Milwaukee Bucks: What analysts are saying about defending champs

We’re just one day away from the beginning of the 2021-22 NBA season, which will get started with the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks (never gets old) getting their rings and raising their banner against the Brooklyn Nets (sans Kyrie Irving, of course). It’ll be quite the thrill for the Bucks and their fans, but it also means that the team will have to quickly shift from good vibes to title defense mentality.

Naturally, this will be the first time in 50 years that the Bucks are going to be defending their championship. The last time they were in this position, they made it to the Western Conference Finals before bowing out to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games.

We can’t go back and look at season previews for the 1971-72 season, but we can look at season previews for this coming season. The Bucks are returning the majority of their key roster players, including their big three, and on paper should be considered one of the primary favorites to win the championship and be the first team to repeat since the Golden State Warriors.

Repeating is never easy, ask the Lakers and Raptors from the previous two championships. However, the Bucks are a strong contender and that’s not just coming from me. Sure we collectively think the Bucks are contenders, but what do the relatively neutral national media think of their chances? Let’s take a look at what some of the biggest outlets are saying about the Bucks’ chances to repeat as champs as well as where a certain superstar ranks for the biggest individual award in the sport.

What the top analysts are saying about the Milwaukee Bucks ahead of the 2021-22 season

To the surprise of absolutely no one, the Bucks are considered by all the top experts and analysts as one of the two or three title favorites once again this season. According to ESPN’s Zach Lowe on his most recent podcast, they are the safest title pick this season with their roster continuity and general lack of drama. Lowe also put the Bucks in a tier of their own — quite literally — in his annual tiers ranking before the season (subscription required).

Lowe notes that the Bucks’ halfcourt offense struggled yet again in the playoffs, but he has confidence that winning the title will give the Bucks confidence in themselves this season. Typically there’s a weight that gets lifted off a player and team’s shoulders after winning their first title, expect that from the Bucks this season.

Sticking with ESPN (once again, subscription required), the Bucks were among the favorites in their insider poll for who will win the NBA championship, although they weren’t the number one favorite. Or the number two. The Bucks were third! They received 5.3 percent of the first-place votes, with a notable gap ahead of the fourth-placed Philadelphia 76ers. The Lakers received 15.8 percent of the first-place votes and the Nets received a whopping 78.9 percent. In the small blurb above the poll, it notes that the Lakers got better by adding veterans like Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony. Hey, Melo is certainly a veteran that was added so they technically aren’t wrong.

The same result came from the NBA.com GM survey, which had the Bucks as the third-highest team picked to win the championship at 10 percent of the vote. Both the Nets and Lakers were ahead of the reigning champs, with LA at 17 percent and Brooklyn at 72 percent. They were also picked by 17 percent of GMs to win finish first in the East and 83 percent to finish second.

FiveThirtyEight is notably very high on the Bucks this season, with their projection model giving the champs the highest odds to make the playoffs (99 percent), make the Finals (36 percent), and win the Finals (22 percent). They’re the only team with a probability over 25 percent to make the Finals and the only team above a 15 percent chance to win the title. This is the absolute high end out of all the season predictions I’ve seen for the Bucks as FiveThirtyEight is extremely high on the champs to repeat, so if you were looking for an outlet to show some love to, it’s this one.

Similarly, in Bleacher Report’s season preview, the Bucks were the most popular team picked to win the championship with four votes while three other teams each got two (Nets, Lakers, Phoenix Suns). They also predicted that Bucks would be a deeper team despite the loss of P.J. Tucker, which is something general manager Jon Horst has preached this preseason.

In Sporting News’ full season preview, only one of their five analysts picked the Bucks to make the Finals and that prediction also had the Bucks winning the title. So shoutout Carlan Gay who had the Bucks defeating the LA Clippers and Giannis Antetokounmpo winning Finals MVP.

Speaking of Antetokounmpo, he is once again a popular choice to win regular-season MVP and becoming a three-time winner of the award. The ESPN insider poll has him as their second-highest choice with 33.3 percent of the vote, finishing just behind the Nets’ Kevin Durant at 38.9 percent. He is also third in that same poll for Defensive Player of the Year, showing yet again he’s one of the league’s premier defensive players.

NBA.com’s GM survey had Antetokounmpo as the third most popular MVP choice, this time at 13 percent and finishing behind Durant (37 percent) and the Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic (33 percent). Four voters had Antetokounmpo as MVP in Bleacher Report’s preview, more than any other player. Finally, three of the five Sporting News analysts picked Antetokounmpo to win regular-season MVP, so they redeemed themselves slightly there.

The Bucks are, to varying degrees, one of the few true favorites to win the championship. If they truly have exorcised their playoff demons by winning the title, they will be an incredibly tough team to knock out for whoever matches up with them.

The Bucks got better in my eyes from a talent perspective, it’s the best Bucks roster in a very long time. Although their preseason record doesn’t show it, they looked tremendous when their important players were out there and it’ll be no surprise if the Bucks are once again in the FInals and even repeating as champs.

Regardless of the outcome, it will once again be a fun year for Milwaukee Bucks fans and with their core locked in for the foreseeable future, will be near the top of these season previews for a few more years to come.