Milwaukee Bucks: Jon Horst stands at center of challenging offseason

As the Milwaukee Bucks face the challenging task of upgrading their roster, general manager Jon Horst will be directly in the middle of their offseason dealings.

The start of the Milwaukee Bucks’ offseason hasn’t been one light on asking uncomfortable questions regarding their long-term future, especially in light of their latest playoff collapse.

Whether it’s been the future of Giannis Antetokounmpo or ownership’s desire to spend and go into the luxury tax, rumors and reports regarding the Bucks’ next moves and overall mindset have come at a fast and furious pace. In the middle of it all stands general manager Jon Horst.

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Not since Hall of Famer Wayne Embry has a Bucks general manager faced a greater task of presiding over the team’s long-term direction and trying to appease an MVP-caliber player.

Antetokounmpo may not yet be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Antetokounmpo continues chasing Abdul-Jabbar’s legacy and what he did in Milwaukee nearly five decades ago, especially after Antetokounmpo won his second straight MVP award late last week.

Yet, the only thing missing from Antetokounmpo’s growing legacy is an NBA championship and his recent comments after winning this year’s MVP was focused on his and the Bucks’ title pursuit:

"“Obviously I had a great meeting with the owners, talked about the team, talked about what went wrong, what can we improve.As long as everybody is on the same page and as long as everybody is fighting for the same thing every single day, which is to be a champion, I don’t see why not be in Milwaukee for the next 15 years.”"

A lot stands in the way of getting that done for next season, but all eyes turn to Horst in being able to execute an offseason that will dictate not only how the Bucks respond from their loss to the Miami Heat in the Conference Semifinals, but their long-term future.

So much of what Horst has done to his point in his tenure in Milwaukee has been building and unlocking Antetokounmpo’s strengths through a variety of moves and the Bucks’ future as a whole.

The big picture moves like putting an end to the Jason Kidd era and appointing Mike Budenholzer are obvious. Making aggressive moves like dealing for Eric Bledsoe or loading up at the 2019 trade deadline with the acquisition of Nikola Mirotic, as horrifically as that ended, showed Horst’s aggressiveness in building up the Bucks’ roster for a push to the NBA Finals. And a shrewd find that was scooping up Brook Lopez in free agency helped give the Bucks their center of the present and future.

Dig deep enough and there will be moves in Horst’s record that missed the mark, just as is the case for any NBA GM who puts together a long enough track record. But simply put, there’s a reason why Horst remains the reigning NBA Executive of the Year for the time being.

For all of the strides and decisions that he has had to make to help expedite the process of the Bucks blossoming into playoff contenders over the last couple of years, Horst’s next act could either prove to be his masterstroke or lead to the Bucks’ title window drawing shut completely. In many obvious ways, the Bucks can’t afford for it to be anything other than the former.

Just as we saw in the summer of 2019, Horst is beholden to the direction and plans of the Bucks’ ownership group. With the Bucks, specifically co-owner Marc Lasry, pledging to go into the luxury tax this time around, we will see their drive to win and whether there will be a ceiling to do so financially play out once again.

Going into the luxury tax may be as simple as Antetokounmpo signing his supermax extension this offseason, but it’s clear the Bucks’ roster needs revamping to compete for a title. For as highly disappointing Budenholzer’s managing of the Bucks’ playoff run proved to be, he isn’t going anywhere based on multiple reports.

So much of what stands in the way of the Bucks being a playoff contender to becoming a title favorite next season is rooted in the structure and foundation of the Bucks’ overall composition.

While it was there to see in the Bucks’ Conference Finals collapse to the Toronto Raptors nearly a year-and-a-half ago, moves such as moving on from Malcolm Brogdon to avoid going into the tax ate away at the Bucks’ core and abilities to be as offensively potent as they were during the 2018-19 season.

Making an upgrade on Bledsoe may give the Bucks a chance to bring in certainly a more capable playoff performer and a late-game organizer that the Bucks desperately need. Getting someone that realistically provides all of that, though, doesn’t come cheap nor is easy. And a limited war chest of draft assets like the Bucks have for the foreseeable future only makes a search to upgrade the team’s backcourt or guard mix that much harder.

What Horst has done so far as the Bucks’ general manager has been no easy feat. He’s been at the center of the Bucks’ renaissance and has helped set the blueprint for the Bucks to rise above the messy and many pitfalls that previous Bucks GMs, including his predecessor, fell into before Horst’s promotion more than three years ago.

Now when the Bucks’ identity and future is facing its greatest test, what Horst does next will only shape the Bucks’ chances to compete for a title next season, but affects what Bucks basketball will look like in the many years to come.