A year after they took the league by storm and overhauled their identity with the arrival of head coach Mike Budenholzer, the Milwaukee Bucks will look to maintain the culture they have built in hopes of contending for an NBA title next season.
We’re only days away from NBA training camps opening up, which obviously includes the start of official preparations for the new season for your Milwaukee Bucks.
After embarking on a summer that was primarily spent retaining several of their core players that hit free agency, as well as reshaping their depth with what was already a deep roster, the Bucks are ramping up to maintain their place at the top of the NBA after leading the league with 60 wins last year.
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The Bucks’ rise to becoming title contenders can all be traced to the massive sea change that brewed last summer, all of which stemmed from the arrival of Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer.
Landing the now reigning NBA Coach of the Year has had an immeasurable impact on the organization overall in ways that go far beyond the results they crafted on the court last season.
Finally, the Bucks were able to execute the vision they have long held regarding their core foundation of players and more specifically, to unlock the wide-ranging talents of their superstar, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Antetokounmpo may have benefited the most as he ascended to even greater heights, which concluded with him taking last season’s Most Valuable Player award. But go on down the line and virtually all Bucks players, even a couple that have gone on to different teams this offseason, improved with the guidance of Budenholzer and his coaching staff in place in their first season in Milwaukee.
Boasting a coherent vision for how they want to build their team on and off the court and sustaining the success they enjoyed last season, the Bucks have finally realized the long-term aspirations they were in search of over the last few years. And that’s why the Bucks are confident in the culture they have created with Budenholzer in place.
Look no further than the calculated decision the Bucks made in accelerating Malcolm Brogdon‘s departure in free agency, which ended up being a sign-and trade deal with the Indiana Pacers. Brogdon’s exit left the Bucks with the biggest hole they had to fill in their depth chart, as well as in the starting lineup.
The financial circumstances relating to the price that was needed to retain Brogdon’s services were and are impossible to untangle from his exit, including the sacrificing of future flexibility. With that said, the company line on Brogdon’s leaving has been consistent with the foundation and structure the Bucks have in place, even with the veteran-laden additions (Kyle Korver, Wesley Matthews) they made to replace the essentials that Brogdon brought to the table over his three-year stay.
Bucks general manager Jon Horst precisely touched on all of that when the topic of Brogdon’s departure came up during the Bucks Town Hall Q&A earlier this month:
"“Obviously, a tough decision and Malcolm is a great player and we wish him well and he will be missed. There’s no way around it. A lot of that has to do with some of the questions and conversations we’ve had so far. We believe in our player development, we believe in the young talent we have in our roster. We’ve got a lot of good guards, we’ve got great depth at the guard spot. And at the end of the day, we had to weigh and measure the assets that we could acquire in a trade versus the market value that we knew was out there for Malcolm Brogdon, and make a decision. Really, the decision was to continue to be in a position where we could build a team and sustain our success over a long period of time. Have flexibility, be mobile and pivot if we need to and acquire some assets. So, it’s really more of a statement of believing in Sterling, believing in Donte and the ability to acquire Wes Matthews. George Hill, bringing him back. We believe we’re going to be fine without Malcolm and he’s a great player and we wish him well.”"
In many ways, losing Brogdon and the subsequent reaction to that decision the Bucks elected to make gives us a window into how their confidence in the identity they have cultivated may be tested over the course of the coming season.
The bitter way their sensational 2018-19 campaign ended doesn’t help matters and given the stakes that will loom over next season, specifically when it comes to the long-term future of Antetokounmpo, the Bucks will be under a great deal of scrutiny and speculation as they look to climb back to the mountain top in search of a potential second NBA title in franchise history.
But a long, eight-month road lies ahead before all of that and for all of the fortune that promise to be born out of Budenholzer’s second year in charge, how the Bucks fare in the run up to following what they accomplished last year may tell us whether they’ll be as formidable as that version of themselves.