The Milwaukee Bucks were defined by their mediocrity during the early 2010s, but plenty of franchise-altering moments set the stage for their middling play.
The Milwaukee Bucks currently stand as the cream of the crop in the NBA, even in spite of the coronavirus pandemic pausing play to the 2019-20 season.
But before they climbed to the top of the league as they have done the last two seasons, before they had a promising core headlined by superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, All-Star forward Khris Middleton as well as Eric Bledsoe and Brook Lopez, the Bucks were stuck in the middle.
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The Bucks of the early 2010s operated as if they had no future and constantly played for the present. In some ways, that statement proved to be all too real, given the threat of relocation had the state of the art Fiserv Forum not been built.
But despite their efforts to compete for the playoffs and hopefully beyond, the Bucks were stuck in an endless loop, always landing in the very area they aspired to get out of: the middle.
It was a different time, different era and a wholly unrecognizable team from the top down compared to the current squad led by Antetokounmpo, Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer and their current ownership.
My co-site expert Adam McGee went into great detail earlier this week about this era of Bucks basketball and most specifically, how the 2012-13 Bucks exemplified this edict under then-owner Herb Kohl. But as we’re about to dive into, franchise-altering moments certainly influenced why the Bucks were stuck in this kind of purgatory for many years.
So without further ado, let’s run through some of the biggest ‘what ifs’ that ultimately defined the Milwaukee Bucks’ run on the treadmill of mediocrity throughout the early 2010s.