Milwaukee Bucks: A final grade on their busy offseason
The Milwaukee Bucks encountered a hectic offseason this fall, but how did their long list of moves ultimately grade out? We dive into that very question.
The start of the 2020-21 season is now three days out for the Milwaukee Bucks.
It’s certainly a quick turnaround for a Bucks organization that underwent quite the facelift with their roster in light of their latest and greatest playoff disappointment in Eastern Conference Semifinals last year.
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Bubble or no bubble, and with the Miami Heat forever standing as a bad matchup to the Bucks, Milwaukee showed through their moves this offseason that they were looking to shore up their deficiencies to better themselves in a quest to win a championship.
Of course, the Bucks’ offseason didn’t exactly go off without a hitch as we’ll get into in a moment. But the news of superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo signing his five-year supermax extension last week gives the Bucks some much-needed security that they desperately needed to keep open this championship window of theirs.
So without further ado, let’s consider some of the more important questions and factors before handing out a final grade on the Milwaukee Bucks’ offseason.
The arrival of Jrue Holiday changes things for the Milwaukee Bucks
Let’s start with the biggest question facing the Bucks over this 2020-21 season.
Of course, we won’t know the answer to whether the Bucks got better in the offseason until we see how far they go into the playoffs this year. Given how the last two seasons have ended for the Bucks in the postseason, they will ultimately be judged by their postseason success play by everyone inside and outside Milwaukee.
With that said, the Bucks made a point of not running the same team back for that very reason. The acquisition of Jrue Holiday and the upgrade he poses on former Bucks point guard Eric Bledsoe should go a long way in correcting their postseason woes. Bledsoe’s playoff struggles alone became far too extensive and damaging for his teammates to overcome in a playoff setting.
For as few playoff appearances as he’s logged over his career, Holiday’s well-rounded abilities on both ends of the floor should give the Bucks an incredibly versatile building block to roll out for head coach Mike Budenholzer.
The price to acquire Holiday was quite steep for the Bucks as it took three first rounders and two pick swaps to acquire the 11-year-veteran. While he’s talked about staying long-term in Milwaukee and is eligible for an extension starting February, the risk of seeing out the season and deciding what to do with his $26.2 million player option is always there until otherwise.
On the other hand, the whole Bogdan Bogdanovic saga will loom over the Bucks’ ability to compete for a championship as the Serbian certainly brought a sweet spot of skills that would have great to see every night in Milwaukee.
Still, the leading trio of Antetokounmpo, Holiday and All-Star forward Khris Middleton, along with the ever-dependable Brook Lopez, gives the Bucks quite a core that can catapult them to a run to the NBA Finals. Whether they will make that a reality remains to be seen.