Milwaukee Bucks: Chaos in store ahead of reported 2020-21 season timeline
With the NBA reportedly planning to start the 2020-21 season near Christmas, the Milwaukee Bucks’ offseason won’t be short on a flurry of action.
The start of the Milwaukee Bucks’ 2020-21 season and NBA basketball in general appears to be returning sooner than one would have thought.
As ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst reported on Friday, the league’s plans for a pre-Christmas target date to start next season as well as have a 72-game campaign with reduced travel certainly caught the attention of all basketball fans.
More from Bucks News
- Bucks 2023-24 player profile: Can MarJon Beauchamp take a leap?
- Piecing together the Milwaukee Bucks’ dream starting 5 in 5 years
- Predicting Thanasis Antetokounmpo’s 2023-24 stats for the Bucks
- Grade the trade: Bucks land reputable backup guard in swap with Pacers
- New workout video should have Milwaukee Bucks fans excited
By no means is the emerging timeline set in stone yet, especially as negotiations to set next season’s salary cap continue between the league and the NBPA.
However, what it does mean for the Bucks in particular, as well as the other 29 teams, is that any and all plans of action for this year’s offseason will have to be implemented fast.
While we’re still far from seeing any movement with the transaction moratorium still in place, there’s no secret that all eyes are fixed on the Bucks as they prepare to enter one of the biggest seasons in franchise history.
The future of Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo is on the minds of everyone in and around the league and he could quash any speculation by signing his supermax extension at the outset of this year’s free agency period. To expect that decision to come quickly from the back-to-back MVP, well, that’s another thing entirely.
With Antetokounmpo’s future in Milwaukee hanging in the balance and very dependent on what the Bucks achieve next season, this pivotal offseason for the Bucks doesn’t come without some significant questions to entice Antetokounmpo to stay long-term.
The question now is how could a shortened offseason affect the Milwaukee Bucks’ plans to upgrade their roster in hopes of contending for next year’s title?
Milwaukee general manager Jon Horstwas already facing his greatest task of his tenure this offseason as he and the Bucks’ front office are hard at work exploring how to upgrade their roster around Antetokounmpo and improve their chances of winning a title next year.
What those upgrades look like remain the biggest question and it will likely come with notable subtractions as well. The Bucks are in need and desire more playmaking and shooting and Eric Bledsoe’ continued playoff struggles and overall deficiencies lead one to believe his time in Milwaukee has run its course.
With smaller but still significant questions as to what Robin Lopez and Wesley Matthews will do with their player options as well as the futures of their impending free agents like Sterling Brown, Pat Connaughton and Kyle Korver, the Bucks’ roster is on the verge of being in flux at a minimum.
Under this reported timeline, the Bucks have to find the answers to these questions in the next two months. Not only that, but whatever additions and changes the Bucks ultimately make, they have to incorporate any and all newcomers in a much smaller window of time up in the lead up to the projected start date of December 22.
Again, it’s imperative to note that we aren’t guaranteed to see the 2020-21 season start at that time. Yet the league’s push to start sooner rather than later at the expense of potentially having fans in arena shows an urgency for the league to return to it’s normal calendar as much as possible.
With that desire, though, puts a team like the Bucks in a precarious position, especially in the face of the significant obstacles they have to maneuver through in a few short weeks.
Next. 2020 NBA Draft: 5 guards for Bucks to target with 24th overall pick. dark
They won’t be the only team faced with such a dilemma, but it adds another layer of context for an offseason that will ultimately chart the long-term future of their franchise in so many significant ways.