if the Bucks were to make it out of the East. There’s no doubting that the Clippers acquiring Paul George in addition to Leonard brings a new team to the league’s top table, but it doesn’t instantly create the kind of unstoppable force that three stars or more teaming up can bring.
It’s not the first time this summer that player movement seems to have broken in Milwaukee’s favor either.
Anthony Davis ending up in Los Angeles rather than Boston was a clear positive. The Celtics and 76ers being forced into mini rebuilds on the fly as many of their key players from last season spread out around the league was also a bonus, although the 76ers look to have done a much better job of holding firm and maybe even improving through that challenge. Even a potential star of Zion Williamson‘s caliber landing in the West in the draft spells good news for the team perhaps best placed to sustain long-term dominance in the East.
Of course, Milwaukee’s ability to do just that is entirely tied to their ability to retain Giannis Antetokounmpo. Showing progress on last season may well be essential to persuading Antetokounmpo to put pen to paper on a super-max extension next summer and, on that front, a clearer path to the Finals is by no means a bad thing.
None of this is to say that the Bucks are set to embark on a procession through to meeting the last team standing of the West’s battle royale in June. A lot can happen over the course of an NBA season, and the onus will still be on Milwaukee to go out and perform.
The Brooklyn Nets provide a new challenge, although it may be a much more considerable one 12 months from now ahead of Kevin Durant‘s return.
The 76ers stand out as Milwaukee’s primary threat, and yet so much remains uncertain about how they’ll perform in actuality. Philadelphia’s new-look starting five of Ben Simmons, Josh Richardson, Tobias Harris, Al Horford and Joel Embiid seems like a near lock to make the Sixers the NBA’s best defensive team, but will they be able to create enough offense? The race in the Eastern Conference may well hinge on the answer to that question.
Where last season the East boasted a top tier of four teams that were viewed by many as close to inseparable for much of the season, there should be a much clearer divide next year. Perhaps Philadelphia can establish themselves in the top tier alongside Milwaukee, but barring further moves there will be a clear drop-off below that.
The champion Toronto Raptors and the Boston Celtics will at best find themselves in the East’s second tier, while there’s no reason to believe the Brooklyn Nets and Indiana Pacers couldn’t even push or jump past them for homecourt seeding in that bracket.
The shakeout leaves Milwaukee with a golden opportunity. Considering the chance they had last season, which they ultimately passed up in disappointing fashion across the course of four games against Toronto, they can’t allow another opening to get away from them.
The Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo can be an elite force for years to come if they take full advantage of their position over the course of the upcoming season. Alternatively, Antetokounmpo could end up a force elsewhere and the Bucks could yet be left to reflect on what could have been.
More than they have felt in decades, the pressure will be on the Bucks to deliver in 2019-20.