Milwaukee Bucks: 4 lessons learned in face of disappointing playoff exit

4 lessons learned in face of Milwaukee Bucks’ humiliating playoff exit – Out of their depth

Over the last two seasons, the Bucks have prided themselves on their collective strength in numbers that goes well beyond the extraordinary capabilities of their leading superstar.

The Bucks’ bench mob, as wing Pat Connaughton has been quick to call it, had largely been able to supplement and fill the gaps around the Bucks’ core of Antetokounmpo, Eric Bledsoe, Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez. But through the Bucks’ swift exit these playoffs, their depth was exposed for what it was, among the many other shortcomings they sported at their personal finish line.

George Hill did his best to cover for Bledsoe’s general ineffectiveness, but his lights out 3-point shooting was largely nowhere to be found when the lights came back on. Marvin Williams did his best to handle small ball center duties in the face of trying circumstances in what will be the last images of his 15-year NBA career upon announcing his retirement. Korver may end up joining him after playing sparingly against Miami.

Connaughton, meanwhile, struggled mightily to offer up something of substance in the series against the Heat. At least Donte DiVincenzo was able to rebound at the end of the series after playing some of the worst basketball of his sophomore season down in the bubble and over the playoffs.

One notable exception to the Bucks’ rotation in their series against the Heat was backup big man Robin Lopez being inactive, save for Game 5, as Budenholzer wanted to downsize his lineups quite literally whenever the Bucks were without his twin brother, Brook. That was quite the message to send to a 32-year-old Lopez who holds a $5 million player option for next season.

The same goes for Ersan Ilyasova and his $7 million non-guaranteed salary for next year after being supplanted by Williams in the rotation.

All of this doesn’t even cover the fact that the Bucks’ third-year players, Sterling Brown and D.J. Wilson, didn’t come close to seeing any playing time. With their stagnation in Wilson’s case or regression in Brown’s case this season, DiVincenzo remains the only contributor propping up the Bucks’ internal improvement at this moment.

We all knew the Bucks were a veteran-laden team going into the season, but by the end of it, their age and experience did nothing to affect the outcome of their season. Among the many challenges facing this Bucks team in the next 12 months especially is trying to rebuild their depth within an uncertain free agency period and with little financial resources available to them.