Milwaukee Bucks: NBA GMs predict successful season for Bucks
By Adam McGee
With a week remaining until the start of the season, a poll of executives from around the NBA suggests a successful season is on the cards for the Milwaukee Bucks.
This time next week, the NBA’s regular season will be in full swing and we’ll be reflecting on the Milwaukee Bucks’ opener against the Houston Rockets from the previous night.
One of the things that means is that we’re currently in the thick of prediction season, with bold takes, and crystal ball prognosticating to be found at every corner of the NBA media world.
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On Thursday, one of the most reliably interesting entries in that field on an annual basis returned, as John Schuhmann of NBA.com released the results of his always highly anticipated GM survey.
Schuhmann posed 50 questions to the league’s leading decision-makers, in what’s the 18th edition of this polling of NBA general managers and executives.
From a Bucks perspective, the 2019-20 edition offers plenty of cause for encouragement and excitement, as the league’s executives clearly see both Milwaukee and Giannis Antetokounmpo as true standouts on both a team and individual level.
The Bucks were voted as the second most likely team to win a championship, polling at 36 percent and falling behind the LA Clippers at only 46 percent. The Lakers follow that pair at 11 percent, leaving the Bucks as one of two apparent clear-cut favorites to start the year.
Unsurprisingly, that translated to the Bucks being picked as a clear frontrunner in the East, with 76 percent slotting them in at first in the standings, and 21 percent picking them for second. The 76ers received the remaining 24 percent of the first placed votes, with the Boston Celtics emerging as the clear pick for third.
The individual-focused polls also left no real doubt over Giannis’ standing in the NBA. Antetokounmpo was the only player to receive more than 10 percent of the votes for the upcoming season’s MVP award, coming in at 52 percent, while 86 percent of general managers also picked Giannis as the player they would choose to start a franchise with.
Mike Budenholzer also drew his fair share of plaudits in the survey, polling third (10 percent) behind only Gregg Popovich and Erik Spoelstra in the discussion for the league’s best coach.
Coach Bud’s well-rounded vision for the game was also captured by the fact he was voted in second place in the questions about both the league’s best-run offense and defense, leaving him with the distinction of being one of only two coaches to finish in the top-5 in both categories, the other being his former assistant Quin Snyder (1st on defense, fifth on offense).
Speaking of Budenholzer’s assistants, Darvin Ham was also tied fourth in the voting for the NBA’s best assistant.
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On the whole, the picture provided by the general manager’s survey is a very positive one for the Bucks. If the executives are largely proven to be right over the course of the year, at least a Finals appearance for the Bucks, and another MVP win for Giannis, may well be on the table.