It really does feel like you can’t win a championship in the NBA without three All-Star caliber players, at a minimum. For the Milwaukee Bucks, the debate was always about whether or not Khris Middleton could be good enough to be a number two on a championship team.
For most fans of the Bucks, they knew Middleton was good enough to be in that type of role. He should have been an All-NBA player back in 2019-20, but a technicality in the voting left him off. The problem was that the Bucks didn’t have a legitimate third option to round out their trio.
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Eric Bledsoe, for as good of a defender and attacker of the basket as he was during his time with the team, never became that third guy for the Bucks in the playoffs.
Some would have said that the former Rookie of the Year Malcolm Brogdon would have been the number three had he not left in free agency. I have my doubts about how that would have worked, but there is an argument to be made in that regard, I guess.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter, though, because Jrue Holiday more than filled the role as the third star for the Milwaukee Bucks, and they promptly won a championship in his first season with the team.
After another offseason, there are a few new trios that formed to compete with the best existing trios in the NBA. So how does the Bucks’ championship trio stack up to the rest of the league’s best trios? Let’s find out!
Ranking the Milwaukee Bucks amongst NBA’s best trios: Honorable Mentions
Chicago Bulls: Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic, DeMar DeRozan
The Chicago Bulls may have had the flashiest offseason in the entire league, going out and getting DeMar DeRozan and Lonzo Ball, among other additions. The Bucks’ Central Division rivals will be better than last season, but there are big questions around this trio defensively.
Denver Nuggets: Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr.
This was the hardest one to leave out for me, but it’s purely due to Murray’s injury. If I knew for sure that this team would be fully healthy, then I’d absolutely have them in the top 10. Jokic is one of the 7-10 best players in the whole league, and Murray and Porter fill in perfectly around what he does offensively.
LA Clippers: Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Reggie Jackson
If you’re strictly ranking duos, then the Clippers fall in the top three. Leonard and George are two of the best two-way wings in the league (Leonard is the best one), and they carry such a large offensive creation burden for the Clippers. Jackson had a stellar playoff run and really helped George carry the Clippers with Leonard out. I just need to see him play at that level consistently.